“Your feet are going to be on the ground, your head is there to move you around.”

Stand – R.E.M. (1989)

Hennepin Canal near Sheffield, IL – August 5, 2017

I love my kids.

In my book, that’s a given, right?

I mean after all, it’s pretty much half my fault that Julie and I have them. I don’t recall which one of us started it over the years but the next thing you know there’s Helena, then Carly, then Jayce and then Zac. And once you have them, well, you care for them and teach them and introduce them to stuff.

In the case of this photo we took a daytrip to the Hennepin Canal just outside of Sheffield, IL. Oh boy, more than a few memories from that Bureau County hamlet in the days before I had children including some where today’s song title of “Stand” required a little extra concentration. Used to be a watering hole up there called “R & J’s” run by a couple buddies…but I digress.

The Hennepin Canal is a pretty cool bit of engineering history that is included on the National Register of Historic Places. There’s plenty to be said about the one hundred plus mile waterway but that will have to wait for another day.

For this day, it’s all about quality family time spent outdoors exploring a bit of regional history. Our crew (minus Julie who was our photographer for this shot) is perched on a series of steps that lead from the high ground above the canal to the towpath along the edge. I felt that the descent was an ideal spot for one of those “line up oldest to youngest/shortest to tallest” shots with a little silliness thrown in.

And indeed it was.

However, the odds of getting four kids on board as we neared the end of their arduous four hour daytrip were generally pretty slim. So this pic worked out about as well as one could have hoped in terms of the goofy pose I envisioned. Four kids and four personalities with some shared traits and some individual quirks, you just never know what will transpire during that split second when the photo is snapped.

While initially frustrating in failing to get the perfect outdoor photo I had in mind, it looks just right in hindsight.

It’s us.

Talk to you later. Troy