Wacky Time in The Woods

While at the Headrick Household for Thanksgiving, I had a brilliant idea. Having done a photoshoot ourselves there a couple of year ago, the pictures of Haley & me turned out wonderfully. I did not see any reason I could not take all of the kiddos out into the wilderness & snap some great pictures as well. Boy was I wrong! Let me just say, 3 year olds & photo sessions don't go hand-in-hand. Eager to get outside, all 4 children put their shoes & coats on & were ready to go. My Cousin Chanda & I led them out the doors & we began our walk to the pond behind her grandparents house. I asked all 4 kids to sit on the ground together. While they listened, Hannah (the 3 yr. old) did not want to stay seated for long, Adri (5) was not interested in looking at the camera & Ian (10) would much rather have been doing something else than having to sit there with his 2 sisters & Hannah. Rose (7) was the only one cooperating with my big plan. After 2 tries for the group picture, all kids were up & on the move. The ground was covered in leaves & I was out prancing around in dress shoes that had no grip or resistance--only leaving me to slip & slide in the foliage. Meanwhile, up ahead of me were the kids running all over the place as Chanda chased after Hannah. I decided it would benefit me to make it to the top of the hill so I would be walking on a straight path. Unfortunately, the climb up was not as easy due to my choice of footwear for the day. As I tried to anchor myself to a tree & pull myself up, my feet began to slide...all I could do was laugh hysterically. It's a wonder the whole mountain did not hear me. Sweet little Rose walked over & offered a hand (not realizing that if I went down I'd be taking her with me since I'm much larger!) to help me out. I finally made it to the top & began to catch up with the others. Once I did, I was able to talk them into pausing for a few more pictures. Ian was long gone but the girls were all relatively close enough that they could gather around. I was able to get a few of the kids being kids. Once we were done, all 4 kids were complaining because they had stuff all over their clothes that they said was poking them & it hurt. We walked back to the house & Chanda & I spent a while picking all of the stuff off of their clothing while considering that maybe things had not gone as planned. Even still, we had ourselves a good laugh.