2015 ~ week 3 ~ creek trip

We had some unusually warm weather for January on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.  The kids were out of school, and for some reason everyone was a bit cranky all day.  It was about 3 o'clock, I was irritated that nothing was marked off my to-do list, and I had a more-complicated-than-normal supper planned that wasn't started.  Why it seemed like a good idea at the time to cook something with 20 ingredients (most of which needed chopping), on a day when the kids were home all day, is beyond me.  It seems I'll never learn.

All of us needed to reset, so I abandoned ship at home, and decided some sunshine would do us all some good.  I made a split second decision to take the boys to a creek on the street where I grew up, instead of the park.  They had never been there.  They had so much fun, and I really enjoyed watching them play in the same creek in which I used to play.  It was so fun to just let them be little boys.  I let them do pretty much whatever they wanted as long as it didn't seem like it would end with a trip to the emergency room.  They "fished" with sticks, jumped over the creek, made the biggest splashes they could, and enjoyed just generally getting messy.  They also really enjoyed playing together, which isn't always the case.

The Bug was with us for a short while, but I had to call my Mom to come get him shortly after we arrived.  He was determined to do everything his brothers were doing, and he's not quite ready to play in the creek.  After he was gone, I was able to just take pictures.

By far some of these are not my best pictures.  When I take pictures, I rarely set them up, or give my boys directions.  I try to catch them being as natural as possible.  So in a situation like this, it means a lot of moving around (chasing them), and a lot of changing camera settings.  Some of my favorite images I took that day are the ones with them sitting side by side while the Bean is "fishing".  They are slightly out of focus, because I forgot to narrow my aperture.  I'm including them anyway, along with the ones in harsh, dappled light.  They are are scenes I want to remember, imperfect photography and all.  The light was not all bad.  Just before we left, it was golden hour and the light was perfect.  My boys, however, were cold and ready to go.  I was very close to keeping them there, shivering and all, just to take advantage of the light - and I probably would have, if I'd only had supper already prepped :).

In chronological order...

Snips and snails, and puppy dog tails,
That's what little boys are made of.