Picture this

We are the most incredibly lame picture taking family in America. Not for lack of equipment, mind you. Our phones may be pure 90s, but we both have digital cameras and Mr. J has a very expensive Sony digital video camera that got stuck on an undesirable setting about 4 years ago and hasn't been used since. He refuses to refer to the manual for such things preferring to believe, I believe, that things will eventually work themselves out. I'm still waiting. Meanwhile, in this digital age, our youngest child goes sadly unvideoed. He might as well have been born in 1906, not 2006.

Anyway, the main reason we have so few photos of trips and events and stuff is because we're the kind of people that forget to bring our camera to events. Actually, that's just me. Mr. J will bring his camera, but after snapping 3 or 4 "candid" pictures of the kids -- and by candid I mean he yells at them to smile for about 5 minutes while he sets his exposure, light meter, focusing lensy thingys and then gets frustrated and angry when they forget what they're doing and move at the very second before he snaps the shot -- he finds an interesting leaf or flower or fungi or insect and then will take 344 pictures of that. And while I love his artistic vision and all, I really don't want 344 identical pictures of a pale purple coneflower taking up valuable space on my hard drive. Which is OK because he hardly ever downloads pictures anyway.

Then there's the fact that often we're not doing anything worth photographing, even while we're in some of the most beautiful and interesting places on Earth. We're not big on crowds and we loathe lines, so quite often our idea of sightseeing is to linger in outdoor cafes drinking beers and Fantas. Or walking around, semi-lost. We take pictures of doors and chairs and leaves and almost everything but ourselves. If you don't believe me I'll show you the pictures from our week in Aruba. Pictures of the wild Aruban landscape? Beautiful secluded beaches? Interesting early Dutch architecture? Aloe farms? Forget it. We've got 4 sunset shots, 2 of palm trees, 1 of a boat and about 165 of an iguana savaging a box lunch under a beach chair.

We do have some good shots from our recent road trip - we actually went to places like The Georgia Aquarium, World of Coke, St. Louis Arch and Mr. J has many of his canoe trip in the Ozarks and of the beautiful Kansas prairie. (Many of which you'll just have to imagine for yourself because he will NEVER EVER EVER get around to downloading them to the computer.) But, like I said, I'm not much with the camera and as a result, from an 18 day road trip, I only have about 45 pictures. Here are two of my favorites:

At the Georgia Aquarium with my BFF Lisa and her eldest son (my godson). Note my brilliant job catching everyone looking in different directions. Skillz!

Here are the kids & Mr. J at the Union Station Marriott in St. Louis. My mom remembers taking the train out of Union Station when she attended college in St. Louis, so I thought there was a certain serendipity to us staying there. It was very, very beautiful and the Marriott people managed to keep the grand architecture and interior artistic details intact. Pictures? Oops. Sorry, no. You'll just have to believe me.