my cheating heart

I've committed my first act of photography adultery. I didn't plan it; I'm sure no one ever plans these things. It's just that the cool rains came in last night, bringing an unexpected reprieve to the scorching summer heat. The winds were breezy, the air mild. It was a last minute decision.

I decided to take the girls to a park down the street to enjoy the outdoors and try to kill some time since samantha has decided that she no longer is cool with taking one nap a day, but can barely keep herself alive past lunchtime. I thoughth I'd do my part to help out and take them out. There was actually a moment of hesitation. A split second...then I decided against it.

The shiny, new, clickety-clack camera was just too big, and I was just too small. I already had both girls and the stroller; I didn't think I could keep up with it and manage to get any pictures while trying to corral my little tornadoes.

So I reached for my old flame, the sleek and compact Olympus, who had served me well for so many years. It was much easier to slip into my previously mentioned non-existent purse in case some fabulous photo op arose. Even though I felt guilty for not bringing the bohemoth with me, I'm glad I at least brought the Olympus. The guilt will go. The pictures and the good times will remain:

When we first got there, we had a fun and very educational science lesson as emma admired the lily pads and the giant blooms. We talked about how the flowers open and close, and then she said, "Mommy, take a picture!" Oh, ok.

Then, just down the path, we heard the faint echo of music so we followed our ears to find a "band" all set up in the middle of the foresty part. The girls swayed and danced to the music, and shortly after arriving, a sweet grandfather-type offered Emma one of what he was playing - one of those little stick things that you hit. Emma jumped up on a rock next to him and joined the band, to the delight of all those watching. Samantha alternately danced and chased ants, but after a while, she was offered a little stick thingy too. The girls had a FAB time with the band.

When the toddler attention span expired, we were off to find more adventures. Emma chose a path to our right, so the girls had fun exploring it together. When emma stumbled onto a caterpillar, she was thrilled! She crouched down really low and just watched him slither away. I think he wans't actually a caterpillar, but I'm not so up-to-date on those sorts of things, so I just told her it was a caterpillar.

So even though these aren't Canon-new-flashy-camera pics, I think they were great for the purpose. Here's to more sunny and happy days...