A Good Day

Today was a good day but it was a long day. 3:45 am - Up to finish laundry and get the girls things ironed for their photo. 6:00 am - Kids up and having breakfast. 7:00 am - Kids showered, hair washed. 7:30 am - Steve up, tea and vitamins for him. 8:30 am - Girls hair finished. 9:00 am - Everyone out the door. It was a great morning for photo's. The day was a bit overcast and wet and clean from all the rain we had Friday and Saturday. The photographer arrived at the Marina at 9:31 am for the photo shoot. Everything I think was great. The kids where awake, bright eyed and smiling - even Steve lol The photographer arranged the pose and from the digital images he let us veiw after the photos will look good. We were all dressed similar. Everyone in jeans with a white button down oxford shirt. The girls had on over sized shirts with the shirt tails tied in the front just at their belt buckle. Underneath with the front of the shirt unbuttoned each wore a different color: me, black; Colby, coral; J., pink; Gracie, white with a red belt. The girls wore their hair down and flowing, with silver hair clips, small silver earrings, small silver ring on one hand, some with toe rings (for the barefeet) and a touch of lip gloss. The shots were taken on the pier with barefeet. It was casual. I think they will be just what we wanted. The photographer was great. He had a nice personality and was friendly without being cheesey .. you know the kind of person you could make friends with. Steve was impressed with his camera .. digital, 8 mpg. He took about 40 shots. I was seated center with my knee bent and my foot flat on the pier, Colby was behind me on my left, her knee brought up under my elbow, Steve was behind me on my right, on his knees, J. was to his left standing for some shots and sitting against my raised knee for others and Gracie seated in front of me with her slightly reclined and on one elbow which was resting on my folded in knee. Gracie wasn't smiling alot and he had the kids say 'pizza' and what-not. The smiles weren't big enough and as they are gross, weird kids (lol) I made some fart comments and told them to say 'fart' instead (lmfao) the smiles where great!!! I believe there were even some genuine smiles from Steve. We had brought some bread with us so the kids would get a chance to feed all the wild canadian geese there. Steve went back to the truck to get the bread and the photographer was packing up his gear and he says, I'll wait a round a few minutes and get a few shots of the kids feeding the geese. He hung around for a long time and took 40 - 50 shots of the kids feeding the geese on the pier. The geese came up very close, to their feet, and where begging for bread, the kids where laughing and squealing and backing away. He said he thought those would be excellent shots. Steve asked him about having all the proofs and he said they normally didn't give all the proofs to the customers (weird here, back in Ga when you pay a $100 sitting fee you get a copy of all the proofs) but if the photographs purchased where $600 or more we would then get all the proofs and a custom cd. I believe Steve will be writing a check for the $600 ... he wants the proofs. Expensive ? Yes, but worth it to our way of thinking. Steve has never had a professional photo with J. and this is something we don't do again for 10 years or more. We want a large photo, at least 16x20 for the livingroom, a 11x14 for his office, and we plan to buy photos for my mom and his parents to have as Christmas gifts to them. For the one we want for our livingroom the cost is pushing $300 :-/ so it isn't a far reach to spend the other and get all the proofs. Afterwards we took the kids into Occoquan. We did not know they where having a craft show (lol) poor Steve ... he says, "I must really love you to have photos taken with my shoes off and to come to a craft fair." lol It was a nice day. We pretty much stayed away from the craft stuff. I wasn't great crafts, much of it was very tacky, nothing I would buy for the house or myself. We walked thru the quaint streets and made our way to the Riverwalk area. We browsed the shops there and waited for the nearby restaurant to open. They had a boat that was giving 45 min river cruises so we thought after lunch we would ride on the river ... the 2 youngest really wanted to. While we waited on the restaurant to open for lunch, we walked thru the little shops in the main bulding on the riverwalk. What a gorgeous piece of architect. The girls each got a little silver ring, Gracies with a red stone, J.'s blue and Colby's green. Later in the evening Steve asked if I thought as the girls got older could the ring be resized since it was a little treasure they had gotten together and something they could share over time with great memories of a great day. Lunch was great. The restaurant we ate at was the Sea and Sea. What a hidden treasure. The food was excellent and the kids all asked if we could come back another time just to eat there. I agree. The food was great! Steve wanted me to have an oyster shooter so I stepped up to the plate and had one. Woah! One huge oyster, fresh, soaking in a shot of Vodka with lime juice, seasonings and tabasco. It was hot but it was great! I would order another on a different occassion. The bite of the spice was HOT and the burn of the vodka came a few seconds after you downed it. As we waited for our meal it was about 15 minutes later I learned the strength of that shot. My tongue went numb lol I thought I was a little tipsy which is very odd. I have never been tipsy on one shot .. maybe it was because it was on an empty stomach. After lumch we went out to the dock and sat by the river for a while and waited on the next boat ride. We spent $18 for the 5 of us for an hours entertainment. Not a bad deal considering the boat charters at $350 an hour :-/ It was nearing 3 when the ride was over and we headed back to the caravan area to get back to the truck which we left parked in the quarry and shuttled over. The kids were still stuffed from their lunches and had only some yogurt and a small dessert before we had to leave to get J. back to her mom's. It was a great day and I was exhausted. I fell asleep before 8:30 on the couch. I couldn't keep my eyes open no matter how hard I tried. You'll get the rest of what I can remember tomorrow ... Quotes from the Gallery (lol)