i’m only about fifty percent satisfied with the pictures i take until i remind myself that i’m usually trying to photograph something while watching or playing jungle gym to my three and five year old kids.

i had noticed this view earlier and as the ferry blew its horn signaling its departure there was an unexpected break in tourists about. so i asked natalie to watch the kids and scrambled back to take this picture.

i was feeling quite happy with myself that i had pulled off this little composed shot when out of nowhere this woman in a red sweater appears, as if transported there.

as every avid trekkie knows, a red shirt on an away mission never lasts til the next commercial break and i was certain this one would not either. but i was disappointed to see her lingering in my periphery, then doubly disappointed when she walked right in to my shot, and ultimately ill when she escaped the park grounds with no orca whale having jumped from the puget sound to engulf her.

latest picture of logan: mt. constitution, moran state park, orcas island

latest picture of ethan: at boulder river #734

there’s a short, somewhat steep hill descent from the parking lot to medina beach. logan didn’t measure her enthusiasm for getting to the water appropriately and ended up skinning her knee running down the hill and for the rest of the week she asked everyone to look at the “ouchie” she got at “dad’s beach”.

its “dad’s beach” because i swam here nearly every day of summer from the ages of ten through twelve. its also the last place i remember feeling like a kid. when we left medina, we moved to crossroads and i started junior high school not knowing a soul. i was a dorky looking kid, with crazy out of control curly hair, glasses and good grades. the worst possible combination for the new kid in school.

so, to adjust i rapidly went to work toughening up my image. by the beginning of eighth grade i had become well known as one of the most rowdy kids in school. my friends at that time weren’t known to keep regular attendance at school or to come calling at conventional hours or through the conventional front door. my bedroom was in the basement, far from my mother’s bedroom and had the perfect window for teenagers to jump through. this was a perfect arrangement for me and the dozens of kids who were routinely entering my room all through the night. only our next door neighbor seemed to mind.

he had talked to my mom, confronted a few kids in transit and scowled at me when we met at the mailbox but nothing changed the activity level at my window. finally one night three of my friends were coming to the window when they snagged their feet on string that was wired up to a bunch of aluminum cans and pie pans. as soon as the cans and pans started clanging a huge spotlight went on and the neighbor jumped out of the bushes with a camera and started taking pictures. seems he thought we were dealing drugs out the window and he was going to catch us red handed.

i never got to see his pictures, but the expression on his face when my friends passed him by, jumped in my window and entered my room, in spite of the booby trap, is a look i don’t need a photograph to recall.

i’m a sucker for temptation. i’m a sucker for a challenge.

these are not the best traits to bring to the task of parenting.

when we got to the falls on the boulder river trail there was a huge log suspended on a rock just begging to be knocked off.

we of course didn’t want our five or three year old to get too close to the creek so i had to control the impulse to climb out on the rocks and attempt to free the log.

but surveying the situation i can envision a day when ethan comes home soaking wet, clothes in ruin after falling in a river trying to do something stupid like dislodge a water logged stump perched on a rock in a surging mountain river.

his mom will ask “what was he thinking” and i’ll have the answer, but it won’t be the one she wants, because i too can only imagine one thing to do when being confronted with this temptation…