Recovery

My name is Alanna Smith, and I'm addicted to mascara.

I think I've been using it almost every day for about ten years now.  I didn't think I had a problem.  Or if I did, the problem was my ridiculously thin, blonde eyelashes.  They're so invisible, that if I get one stuck in my eye, the trouble isn't getting it out, the trouble is being able to see it, so I can fish it out.  As one of my mission companions once pointed out, without mascara I look something like a rabbit.  With mascara, I look like a normal person-- you know, the type that has eyes.  I thought mascara was the answer to all my beauty problems.

But recently, mascara has betrayed me.  Because after ten years of abusing it, my previously-thin eyelashes are now practically non-existent.  And after ten years, I've grown to hate how I look without it.

And I've decided that both of those are pretty sad.  But really, not being comfortable with how my own face looks is probably the saddest part.  It makes me think of Hamlet screaming at Ophelia that the problem with women is that, "God has given you one face and you make yourselves another!"  I'm not saying make-up is evil and we shouldn't wear it.  But we should be happy in our own skin, too.  And I have gotten to the point where I'm embarrassed if someone sees me without mascara glopped all over my poor struggling eyelashes.

So I'm quitting mascara.  Or at the very least taking a break.  Giving my eyelashes a chance to grow back.  Seeing what they're capable of doing.  Seeing if I'm capable of accepting what I actually look like.  And in the meantime, enjoying those moments at the pool or when I rub my eyes and I don't have to worry about whatever black streaks I may have just smeared across my face.

My name is Alanna Smith, and I'm trying to overcome this addiction.

Photo Dynamic

Here are a bunch of pictures in no particular order that I feel the need to show you. Enjoy!

Happy Caleb enjoys holding the baby

Happy Aunt Tracy also enjoys holding the baby (he seems to like it, too!)

Kendra after our family photo shoot.  I love this picture.

Hawaiian Colton

Craig has not been aging well.  Just kidding.  This was after we put insulation up in our attic, and Craig is covered in the stuff.  Kind of hilarious, if you ask me!

More of the insulation...

Ryder enjoys a good cuddle every now and then

Caleb at the pool-- he's a man of action!

Sleeping Colton looks like a little fat Buddha here!

Capturing a rare moment when Ryder and Eliot are actually sharing their toys!

Still very dapper after church

This is my Dad being crazy.  But in a good way!

Me and Rocky!

Happy Colton

Trying to keep Ryder happy during the kids' swimming lessons, I let him sit in Colton's carrier

Almost ready for boy scouts!

As Bentley moves up to the Wolf Den, he lets Ryder wear his Tiger scout gear

Colton in his lion bath towel

Ryder IS Baby Einstein

Colton keeps me company while I make dinner

Assateague Island

It was a while ago when Craig and I realized that every single vacation we have ever taken has been with family.  This has been awesome-- it's meant visiting New York City and Hershey Park while staying with each of my sisters, it's meant going to Hawaii, Texas, and South Carolina with all of Craig's family, and it's meant Seattle, Sunriver, and Disney World with mine.  We have had wonderful fun vacations this way.  But still, it seemed like we ought to be grown up enough to do a vacation without relying on someone else to foot the bill or provide a place to stay.

So we vacationed in the next cheapest way possible: we went camping!

This was a big step for us.  We've been camping plenty of times, but almost always with friends from our ward here.  And never for more than one night.  And not since we added a fourth kid to our brood.  This time it was just the six of us and for TWO nights.  Which may not sound like a big deal, but it meant worrying about food on a whole new level.

We decided we wanted to see Assateague Island, near Ocean City, Maryland.  That would mean camping on the beach (and seeing the ocean always makes me happy) and the opportunity to see wild horses!  I was sold.  And Kendra-- who, like all little girls, loves horses-- was even more sold.  Away we went!

I think I've said this before, but the thing I love most about camping is that I get to let Craig do all the work. ALL of it.  And he does a great job.  You should have seen the lists he made before we even left of all the things we would need: everything from which cooking utensils to what food to finding an extra tent to borrow...  And then he had the fun task of cramming it all into our car (around the four children, who do a pretty good job of filling it all by themselves!).  I honestly didn't think there was any way it would all fit, but he made it work somehow:

There are four children hidden underneath all those pillows, tents, sleeping pads, and yes, baby swing.  Plus the cooler, box of non-perishable food items, sleeping bags, beach towels, cook stove, and general stuff like sunscreen, bug spray, tarp, clothes, etc, etc, etc.

