Summer Pictures - OUTAKES!

Yesterday, I posted about our fun, family photo session with Heather Marie Photography. We got some great, frame worthy photos! We also got some great candid shots of wardrobe malfunctions, toddler cracks, eyes being rolled and man parts being held. 

This post should be titled "true life: The Wise Family"

 This would have been the CUTEST picture of the 2 kids if Parker wasn't.... well.... you know.

This photo actually made the "great shot post" yesterday but... let's be honest... that's my butt. I obviously need to be more self aware!

Parker doing his best "Iron Man" while Avery is... well... my child. Clearly not the most lady like! 

I wish you could see Daniel's facial expression up close in this picture. It's the "this is cheesy... I am done. Can I have another Krispy Kreme?" face. 

Stopping to admire airplanes! 

Photobombed by the kids! 

Not only do I love Parker's look of bewilderment at this sister, I also love that he's holding the flower Avery attempted to pick.. and ended up uprooting the entire plant.

My 4 chins in this picture were enough to make me want to delete this photo from my hard drive but I saved it, just for your viewing pleasure. 

I'm not sure what exactly was going on here but my hair looks nice...

Apparently when I jump in the water, I look like a gazelle.... (side note... when I wrote "gazelle" I spelled it gisele because spelling is obviously my strong suit... or maybe I just wish I looked like "Gisele" when jumping in a lake! A girl can dream... while her eating Krispy Kreme) 

And last but not least, I present you.... 

My favorite part of this photo is Parker "swimming" in the background. He looks like he's sneaking up behind her to pounce! 

I cherish these photos so much! They aren't perfect or frame worthy but they're mine. It's my crazy, fun, wonderfully blessed life that I'm so glad I live and have photos to remember these moments by!

Summer Family Photos

If you've read the blog for a while, you know I LOVE having family photos taken! It's about the only way to get all 4 of us in the same picture. I seem to be the only member of our family who enjoys having family photos taken but twice a year (sometimes 3 times) I subject my family to 45 minute of torture to satisfy my need to have pretty pictures.

Daniel is usually easily bribed to smile, Avery typically chips up when made to laugh and then there's Parker.... Parker HATES family photos. So much so that he refused to wear his puffer vest for our Christmas pictures last year that really made him look like I picked him up off the street and threw him in our family photos. He didn't coordinate one bit. It got to the point where he'd cry when he saw the photographer because he knew it was picture day. As much as we love her, we actually had to find a different photographer so he wouldn't bust into tears the second we pulled into the picture location.

I get professional photo anxiety because I want a pretty, framable family photo SO badly but Parker is either pouting, Avery is running in the opposite direction, Daniel is rolling his eyes or looking off into space and I'm usually fake smiling as if I don't notice the chaos unfolding around me. For this photoshoot, I decided to go in a completely different direction. Instead of posing and smiling, let's just play! I hired Heather with Heather Marie Photography to capture lifestyle shots with pretty light.  As a mom of 3 beautiful, rambunctious boys, I figured she'd be most likely to crack a smile out of Parker! Would you believe, he was the cheesiest of us all!

The results speak for themselves! We met her about 50 minutes from our house at 7am (yikes!) with the kids in PJs, Starbucks in hand and fresh Krispy Kremes! We sugared the kids up, changed their clothes and started playing. We had a blast! I had a hard time deciding which to frame! Thank you Heather for these special treasures!

Get excited... Heather also included some out takes for me that I'll share next!

Myrtle Beach 2013

The 1st half of our summer beach vacay is posted here.

After saying goodbye to Oak Island, we headed to North Myrtle Beach to visit Daniel's mom. There is such a vast difference between Oak Island and Myrtle Beach! In Oak Island, the next closest people on the beach were 50 feet away. In Myrtle Beach, I could almost touch the next person's towel when I was laying on mine. I much prefer Oak Island's actual beach and ocean but Myrtle Beach has more to do when it's raining or if you want a break from the beach. This summer, I've really missed "my mecca".... Hilton Head!

Last year Parker REALLY enjoyed the big slide on the beach and while he did have fun, I think it was SO crowded that he didn't get into it as much this year. Avery went down the slide once with Daniel but that was enough for her! It is FAST! And COLD (it's sprinkler water).... and Avery just preferred to eat snacks.... just like her mama!

The whole East Coast has had the RAINEST summer EVER.... well maybe not ever but definitely the rainest summer I can remember so the pools were a bit chilly. Thankfully, grandma's condo has a hot tub!

The highlight of our Myrtle Beach trip for the kids was definitely the carnival rides at Broadway at the Beach!

This is me distracting myself from puking! Usually I feel like you don't get your $ worth on carnival rides but I was more than ready for this one to be over! haha Mommy wanted to tag out on the next ride but I was the only "guardian" that could fit in the pirate ship to help hold Avery in place.

Hooray, a ride that they could do themselves!

We ended the night of fun, riding some pigs!

We had a wonderful family vacation! It was very relaxing and much needed family time! I'm hoping to sneak away to Hilton Head for a long weekend before preschool starts back! I just don't think I can go a whole summer without bike riding on those spanish moss covered trails or a little Greg Russell at Harbortown!!!

Oak Island Beach Trip

We just got back from 6 wonderful days at the beach! We spent the first half of the week with just the 4 of us in Oak Island and the 2nd part of the week in Myrtle Beach with Daniel's mom. I removed the outtakes of shut eyes and blurs which left me with 240 usuable pictures! No one can ever say I didn't document these kids lives!

 

I'm going to break these pictures up into 2 post, Oak Island and Myrtle Beach.

 

In Oak Island, we did a whole lot of resting, sleeping and swimming. If you've ever been to Oak Island, you know there isn't a whole lot of things to do BUT the beaches are beautiful and the waves are perfect for body surfing, a hobby Parker grew quite fond of.

 

We got there around dinner time on Sunday, dropped our bags off and took a scooter ride to "walk on the beach"

I don't know what I was thinking because our "walk on the beach" turned into "swimming in our clothes".... and a cold scooter ride home!

After dance party in the outdoor shower, a family tradition at the beach house, we hit the sack early, expecting rough nights. The kids don't always sleep so great outside of our house BUT we were SO wrong (in oak island, that is!).... they slept AMAZINGLY well and we were up and ready to hit the beach the next morning!

 

Avery fed the seagulls most of our snacks to lure them in and then chased them away. Cruel.... but endless entertainment.

 

Parker ran straight into the ocean, supervised by Daniel. The waves were big but broke closely to the shore, perfect for toddler body surfing. Parker's body surfing closely resembled drowning so, no worries, one of us was always with him. He had the BEST time!





 

I love spending time with this sweet boy!

And this precious girl! (who will be wearing tutu bathing suits until she's 18 if I have anything to do with it!)

 

We buried Avery in the sand... best way to keep a ginger from burning!

We spent most of the day floating over the waves just past where they break. The kids loved floating in their puddle jumpers over the waves. Getting to that place was A LOT of work!

After a fun day at the beach, the kids just couldn't make the 5 house walk home!

Thanks for a great vacay, Oak Island! Next up! Myrtle Beach!