We took the kids today to Wakulla Springs and took the boat tour. The kids had a great time, and I caught some cool snapshots.

Every time Matthew saw an alligator, he said, “I eat alligator meat!” I am amused by this – both his macabre sense of humor and his assertion of eating a meat which he has never done before. Boy does love meat.

To see the other photos I took, visit the album on facebook.

Quickly, before I fall asleep at my keyboard!

Day 209, July 28, 2011: Ava girl

Day 210, July 29, 2011: trick or treat, smell my feet

Day 211, July 30, 2011: fall down go BOOM!

day 207/365: July 27, 2011 – lullaby and goodnight

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me.

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste.

But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer.

And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and

the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.

Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met.

It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

- Ira Glass.

I met Ira Glass with Josh back in February – I am blessed with wonderful in-laws who gave Josh a pretty awesome birthday gift – tickets to see Ira Glass perform at FSU and meet him in a pre-show reception.

Today on a forum I frequent, someone posted this quote and it really resonated with me today. A few weeks ago I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do with my photography – did I want to perfect studio shooting? No. Did I want to make the perfect, posed, family shot? No. Where my passion for photography lies is in the details and capturing those moments that tell stories in and of themselves. I love capturing the laughter, the imperfections, the emotions. I have a long way to go to be the photographer I want to be, so that means every day, hauling out a camera to try to capture those fleeting moments.

Here, Lindsey is asleep for the night – in the middle of everything she loves. She’s sleeping on a few books, with her Dora doll, her baby Cracker, Knee and Teeth (yes, she named them this way), around her. Calm and peaceful. I tried to focus manually, but a combination of really low light (this was taken with an ISO of 25600) and my lack of contact lenses meant difficulty. This was good enough for now. I’ll strive for better tomorrow. Still fighting the fight to become the photographer and storyteller I want to be.

I am exhausted. If you’ve ever read a blog or Facebook status by a mom, the odds are likely they’ve uttered these words. This last week has been shattering. But – I got to spend some quality time with my sweet boy, Matthew. Always grateful for a good time with my kiddo.

Sunday, July 24, 2011: day 205

Matthew’s totally into his animals and giving voices to them in play. He always has a mama and a baby animal, with one tending to the other in a really sweet and comforting way.

Monday, July 25, 2011, day 206

We had a great and busy day today. First, we went to the library and got plenty of Curious George books (Matthew’s favorites) to last a lifetime (of course, we left them all in my carrel in the doc lab… oops). Then we met up with some of my classmates for lunch! This summer we’ve been all apart from one another, so it was nice to get together and reconnect. After some quiet time at home for Matthew, we went to help a new classmate move in, except of course by the time we got there, 99% of her stuff was unloaded. Oops!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011, day 207

Another busy day. Today we met up with some friends at the Tallahassee Museum. Matthew spent last summer there and totally adores it – definitely did not want to leave!

I was going to type that I was so lucky my two kids love to read, but we’ve got them pretty well disciplined in this area! We make it a point to read a lot during the day and encourage the kiddos to do so too. It’s a common sight to see Lindsey asleep on her bed with books all around her. The girl loves her books, and lately she’s been on a Clifford kick. Every little girl in books is Lindsey, every boy is “Fafew” and every dog is Ava.