Underwater adventures

Also, the question was asked, exactly how did I get all the kids to post like that underwater? Here's how it went.

I wanted to make sure that I took a good group shot of all 5 kids before September, so I could include it in my Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) cards. All of my kids love the water, and I thought an underwater shot of the entire crew would be unusual and fun. In June all of them came to live with me from their various locations. DD returned from college, and DS-16 from his Dad's house. One problem was that DS-8 was scheduled out for a 3-week vacation with his dad from mid July through the first week of August. Also, earlier in the summer, both of the youngest boys were unable to hold their breath underwater. They were in private swim classes, though, and that program emphasized how to hold breath underwater, among other safe-swimming strategies. So I decided that mid-August would be a good time for it, and made a mental note. I needed all 5 kids to be *home* in mid-day when the sun was at it's zenith as well, because evening shots in the pool are too dark. There was a day in mid August when both teens were off work on the same day and all the little ones were home from classes/camps. I informed them that I had heated the pool to 82 degrees and that it was time for our group picture. I went that morning to get a waterproof disposable camera, and they were sold out at the first store, so I had to go to another store, where they had one left. Then I asked the kids to please put on their "long" suits, because I would want to share the picture widely, and I didn't want to feel like I was showing their little chests/bodies around on the net or to all the relatives. I made DD wear my black swim shirt over her bikini, and she wore jogging shorts. Everybody else wore their wet suits. The hard part was that I, too, had to suit up for the water, because *somebody* had to take the shot. I had a brand new pair of goggles, too, that turned out to leak like a sieve. I didn't realized it until then, but leaky goggles are worse than no goggles at all, because they hold the water on your eyes, even after you come up for air. All the other goggles were in use by the kids, so I found an old mask of DS's and it was water-tight, although I don't like my nose plugged up. But anything for art, right? ;-) So I got them into position, DD holding the youngest and DS holding the next-youngest, and the middle one in the middle. We took about 10 dunks total. There were only 2 shots where dd was looking at the camera instead of ds, and I liked the look of that better. That really narrowed it down. Then between those 2 shots, I picked the one where the most kids were smiling. I had 30 pics printed at the drug store, and I've been mailing out 4 by 6s in cards this past week. The relatives love them. And DS-4 got an assignment from his preschool to bring in a family picture for back-to-school night, and that is what I'm sending with him. I bet *none* of the other kids have a pic like that. :-D