My kid has mad skillz

A few months ago Caleb went on a trip with school to the Boundry Waters in Canada and had a blast. I'm not sure what all went on, but all I had to hear was that there was going to be a lot of sleeping outside with bears, no showering and rowing of canoes all day to tune out, write a check and wish him well. As my kids are fond of saying, my idea of roughing it is a 3 star hotel. That's not totally true...back in the day I did my share of camping out. But what children don't get that behind every successful camping trip is a really tired mother who planned the list, bought the groceries, hauled the groceries, packed the clothes, packed the emergency kit, cooked the food, washed the dishes, kissed the blisters, made sure that there was the perfect marshmallow to chocolate ratio for the perfect smore, took the groceries and dishes home, washed the smoky tick laden clothes and the collapsed in a heap wondering how exactly this qualified as "Getting away from it all". So as you can imagine, writing a check out for someone else to do this so my children have good formative years is, as they say on the commercial: priceless.

So sue me...my idea of getting away from it all is a remote all inclusive beach in Fiji with the kids home with a suitable parental figurehead. And to further answer your question, no...I did not cry when they went to Kindergarten. I lobbied for a half barrel in the school parking lot on that day. I love my children madly, but I know that our time away from each other makes us love each other more. It's just how we roll. I know this by the fact that Caleb texts me in Vegas demanding a cut of my winnings because he read about it on Facebook because he beat his cross country time and I told him he could have a t shirt or a cut. Smart kid, that one.

So when I sent him off to be willy nilly eaten by bears in Canada, I sent him with some waterproof film cameras. And when I gave him to him I said loudly, as if he were deaf "These are FILM cameras. Do you know what FILM is? Good. That means that when you take picture, you CANNOT DELETE IT. That means that on this roll, there are 27 EXPOSURES. Do you know what exposures are? It means you only get 27. No more, no less. Do you understand?"

He brought the cameras home, I threw them in the "Get to in sometime after 2020" pile. And shortly thereafter, we went to Myrtle Beach SC and I took the cameras with us to finish up the few exposures on the roll. Then they sat...and sat and sat...until last week I dragged them in for processing.

When I went to look at the shots he took a few things hit me. First...my kid is a HOTTIE. I am not kidding you, he is totally cute. And that a few of the shots he took (featured here) are really, really good. I've suspected for some time that Caleb "sees light" like I always have. And maybe I am reaching, but these shots are straight out of the camera and well composed and the lighting on them is delicious. Maybe he didn't know he was doing it and these are happy accidents. Who knows. But if I brag about him then I might make up for the fact that as he walked into school for the first time I didn't damage his soul by being the mother who skipped away with glee rather than sobbing on the playground. I might have muttered "I'm freeeee, I'm freeee" under my breath, but you cannot prove it.