Beautiful Vistas

Ah, the joys of family picture-taking... Why is it always so stressful??? Trying to decide what everyone should wear, never liking what I look like, convincing the boys to cooperate, and Jeremy hates the entire process so he's no help! Why do we (I) put ourselves (us) through this? 

Well, Saturday was the one day in a million that we had time to take a much-needed and forever-delayed family picture. And of course it's the day that we're all out of sorts. You know the days... I won't go into details. But Murphy's Law dictates that of course this will be the day you have to make it look like everything's peachy keen for posterity's sake, let alone so you can have something to put up on your wall :o) You know we were late for the appointment with our cute photographer, Melissa, but she was so accommodating and so patient with our quirks, goofy faces, and overall weirdness the entire time. 

Some of the pictures she got of the boys were downright hilarious--

she caught their emotions perfectly, for better or worse... like this one:

Or check out this picture of Jer--doesn't he look like he's having fun? 

The rest of us are laughing, enjoying each other, having a grand old time...

You know I'm not going to even put up the ones (and yes, there are many ones) of myself that are not exactly appealing... This has absolutely nothing to do with Melissa's immense amount of talent--it's all me :o) 

Aaaaaaanyway, the point of all of this is: we ALL have days like Saturday, and I LOVE that Melissa was able to catch this one for us... It re-affirmed for me some really important things.  Life's not meant to be perfect, we all get out of sorts every once in a while (or even more often than that), but guess what? That's what life is all about! Just like with trying to take family pictures, I think we spend too much time trying to convince ourselves (and perhaps others) that in order to get it right, things have to be perfect: outfits matching, everyone smiling, posing just right, etc. etc. etc. But if we keep looking only for that, we miss all the great little moments in between--the silly faces, the totally spontaneous "hugs" of brotherly love, the kiss underneath a row of beautiful autumn-leaved trees (even if it was forced :o) It reminds me of one of our favorite quotes from President Hinckley: 

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be ordinary people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old-time rail journey... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

Well, don't worry--this is just one of the many "beautiful vistas" we also got on Saturday:

Thanks so much, Melissa!!!