melt down maddie.

This day will forever be remembered as the day Maddie really lost it.

She was strong straight out of the gate...really she was. Posing hard, smiling big, having fun. It was lookin' like a good day. But after an hour or so of compliance (which is generally her limit)...she'd had it!  Enough smiling, enough sitting close, enough "acting happy." She. had. had. it.  She, was done!   I've told you about my dear Maddie before, so I won't delve into the sweet and sour mystery that she is...we'll suffice to say that this girl has got a mind of her own and won't do ANYTHING she doesn't want to do. In the pictures below (which I kept taking, adding to her infuriation) she was explaining to me in a very heated, arm waving manner...that "this isn't a happy time and doesn't DESERVE a smile!" umm...what? what six year old says that? Anyhow, it was just following this that she became really angry with me and went to swat at the camera (like i was the the paparazzi or something) and accidentally stabbed me with a pencil, which I of course threw over the side of the mountain. You can only imagine the aftermath of that move. The carnage is shown in the following pictures. I should add, that the picture at the bottom, was the true breaking point.  We put her and Brody in those blue hand carts to take a picture (that she of course didn't want to take) and it flipped over, sending her crashing to the ground. I gotta be honest, that when she started ripping off her coat (as documented) I actually felt a lot a little scared.

Ahhh, Maddie, I'm sure someday you're gonna be able to look back at this and laugh as hard as I am, but until then...I'll laugh enough for both of us. Cause really, the truth is "Miss Meltdown Maddie," I wouldn't have ya any other way.

family photos...

Each fall we try to take some family photos. We go with Brent's sisters' family and swap the camera around until everyone is happy. Happy however, is not the exact word that I would use to describe this day. Ahhh....family photos. They look sort of perfect don't they? Everyone with their smiles and coordinating fall duds. What you can't see... is that it was cold and windy, Maddie had nearly 100 meltdowns, Brody had to be bribed with candy between every shot, and Marley just wanted to sleep through the whole thing, which normally would have been great...except that she actually had to be in the pictures...awake. Not to mention the fact that I was regularly threatening bodily harm to whomever wouldn't smile, which 

hopefully explains the tired, disheveled and maniac-ish look on my face in every photo!

  

That said, this motley crew is mine, and it's not about what the pictures don't show... it's about what they do. Which is... this beautiful and amazing area that I call home, Maddie's absolute infectious energy and zest for life, Brody's beautiful and mischievous three-year old smile, and Marley's sweet easygoing personality...even through nap-time. Ya know, on second thought maybe the word happy is the exact word I'd use.

that's a wrap ya'll. 

happy campers

We woke up to this. There's nothing quite like sleeping in the woods and being able to feel and hear and breathe-in nature all around you. This morning was a particularly beautiful one. A soft fog was lifting while the sun was rising and everything looked so serene and perfect. It made me thankful for this amazing earth that we've been blessed with. There really is so much beauty to enjoy isn't there; makes you wonder we spend any time at all getting caught up in the frivolous or less grand. I'll miss these woods...it was our last family camping trip of the year...warmer weather makes for happier campers.