A snapshot is exactly that. Just a snapshot.

You know when you see those shows like the Duggars Do New York or when Jon and Kate plus Eight took their whole herd to Hawaii?

You know how all the kids either have a buddy or how there is an extra grown up or three and everything runs so smoothly and you are amazed by how awesomely all the kids behave?

Yeah.

That’s a bunch of baloney.

When you make those outings with a crew of kids, yes, in the end you usually say it’s worth it.

But in actuality, just as in regular, everyday life, 10 – 15% of the trip is fun.

The other 85 – 90%?

It’s just one kid crying or whining or complaining or bleeding after another.

Yesterday we took a little field trip into Wilmington.

An old galleon ship is docked there this week, and Number 4 really wanted to see it.

It took us approximately 10 minutes after exiting the car for the first kid to start complaining about being thirsty.

Another had dirty hands. Already. Another was sweating. To death.

And we hadn’t even gone anywhere yet.

We started the 20 minute walk to the ship.

Half the group was made up of essentially speed walkers concerned only with getting to the final destination.

The other half wanted to stop, admire, and discuss pretty much every single thing they saw along the way.

By the time we actually got to the old ship,

the kids were sweatier, thirstier, and extra whinier.  And then, of course, we had to wait in line.

I didn’t take a picture of that.

I didn’t take a picture of Number 4 sitting on the ground complaining about how hot she was or the fourteen times I grabbed the kids by the back of the shirt for fear they would fall off the side of the dock into the Cape Fear River.

But I did take this picture:

Cute, right?

You’d never know that about ten minutes prior to that, I was ready to drag her back to the car for being ungrateful.

Then there is this picture:

That was like the fourteenth one I tried to get.

After this one:

And this one:

I gave up on getting the perfectly cute picture on the ship.

While not perfect, they are all true representations of the day and of each kid’s personality.

And then see this picture right here?

Super cute, right?

Most of the kids look really happy.

The adults even look happy.

But three minutes before this, hardly anyone was smiling.

Number 7 was having a massive meltdown because she didn’t get an entire bottle of Gatorade for herself.

Number 4 was giving Number 5 a hard time.

And approximately three minutes after this picture was taken, Number 7 wiped out and skinned her knee.

She was hysterical. Again.

Luckily we walked past a really cool boat building shop that distracted everyone,

I remembered I had lollipops in my back pack, and everyone temporarily got their shit together.

By this point it was 1:00, Number 6 and 7 really should have been heading into bed for a nap, and no one had eaten any lunch.

So we had a couple more meltdowns.

I took this picture of Number 5, 6 and 7 because I thought that brick wall was cool and I knew they would thank me in twenty years when they looked back at it and saw how cute they were.

But they didn’t do it willingly. I had to bribe them.

And then we found a cheap place to eat.

After Number 6 had a freak out because his hot dog bun broke, we actually had a really nice time eating lunch, and most of the kids behaved in a deceptively well-mannered way.

So we ended on a high note and called it a day.

Was the whole day picture perfect?

Nah.

But if it were, then we wouldn’t really have any good stories to tell.

So the pretty picture will live on in a frame.

But the messy memories?

Well, those are the ones that will stay alive every time we look at that picture and say to each other, Remember when?…

And those imperfect moments will not only give us something fun to remember down the road, but they will also make the really awesome moments where everyone was smiling and laughing even that much more awesome.

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