We got there without any problems and got all set up.  This was a little tricky: it was super windy and Ryder kept wanting to throw sand on everything.  What made it ten times worse was the overly friendly people next to us who kept offering to help, and then proceeded to sit and watch us struggling against the wind and our naughty two-year-old.  I'm sure they meant well, but it mostly just made us feel self-conscious and stupid.  Ah, well-- it wasn't exactly tragic, just kind of annoying.  We got our two tents set up eventually:

Bentley in front of our two tents.  And just over that sand dune is the ocean!

The Scoresbys very graciously let us borrow their new pop-up shade

The next day was pretty much spent entirely at the beach.  It's always amazing to me to see how much fun kids can have on the beach, whether they're throwing sand into the ocean, building sand castles, digging for crabs or splashing in the waves.  The beach is never boring when you're little. 

Craig takes a panorama of the beach, featuring Kendra!

My job was to hold the baby while Craig played with the kids

Kendra showing off a tiny crab she found

Sleepy Colton

And here come the wild horses!

I was pretty proud of this shot, considering I was zooming with an iPhone on the beach and my hands were covered with sand and sunscreen...

Nap time

Nothing like a back-lit feral pony!

And napping again, this time inside the tent (and with all the kids)

And the next day we headed home!  It seems like a short amount of time, but we were sandy, wind-blown, and exhausted.  But not so exhausted that we didn't take the opportunity to stop by and see Ocean City's boardwalk.  It turned out to be a bit too sunny, loud and tacky, so we weren't huge fans.  But I'm still glad we got to see it!  And then we drove home, enjoying at least one hour of the drive when all of the kids fell asleep at the same time!

I have to admit-- I'm kind of proud of us that we could pull it all off. 

Look at what grown up people Craig and I are turning out to be!

Pink

I told you I wasn't done showing you pictures from the Color Run.  You should have believed me.

I kind of like how I look with pink hair.  If I wasn't a mother of four and totally committed to being completely uncool for the rest of my life, I might be out buying some hair dye right now...

Bentley Clan Family Portraits

My entire family was able to come to Manassas for Colton's baby blessing.  This was the first time we were all together since I was pregnant with Bentley, which, in case you don't feel like doing the math, was nearly seven years ago.  So my Dad decided (and we all agreed) that we needed to document the occasion.  Professionally.  And since Lindsay Rowe had done such a fabulous job with Colton's newborn shots (and had graciously done them for free), I figured it was time we got her a paid gig!

She did a wonderful job.  I couldn't be happier with how these turned out.  It's even more impressive when you consider that in my family we are a bunch of chronic blinkers.  And we were dealing with seven kids, all ages 6 and under!  So, yeah, getting any decent shots would be pretty good work.  What Lindsay accomplished here should probably be considered phenomenal.

Enjoy!

Mom and Dad, just a few days before their 42nd wedding anniversary!

Colton peering over Daddy's shoulder

The Aveytua clan, Rachael and Ian

That's us!

The Richard family: Natalie & Cameron and their boys, Samuel and Caleb

Eliot peering over his Daddy's shoulder

The Maddens: Leah & Brian and Eliot

All the "big" cousins together: Ryder, Eliot, Caleb, Samuel, Kendra and Bentley.  And Ryder having a meltdown.

Mom and Dad with all their girls!

And with all their sons-in-law-- I like to think of them as the Bentley Boys!

Aunt Tracy helps Colton to be a part of the cousin shot

The Madden family

Tracy, looking like a model with her hair blowing in the wind

I love this picture of my parents

The whole gang!

And the whole gang, again!

Grandma and Grandpa with all their grandkids--this is another of my favorites.  Such good smiles on everyone!

And this is another favorite-- it's rare to get so many kids smiling at the same time!

So that's us!  Thanks, Dad, for such a great idea!  And thanks Rachael for coming up with our color scheme and spending so much time approving everyone's (and I do mean EVERYONE'S) outfits!  It's so nice to finally have some professional pictures of all of us!  We'll have to do it again in seven years!