Patriotic Pictures

Milo is eight months old and I will readily admit that he doesn't get much action in front of a non-phone camera.  We haven't had his photos taken by a professional since his newborn pictures and weeks go by without my nice camera leaving its bag.  It's just too dangerous for that thing to be sitting out around this house.  For some reason I got the idea in my head to take some nice pictures of the kids on Sunday.  I recently saw on the news that "Americana" and patriotic stuff is all the rage this summer because of the election and the Olympics and the store displays are all red, white and blue so I decided to dress them in those colors and we went to the park across the street from our house for a different scene.  It is a park that lays low with hills surrounding it so it has lots of mountain biking paths and it also has a theater stage which is busy most summer weekend nights with shows and sometimes weddings.  There is no playground so we don't go there very often but that was good for taking pictures...no distractions.

Well, it turns out the bike trails veer into the trees, creating magical tunnels not compatible with a stroller or a baby.  Of course they were very enticing.  I have many memories of such trails from Turtle River State Park, bible camp, the "ranch" property near my hometown which hosted many outdoor adventure days at school and our family camping trips way back in my younger years. 

After dragging two children out of the "tree tunnels" and promising we could come back without Milo one day we tried to arrange them in the grass.  Of course, it did not go as planned.  The outtakes are bad...so, so bad...here are a few just to give you an idea. 

Yeah, great.  Nice work, children.  I was able to get a few of Milo at least, and after some amateur editing to brighten them I think they capture his eight month old cuteness.

I like this one because you can see the curls above his ears!

He had that furrowed brow look of dismay the whole time we were there. 

I think I turned up the highlights too high on this one!

There was a gazebo and apparently farther in the park there is a cute bridge but the kids' behavior was too wild so we gave up.  I guess kids don't need a fancy playground to enjoy a park.