Hiss! You're never around when I need you! -- I've been robbed

Ten bucks to who ever can name that movie. Anyway over the weekend our friends the Hiemstra's were kind enough to come to Back Beach with us (thusly named because it is to the "back" of the Christ statue) in the early hours to take some pictures. What do they get for this kindness? They, and we, get our rear windows smashed on our cars and robbed. Yeah, not fun. Before we get to all the gory details fun part first. I always have some crazy ideas for pictures and sometimes they translate and sometimes they don't. I think it also makes a difference when I am behind the camera. It is really hard for me to articulate what I have pictured in my head. Then imagine being handed a huge camera that I forgot to turn off Manual and be expected to get a shot described very vaguely. Yeah, don't you all want to come help the Crawford's do pictures ha! First I had a chalk board that I placed to far away from us so it just sort of looked odd, plus the kids were NOT going to look at the camera

So instead of giving it sometime sI of course rushed us to the next thing. An "I'm dreaming of a white christmas". This one sort of worked although I wonder if you can even read the sign

After 3 shots of this we moved on the the "Crawford Family est..." sign. Now this is when I feel REALLY stupid for switching lenses and running back to the pack before turning the dial back to auto for Meredith. Which is a real bummer because in this one the kids are actually all looking and smiling.

After rushing through the families I tried the kids. This one turned out pretty cute

The rest Liam was strangling himself with the tie or Abby was wailing.

Sam has gotten a lot better and understands the faster he cooperates the faster we are done.

It also helps when I sing the Animal Mechanical song apparently.

Liam seriously plopped down on this stool and just hung out while I was getting other pictures. He shoved his candy in his pocket and cheesed it up.

But it took that candy to get him to smile. His first picture was this:

The only person that could get Abby to smile was Jan. He totally got her to smile.

Which is a miracle because she was sobbing the entire time unless I was holding her.

I always feel ridiculous in front of the camera when I don't have a family to hide behind.

As soon as we were done the boys bolted to the car and immediately began shucking off clothes.

We moved the cars down a little closer to the beach and headed out for a swim. We only stayed about an hour. As we were cleaning up down on the beach Jan yelled for Chris to run up to the cars. We were obviously being watched from up in the hills and who ever did it came down and first tried to pry the windows out with a crow bard (or something) completely bending the window frame. Then the got impatient and just busted the windows. They went through everything, manuals, the center console, under the seat. Oddly enough they took all the cash, our phones and the necklace I am wearing in the pictures above but left our ipods. Chris and both wish they had just come down to the beach and demanded all our money. Now we have to figure out how to ship in a Jeep window and get it fixed. A HUGE headache and will take a LONG time. It also puts a kink in going anywhere and leaving the car. Plastic taped up to the window hardly says "security". I think the guys are most upset that neither of the car alarms went off. Not surprising to much for our car which is really worn out but Jan's is the Embassy's security car and is super nice. Oh well right?