hair unapparent

in the midst of all my packing for our week-long annual family reunion, it hit me: the last time we had a nice photo taken of the four of us at the beach was when the kids were both small enough to pick up and hold.  so as i stuffed our suitcases to the gills, i made sure to include four outfits that coordinated and, in a moment of divine inspiration, actually ironed them.  (true story: susanna once picked up a play iron in the pretend center at preschool and asked her teacher what it was.)

so one day mid-week while we were there, i forced my loving husband to shave, attempted to tame liam's errant cowlick, forced a hairbow onto susanna, and cajoled my brother to take a few pictures with his fancy camera.  the lighting was good -- sunny, but not too bright -- and it wasn't beastly hot.  the one thing i didn't take into account? the breeze.

we actually got several that are christmas card-worthy and one that i might even consider framing.  but the vast majority all had one problem in common: that aforementioned breeze.  seems that it just took chris's mane and sent it flying.  below is one of those pictures that ben uploaded to facebook, along with chris's self-deprecating comment below.

and then, a few minutes after this exchange, we see this pop up on our screens:

you gotta love digital photography.  and photoshop.  and a brother who's clever enough to create such an image.

but mostly, you gotta love a man who's comfortable enough to embrace the humor of growing old.  which makes him even more attractive than ever ... hair or no hair a little bit less.