Sucking the Marrow

I tend to take pictures of the kids practically whenever we leave the house.  That's because if I take pictures of them at home, I'm going to get pictures that look like this:

Sure, they aren't terrible, but I prefer a nicer backdrop than my cluttered house.

So, it was off to the toddler pool again.  Hottest day of summer yet, I think it was.  I was miserable.  But, far be it from me to miss a great photo taking opportunity.  I love how sparkly blue the water looks in pictures.  I also love how my boys look like ordinary kids when they are in the pool.  I don't know if it's because the water is calming to them, or if it's because all kids go a little crazy in a swimming pool.  They just seem to blend in.

I'm trying to not hate August.  I'm trying to, as one of my favorite bloggers puts it, "suck the marrow" from this summer.  They'll never be seven and five-year-olds again.  A month or so from now, the twins won't be preschoolers anymore.  Though, as I frequently remind Aliza, they will always be my babies....

I took a class to learn how to run my digital camera better, and mostly what I learned was, I need lots more money because I have the cheapest, most mimimal SLR digital camera one can buy.  The intructor showed us all these amazing effects we can create with different settings.  Turns out my camera, or maybe my lens, actually has very limited settings.

One of the coolest effects is is slowing the shutter speed, in order to get a view of motion.  You can see the blurred effect of say, a waterfall, by slowing the shutter speed.  Makes sense that in order to do this you'd need a tripod so you could set the computer down and assure the steadiness of the shot.  If you think, nah, I can hold it steady enough.....well you'd be wrong.  I went down to the creek at my parents house this weekend and tried it.  Leaving the mowed yard to enter the creekbed is like entering a different world.  We've had so much rain this summer, everything is damp and overgrown; it's like a rainforest down there.  The mosquitos were the size of moths, I'm shocked you can't see them in the pictures I took.  I put bug spray on but apparently it was only strong enough for city mosquitos.  I'd need a suit of armour to block those mutant suckers.

Anyway, here's my failed attempt at a water-moving shot.  And a couple of just plain old shots of the creek.  Could not be still at all, the moment you stop moving they land on you.  I don't think they see much bare skin down there.

Beware, this last one's a little bright, but it's the only one where you can sort of see the water moving.  You have to really want to see it.

And in my continuing effort to get interesting pictures, I stopped the car on the way home from the pool when I saw this lone horse, standing in the shade under a tree.  I was too far away and didn't have the nerve to drive right up the driveway to get closer.  As I stood by the car taking pictures, the horse gave me the same bewildered look Mark gave me when I said I wanted to stop.

How come it looked so neat in person, and in photos it's just a bunch of trees and a horse?  Maybe I should have gotten closer.  Maybe I should get a better zoom lens.  Let's see, where can I dig up $300?

Anyway, back at the pool, I was very pleased to see Zack and AJ beginning to follow the social rules of waiting in line to go down the slides!  Took awhile, but I think they did understand they had to stand and wait for the kids in front of them to slide before they could.  Then once they reached the front of the line they were so excited they'd bounce around for awhile and one of us would have to yell to them to get them to stop holding up the line.

I was so proud of Zack!  He didn't bite or pinch a single kid!  I made sure he'd had all his medication before we left, but that's just insurance.  He is learning how to be near other kids and not freak out!  Hooray, Zack!

My brother's little girl Jocelyn had a terrific time at the pool once she warmed up (ironic pun, who needs to warm up when it's 93 and humid?) to it.  She's two now and I'm hyper aware that she isn't getting any younger, either.  Next summer she's a 3-year-old and 3-year-olds are preschoolers.  The end of her babyhood is very near....

I have a feeling we aren't finished with pools, splash pads, and water games yet this summer.