Not Quite Senior Pictures...

Well, she's not quite a senior, but I had the BEST photo shoot with my daughter Hannah last week. We were vacationing at the Grand Canyon and our hotel room backed on the forest right where the train tracks came through. It was just begging to be photographed and luckily I had a willing subject! What is it about train tracks and late afternoon sun that just come together to make a magical moment? Add to that a funny, beautiful, teenage girl full of personality and you get the reason why I love to take pictures. Maybe if I keep practicing I might really be able to do her senior pictures when the time comes. For now I'll just share these...

Of course, we had to have a few crazy ones, just to keep the world balanced. Hannah can't be serious for long without exploding! (Or maybe that's me who can't...)

We also had a few visitors who saw us playing on the train tracks and just had to join us...

First Gideon...

Then Curtis and Eli...

And finally the crazy man who had to walk the rails! :D

I know it's silly, but this little spot in the world captured my imagination in a way that the Grand Canyon just couldn't. Wonder of the world or not, it just couldn't compete with capturing these moments with my adorable family.

Lip Action

It's been a bad year for Byers lips. If you remember, back in the spring I had surgery on my lip and looked like Frankenstein for a while. Well, I have trained my children so well, that they are working hard to follow my example. The highest achievers in the lip category have gone to heroic measures to emulate my Frankenstein look, so I thought I'd share their accomplishments.

A couple of weeks ago, after suffering two previous bike crashes out on the mountain trails with his Dad, Zach crashed on his bike during a harrowing ride...to school. (Sorry Zach, it's just so ironic that your worst crash was on the sidewalk.) He called me at 6:30 a.m. to tell me that he'd crashed and broken his tooth. Poor Zach! Here's what he looked like when I found him...

Skinned and swollen lip, bleeding chin and lovely broken tooth.

And here's a creepy one of him (below) He's all ready for Halloween!

Not to be outdone by his brother, Eli was riding his bike two days ago, slipped on a patch of sand and smashed his lip too. It was hard to get the right angle on him, his is really sticking out like a Who from Who-ville.

I am sure that Cody would feel slighted if I didn't resurrect the pictures of him when he had surgery to remove an extra tooth in the front of his mouth. He had the best swollen lip of anybody! Unfortunately, he is disqualified from the best lip contest because his fat lip entry was from several years ago and we don't want to compete with him!

Well readers, you can decide who wins the contest. Vote and let your voice be heard. As for the Byers family, listen up! I think we've had enough Lip Action for one year -- so I'd like to announce that this contest is closed.