Socks + Shorts = Retake the picture!!

On Saturday, after we got our adorable puppy Henry, Joey and I decided to put miles on our car and to see the entire state of Iowa. So we drove to Waterloo to see my Grandma, who wasn't home, and then to Cedar Rapids to see my family.

(After that, we went to Monroe to show Henry to Joey's family. I am slightly concerned that Eric will attempt to snitch Henry from me at some point, he seems to like that puppy a lot.)

But I digress.

Since Zewditu was visiting at my parents house, and almost all of my parents kids were home (sorry Sister and Stephen! We really missed you!!!), she wanted us to take a family picture. Here is the first picture. Alex is holding Henry and Henry is wearing a t-shirt that says "Giraffe in Training". This shirt was originally Ernie's, but I bought a size too small so it never really fit him. It is way, way too big for Henry.

But I digress yet AGAIN! Sorry.

Here's the picture.

After we took the picture, Joey showed it to me on the camera.

"DAD! You're wearing SOCKS!"

"So?" Dad asked, giving me his "up against the wall" face.

"You can't wear long socks and shorts in a picture that Zewditu is going to be showing to people in Ethiopia! They'll think it's...normal or something."

"It IS normal." Dad argued.

"No, no it's not. We're taking another picture. Take off your socks."

"Alright, fine," Dad huffed at me as he took off his socks.

Poor Zewditu said that it was fine for Dad to have his socks on, that no one in Ethiopia would think he was weird. Comments began flying about how weird I was for putting clothing on my puppy. I could see this was going downhill very, very quickly.

Dad got his socks off, grousing the whole while, and we all grouped together for one more attempt at a decent, civil family picture.

Joey pushed the time delay button, and the red light began to flash.

Dad and I were sticking our tongues out at each other, so the civil part didn't appear to be working. At least his socks were off, though, so we did fit into the decent category.

Just at the last minute, we whipped our heads toward the camera and flashed very charming smiles, as is illustrated below.

Now I must say, I think everyone looks much happier in this picture, without Dad's socks, than they did in the previous picture with Dad's socks.

This could be due to a couple things:
a.) In the first picture, everyone was so embarassed about Dad's socks that they weren't smiling very nicely,
b.) In the second picture everyone could sense that Dad's socks were gone, so they smiled more; or
c.) They were laughing at us stick our tongues out at each other like a couple of three-year-olds.

Either way, I like the second picture better.