Statues

They’re home! From South Dakota! And they came bearing many tales of adventure…such as, “And then we went to this really awesome place…it’s called Hi-Vee” and “Then Daddy was sooo embarrassing in the bookstore” and “gosh, they sure do say you bet a lot out there!”. To which I naturally replied, “You bet!”.

And they found the base of a statue…I’m not sure why it was just the base and no statue. Perhaps someone stole the statue. Or maybe the Public Works Commision ran out of money. Or they somehow forgot to put it up. Or, possibly, they just found the large squarish chunk of rock to be extremely attractive and decided to leave it the way it was.

Whatever.

Anyway, of course they had to stand on it! Which led to this picture:

It’s quite historically accurate in every detail…save perhaps the green parka. And the sneakers.

Also, I have no idea what he’s trying to be, except that it looks vaguely drum-major-ish.

Ben is exactly the type of person to have the opportunity to act like a statue and use it to pretend to be John Phillip Sousa.

This one is called, “Assistance Please!”

Dad bought a book called the Worst-Case Scenario Travel Handbook, which contains several handy hints such as how to say “Assistance please!” in a variety of languages. “Assister sil vous plait!” is one. Also, “Bitte, Hilfe!”.

This photo I do not have a name for.

But it’s pretty cute.

My Family

I showed you some of the results of our photo shoot the other day—after we got pictures of Mom we had to do pictures of everybody else too. And of course we will do this all again next month when it’s time for our Christmas Card Photos. I think we should just Elf Ourselves.

So here are Mom and Dad:

And Ben:

For everybody out there who is like my parents and thinks that he has gotten “Sooo big!” this is my almost-teenager brother.

Sophie was being a goofball and wouldn’t let us take her picture.

This is me.

Not actually a very good photo of me, come to think of it.

And then….as usually happens when one has a digital camera….we got a little wacky.

Cousin It!

Muahahaha.

These people, I love them.

The “Facebook Face”

my mother needed a photo for her avatar on various websites. also, i had found that the only pictures i had of her were these really hideous ones from when i was thirteen. and if, god forbid, she should die, i would have to put the ugly picture on the funeral program. not to mention that i wouldn’t have anything to remember her by.

sooo we did a little photo shoot!

pensive mother.

“just what do you think you’re up to, young lady?” mother. she was not actually saying this but by jove that is what she was thinking. trust me.

um. the facebook face! is somehow not so hilarious on your mother.

jk lol!

Why You Should Not Let a 12 year Old Boy Have Free Reign With a Digital Camera

or, “Whose Eyeball is This?”

Ben had a photography class a few years ago at co-op, and our camera card has never been the same since. He delights in finding the strange and unusual and artsy photos you’re about to see. <relatively mild sarcasm for Olivia> His motto is, “Why make it simple when you can use settings?” I personally am more in the “There is a reason God had someone invent the ‘automatic’ setting” school of thought.

He takes hours setting up a shot.

“OK, now let’s try indoor portrait with children and fireworks blah blah megapixel blah blah blah more to the left blah blah blah awesome.” is a typical example of Ben’s photography. That is why when I needed a portrait of myself for the Pray for Taize bookmark Mom did it. He also has this annoying habit of putting the camera on video and then forgetting about it so we have numerous videos of Dad’s voice trying to figure out what’s going on and why he isn’t getting a picture.

So here’s Ben’s first ever public appearance as an artsy photographer. World, get ready.

This is a relatively nice shot of our pew at church.

This is a Campbell’s Soup Label Official Deposit Box. Speaking of which, The Campbells Are Coming is one of the only songs I can still play on the piano anymore.

The Campbells are coming ho ho, ho ho, the Campbells are coming ho ho, ho ho, to bonnie Loch Levin, ho ho….

This is an absolutely horrible shot of the audience/Dad’s chin/a wall taken at my last orchestra concert.

Yes Ben, seeing a photo of the auditorium wall and people I don’t know really brings back the fond memories.

Ben climbed a tree, with the camera, and took this attractive shot of himself acting like a goofball.

This is a shot taken at the same time, of the view from the tree of the swingset. Notice Ben’s foot. REAL ARTISTS use their feet.

It’s artist’s code.

Speaking of which, has anyone seen those t-shirts that say, “Real Men Play the Marimba”? I always thought those were cool.

This is the namesake of the subheader, because after I found this on the camera I spent a lot of time figuring out who I knew with brown eyes that would allow Ben to take a picture of them. Ben of course has taken many pictures of his own eyeballs, but our entire family has blue eyes. (although some people wrongly insist that mine are green, but that’s another post.)

The eye belongs to Jonathon.

I think those last few pictures speak for themselves.

Plus, I canoed a lot today, and I have to go to a “Service of Blessing” tomorrow, so I don’t feel like writing about them.

Sit vis vobiscum!