Kids on the Move

Extraordinary measures were taken to recover these photos,
which I shot during last month's trip to Ohio where I cared for my grandkids.

Somehow, I managed to erase them,
and so I mailed the memory card to Duano Braino who managed to retrieve them.
Every family should have at least one computer whiz and one doctor.

I hit the jack pot with my dear son-in-laws.

Gotta say, sometimes photos are VERY REVEALING.

For example, the shot BELOW shows my two granddaughters in a tussle.
They were going to have a foot race, but the younger child 'jumped the gun'.

Brinley, the oldest sib, emphatically told her sister Avery that the race needed to be started over.

Well, when words don't work, kids resort to other means.
In this case, it included DRAGGING the the wanton sibling back to the starting line.

Here you see the dragging. At the top of this post, you see the actual foot race after dragging.

(Sometimes it pays to sit behind the camera and give them a chance to work things out.)

I wish Big People could make up as easily as children do.

"Would you like a few tomatoes from our family garden, Grandma?"


Here's Aspen, currently the youngest, whose world will be changing with the expected arrival of a baby sister.

These girls are oozing with healthy imaginations. Their inventive shenanigans include . . .

FLYING with the aid of plastic bags full of air.

TWO STYLES.

I caught some 'end-of-summer' sales with great outdoor play stuff, including these bubble wands.

They were a hit. Grandma SCORES!

However, sometimes this particular granny got a wee bit tired.

One afternoon, I was sort of dozing on the bed while the kids removed ALL the pillows from ALL the bedrooms
and engaged in heavy-duty pillow fight while I listened for cries of injury during my light repose.

By the time my little rest was over,
the pillow fights had concluded (without tears) and here's the sight that greeted me at the foot of the bed.

THE FASTER YOU GO,

THE BETTER YOU'LL JUMP, and you just MIGHT make it in the pool.

Barely.

Splashing is half the fun of a backyard wading pool.

This little gal was trying to create the experience of wearing a beard.
She thinks she's cute.

She is.

How I love catching kids in motion!

Before leaving for Mexico, my daughter counseled "Just sit on the couch and let them dance for you."

Great advice. Taken in large doses.

And they could really CUT THE RUG!

I'm sure missing these kids. They write to me. They skype with me.

But there's nothing like BEING THERE.

(My glasses. Not hers.)

P.S. The special effects on some of these photos were created during a quiet evening of Photoshop Play.
They were NOT the outcomes of my son-in-law's retrieval. His work was absolutely FLAWLESS.