So while all the Burchfields (and their subsidiaries) were stateside (i.e., in TEXAS!), we had the crazy notion that perhaps it would be amusing to bestow a small amount of creative chaos on some tragically unsuspecting photographer; that is, we had professional portraits taken of the entire family. It was quite an experience, and I learned a few things that morning:
1. Eat a good breakfast the morning of such activities. Low blood sugar does not combine well with even controlled chaos.
2. Babies and children will, by unspoken universal law, be extremely cute/happy/smiling until the precise time you are ready to take pictures; they then become intensely tired/hungry/cranky/wet.
3. Even if the appointment is only supposed to take 1 hour, plan to spend the vast majority of the day at the studio.
4. Dress for the arctic. They keep those studios somewhere around the freezing point.
5. Try to get online and examine the portrait packages beforehand. Read all the fine print. However, even if this is accomplished, pack an extra measure or two of patience and flexibility to be used when trying to understand the intricacies of ordering pictures.
All in all, it was a worthwhile endeavor, and I daily enjoy the results of the experience in the form of artistically framed portraits of my whole family, smiling cheerfully from my living room wall each morning.
