I had this realization this past year.  I don’t take enough pictures of my family.  Of my kids, of our lives, of us doing.  I think….. or wait I know that so often I am capturing everyone else that sometimes I just want to live in the moment and not always see it through the lens.  I love viewing life through the lens, but sometimes I want to jump in and do more.  And I guess if you count my iPhone I have captured a lot of pictures of my family this year.  But I still didn’t do as much as I would have liked to.  And I am really trying to change that.  But also not turn every event into a photo shoot.  Because seriously, who wants to have every single cute thing or crazy thing you do become a photo shoot?  I know my kids don’t.  And neither does my hubster, Randy.

A lot of times I feel this crazy pressure if I bring a camera to snap pictures that they are supposed to be perfect.  And sometimes I have just left my camera at home so I didn’t have to feel that.  Lame huh?  I am changing this.  We went to Disney World in 2009 and I left my big camera and took my little Canon Powershot SD790IS and had tons of fun.  Today we woke up really early to go skiing.  I had this grand idea to capture my kids perfectly in the snow for canvas in my house.  But I am going to state right here, right now, I didn’t do it.  I took one of my Canon SLR’s with us to Bluewood today and I also grabbed my trust little camera.  Guess what?  I didn’t even break out the SLR.. more to come on that.

We left before it was even bright out.  But look everyone is excited.

Skiing is a new thing for our family.  Randy and I took two lessons in 2008.  And then we moved to Indianapolis.. skiing wasn’t going to happen in the land of flat.  And in 2008 I had a hard time.. and an incident that involved ski patrol…  so it’s not like I have these mad ski skills.  We all had a lesson today.  We went skiing a couple of weeks ago.. I was going to post pictures but I took one… just one.

Here’s my girl skiing down on the Platter Pull.  This is her second time skiing and this girl is fearless. She is also sporting her brand new helmet.. which today we were so blessed to have on her, after she had a yard sale down the mountain.

Randy was ready to rock and roll today.  I loved getting to spend the day with him.  We don’t get time to disconnect from everything very often, so I especially enjoyed time with him without all of the other distractions.

My girl.  I absolutely adore this girl.  We have lots of fun together.  Today I only used my little point and shoot  camera.  Don’t judge my images too closely, I wasn’t being a photographer.  I was being a Mom and remembering the fun happy days.  And today my little camera had a smudge on my lens that I noticed half way through taking pictures.  Awesome right?  But you know it’s okay.  Because having images of my family and me, that’s awesome.

We took her to the top of the mountain.  And she was so brave and skied down some serious hills.  She is going to out ski me soon.  Not that that is hard to do.

I wanted to get tons of great actions shots.  But my ski skills and my photography skills don’t mesh.  I am sure if I tried to do any serious action shots I would hit a tree and be broken.  Or even worse my camera would be broken.  And since I don’t want to sit out on any of the fun I didn’t worry about it.  I captured what I could.

We tried really hard to get a picture of the the three of us but it didn’t work.  We couldn’t get all of our heads in while riding the lift.  Oh well.  I really like what we got anyway.  It’s fun.

My boy he is learning to snowboard.  It has been a lot of work.  But this boy is dedicated.  He gets up time and time again.  I am so proud of her dedication.  I don’t have as many pictures of him.  He didn’t want any distractions, he was focused.. and Mom with a camera… big distraction.  But we had a lot of fun.  And I am so proud of his progress.  He went down all the big hills and worked so hard.

Today was one of those days I could relive over and over.  Lots of laughing, lots of smiles, a few tears, and a great day outdoors.

Lesson learned today, and the lesson to apply to the future.  Just because I am a photographer doesn’t mean that I have to turn every moment into a photo shoot.  I can just have fun with my family.  Taking my little camera and capturing life is fun and a great way to keep my memories.  I am sure if I took my SLR I would break it.. and then I would cry.  And I hate crying so that doesn’t seem like a good idea.

My challenge to you, and myself.  Capture your life.  Don’t worry about them being perfect just capture what you love and see.  The kids are only little once.  And sadly mine are growing too quickly.  A goal of mine to post monthly a fun family post.