in which my dad and grandpa photobomb my mom

After what can truthfully be called the most horrifyingly insane week of my professional life, I hightailed the hecksauce out of Oklahoma and fled south to the land of longhorns and rigid stop-sign laws.

(Quick note: Through all of this, I've been careful to differentiate between professional and personal life, because in the grand scheme of my world, my professional life is not what ultimately matters. It's all about perspective, people.)

So my cousin was graduating from high school, and his party was on Friday night. My brothers were home, and my maternal grandparents were in town from Illinois. You may remember this particular grandpa from this post. Yes, the same grandpa who unknowingly (so he says) wore an offensive (or hilarious if you don't ask my grandma) tie to my cousin's wedding a few months ago. (Not the same cousin who was graduating high school, in case you were worried.)

Since getting my awesome new camera, I use any and every opportunity to practice, so I was of course carrying it around at the graduation party. My mom requested that I take a solo shot of her to use as an updated profile picture.

She was being a bit awkward about it, though, and wasn't happy with any of the pictures I'd taken thus far. I stood up to get a fresh angle, and my dad said, "Take one of me!"

I pointed the camera, and my mom jumped between the camera and my dad just as the shutter clicked. I missed my mom by an inch and happened to catch my dad in the act of a causal smile, which caused my mom--who'd run over to see if she'd messed up my dad's picture--to shout, "What?! That's what I want!"

All I can say is that apparently my mom is five years old.

So I said to her, "Well, you just need to be casual. Dad was laughing at you, so you just need to laugh at something too."

I repositioned myself to take a picture, and my dad jumped across just as it clicked. Because my dad is five years old too. Unfortunately for my mom, my dad was too fast (or slow, depending on how you think about it) and was caught in the photo.

This might have very well been the best picture ever taken of my dear mother. And the world will never know.

Not one to give up easily, I told her to try again.

Then, for whatever reason, my dad thought it would be a good idea to run behind my mom and flap his arms while grinning with his eyes ridiculously wide open. I have no idea who he's looking at, I can tell you that much.

I can see the headline now: 

"Texas Mother Missing: Last Seen with Creepy Bird Man."

I said, "Dad! You're not supposed to run behind her!" 
And everyone repositioned for our final attempt. 


Which happened to be the following, because apparently my grandpa is five years old. 

I have never in my life seen my grandpa make such a face.

There are no words.

Photobombing is the bomb.