family pictures. check.

 my sweet, talented sissy took our family pictures last year. she found cool old buildings and chippy painted doors and took a lot of wonderful shots. but now she's in iowa...which meant we were on our own this year. :(
so on a whim,  we went back to the sites from last year and thanks to our tripod and nana's entertainment behind the camera, we got some pictures.

 after just a couple pics, this huge train came steaming and blowing by and stole everyone's attention. and gave ben the FRIGHT of his LIFE!
he trembled uncontrollably for at least 10 min. and kept covering his ears and murmuring "choo choo, choo choo, bye bye...choo choo...bye bye." it was pathetic, poor boy. but i did get a lot of snuggles...

this one below is last years version....oh ben! be still my heart, i love you so much.

2 of my 3 favorite guys...awww, that chubby little hand!

then we went over to this cool green wall...also one of sister's finds from last year

and one in the street.

 
and here's last year on the same street. little people are getting taller..,

and then we ran out of posed smiles and nice light so decided to let the crazy came out.

or rather it would seem, the parents needed to let their crazy out. :)

 will was definitely keeping his crazy contained...

ta-da! ;)

the end.

We {heart} daddy

Happy Father's Day Handy Andy. We love you "yots".

 i love that i was able to capture the filth that is stained onto my children's sweet little feet. They're hard-core "bare-footers".... and well, their feet show it but they make their daddy proud. ;)

**here are 2 of about 20 outtakes. sheesh! these kiddos make it hard to take their pictures. although hats off to big brother Will who put himself in charge of keeping Ben's legs down so i could snap a coherent picture! bless his heart.

 oh ben, you and your squishy face...

i can see clearly now...

As i (Andy) write this post, i can't get this song out of my head: 

- it's a good song, so that's ok.

  

It relates as this is what our UV filter used to look 

like after our beach excursion.

After a little rinse in clean water,

and a 10 min soak in the same,

meanwhile,  cute photo op sans filter.

Used a non-scratching lens cloth and brush to polish,

hair dryer (on cool, mind you) to get it really dry,

and .... I can see clearly now...

mostly. 

Just for all you non-filter users, remember to practice safe photography and always use lens protection.

Your lens and pocketbook will thank you.