Glimpses by Jeannette: Pictures at the Pool

In the current heat, many afternoons we go to our neighbors', who generously allow us free access to their very nice pool. Today Melody and I took the kids over, and I brought my camera along.

At first, I didn't get in and instead looked for picture opportunities. This hat looked promising, though I never quite got it how I imagined it.

I added flash to get both the hat and the pool.

Then I turned to the pool. Melody, in the middle of writing, wasn't going to swim, but she came and put her feet in. Then she went to put her suit on.

Little Baby has become quite the fish, though she doesn't like getting water in her face.

We like to stand on people's shoulders. Timothy stood on Amy's:

And stood. And stood.

He stood for at least a minute and ten seconds, which is the longest any one of us has done it to memory.

The water felt good, and the angle is better, so with a bit of trepidation, and firm grip on the camera, I entered the shallow and snapped away from that vantage point.

Paulie looks like a scuba diver in this photo

I like the intimate feel this angle gives the pictures, and the camera hardly got more than a few drops on it.

If you think there are a lot of these, you should have seen how many I deleted...

Then Melody decided we should do illusionary photos, such as Amy with Melody's legs behind her.

Sometimes they turned out, sometimes not.

This picture isn't good, but I find the color interesting. Many of these have odd color because I was experimenting with that.

This picture is funny in that it looks almost natural, but you can tell they're not Amy's feet. Well, you probably can't, but they look a little funny to me.

I have no idea what is going on here:

The sky looked neat, so I switched subjects for a bit.

Then Amy stood on Melody's shoulders. I caught her just as she reentered the water.

Then they want to see the pictures:

They look like seals, begging to look.

And little Missy is the worst. "Jeannettie, can I see that one?" she begs after every pose. "I didn't see it," she says after I show them. It is hard to see the LCD screen in the bright sunlight. "Let me see. I didn't see it." And even when I don't show her, she confidently cries in her clamorous voice, "She missed it, Melody. Do it again. She missed it."

Melody wanted Kristen to stand on her shoulders, but she refused. Finally, they lifted her up, and she liked it. (Having pictures helped.)

She got a big grin for Nettie.

But she still refused to let go of Melody's hands.

Mercy, these are for you.

Kilroy was here!

Now, these feet are Melody's.

But Melody thought that wouldn't be that difficult to do by yourself.

Well, it was harder than she thought.

Then I saw an interesting bug on the cement. But, do you see what you've done, Rebekah?

Bunny ears on a bug, and it's all your fault.

Amy posed herself, and so how can I resist?

I did not return to the pool after this, so my vantage point is from low down on the cement, to the discomfort of my elbows, of Amy, Kristen and the boys playing around.

At first I forget and don't notice Paul in focus and think this picture isn't good. Then I notice, and I like it.

Kristen is telling Amy, "I am nice, horsey. I am nice. I don't scare anybody. See, I am nice."

Amy attempted to make her hands look like they were Kristen's.

I wandered around to look for cool (referring to color, not to the neatness of the photo) photo opportunities-possible now that the sun went behind the clouds. I find this birdhouse and wooden poles, reminiscent of piers, interesting as always.

(Completely tangential, but aren't stone walks super cool? And that's referring to the sweetness of the walk, not the temperature or anything else. And sweetness is referring to the awesomeness, not the taste.)