On parades...

I had a really enjoyable day today. I spent the afternoon lounging in my mom's backyard with my mom and sisters while Frank, Elise, Abby, Stockton, Isaac, and Taylor played in the water. The weather was perfect. No pictures.
Lately I've grown more and more fond of not using a camera. It's so nice to just relax, and interact (or ignore) your kids without thinking even once about the pictures that you were or were not capturing. I've been thinking a lot about film cameras, about how it used to be more of a special occasion to take pictures. Sometimes I think our over abundance of photos is just ridiculous. I mean, it's nice to have that ability to snap a lot of pictures without running out of film or having loads of crappy prints you're just going to end up throwing away, but seriously, must we always, always, always have our cameras at the ready? I was at the main street water feature yesterday, and I just kept noticing all the women who did little more than take pictures of their kids. It was as if interacting with their kids was limited to "preserving the moment," as if each and every moment of our lives really needs to be preserved. I am trying to make a conscious effort to take less pictures, and spend more time playing with and enjoying my children. It's great to have a selection of pictures to remember our lives, but have we all taken it a little too far?
And now for something completely unrelated. We went to the rodeo parade this afternoon. I like parades. It's like Halloween, except they throw the candy at you, and occasionally they throw shirts, frisbees, toys... and there are more live animals. (And you don't have to wear a costume. Which I guess is a draw back. I like to dress up.) The rodeo parade had like 5 times the number of people at the county fair parade, so we didn't get quite as much candy, but the candy we did get was pretty good. We had fun, but I was sort of wishing we had a bit of shade. Frank (like most of the kids) was completely red, and complained more than a little bit. He should just feel lucky he wasn't the fool in the marching uniform carrying a sousaphone.