These boots were made for walkin'

Before Bracken was born, or perhaps shortly thereafter, my in-laws were on a trip and saw these darling red cowboy boots and purchased them so that they could have a picture taken of each of their little grandkids wearing them.  Justin is the only married child so we are the only ones with kids and thus ours are the only children to have sported the boots.  We've learned a few lessons over the years about taking these pictures, perhaps the most important lesson we have learned is that even though the boots are a size 6 we have to take the pictures when my kids feet are a size 4 because their legs are too fat to fit the calves in after that point.  The problem is that my children can't walk or really even stand when they have size 4 feet so the pictures aren't as great.  Anyway, while we were back in Virginia this past week we tried to get a few pictures of Miss Ruby Jane wearing the boots but she just would NOT hold still.  She was sick of being trapped and wanted to roam free.  All of her siblings have had their boots pictures taken professionally and have studio backgrounds but little Ruby didn't have that opportunity since our trip was so backed with activities.

These pictures were all taken on the day we flew in.  We had gotten up at 5 AM and my kids had already endured security, a 3 hour flight, and a 1 hour drive from the airport to grandma's.  Needless to say they were not thrilled about family photo time.  Oh well.  After all of the kids shots we took some extended family shots including Justin's siblings and Dad and stepmom, I haven't seen those yet but there are sure to be some gems.  I tried to include shots above of kids picking their noses, crying, and pulling hair.  If you look closely in the some of the pictures you can see some pretty funny things, like when there appear to be only three children in the wagon but then you see Tate's little green sneakers sticking out and realize he is indeed squished in there between the girls.

We had so much fun in Virginia and did so many things that I think I will post each event separately because there is just way too much to try and roll it all into one!