Wake up people!

With any photograph taken, there's always a risk. That risk is real and annoying. I'm talking about the blinking eye. As you will see in the following photos, last Easter it seemed as if the risk was realized in EVERY OTHER FRAME. I decided to crop each pair of closed eyes...and there were a bunch. At first I was only going to post the cropped pic of the blinker, but then I decided to go back and add the pre-cropped so people could see the picture in its true context. After I began to upload all the closed eye photos, I thought Jared was going to be the clear winner....but then....a dark horse came out of nowhere and took the lead. Scroll down and have a look for yourself and then I'll announce who won the nonexistent first prize.

Emma looks as if she's playing hide and seek and she's the counter. Emma, that's 1, 2, 3, 4.....


Precrop. Maggie seems to be reciting a line from Romeo and Juliet about yonder window breaking, Olivia looks as if she's about to say a word beginning with the letter B. Emma's still counting. 10, 13, 14....


If not for being a bright Easter morn, I'd say Rebecca had knocked back a few.


Precrop. Keith and Grandma were ready. Clearly Becky was the fly in the ointment.


Carlie seems to have challenged Jared to check and see if he remembered to wear a belt.


Caitlin looks as if she's wishing on a star....even though the sun's brightly shining.


Precrop. I got a two-fer here. Jared on the right, Caitlin on the left. As you can see, there's other stuff going on as well. Mollie's in full pose and Austin's working it with the two handed hip hold. Everyone else is milling about.


By now it'd finally dawned on Mollie she'd yet to take a closed eye pic.....and ....so she did.


Precrop. After checking on everyone else present, it's obvious that even if Mollie's eyes had been open, Whitney's "dawn of the dark face hat" had already ruined it.


Jared not to be outdone by his younger sister, then blinked again.


Precrop. Even if Jared was good to go, Whitney's hat had already given her the "coon eyes."


But Jared just can't help himself, he feels the pressure to blink!


Precrop. By now, Whitney's hat had become a character all its own.


Austins' thinking of a number between 1 and 10. I'm thinking....."13!" Oh wait......


Precrop. Cheeky Caitlin.


Jared's confident he's in first place for eyes closed.....and at this point, he was.


Precrop. But since the photographer had a centering problem, this photo wasn't a keeper anyway.


Melanie's trying to remember what color she's wearing. Hello!! Pink!


Precrop. Pink, pink, pink...everywhere I looked it was pink.


Owen's thinking, we REALLY DO look like a box of crayons. What was my family thinking?


Precrop. Yeppers. It's Crayola town.


This was another two-fer. Cropped or uncropped, there are two peeps with closed eyes...and someone's trying to poke Grandma in it!


Olivia's thinking about something blue!


Precrop. Gramdma's outraged Olivia wasn't thinking about something purple!


Olivia's thinking, "I have to win the closed eye contest!"


Precrop. Carlie's thinking, "Contest? I didn't know there was a contest!" Maggie's working the dreamy eyed look.


Olivia, "I'm so winning this contest."


Precrop. Carlie's thinking, "Sigh, if only I'd known about the contest. But now, Olivia's gonna win the contest!" Maggie's still dreamy.


Olivia, "What a bunch of doofus's. All you have to do to win the contest is keep your eyes closed all the time!"


Precrop. Carlie's disgusted about losing the contest, Maggie's been holding this pose for 10 frames, and Olivia's now the clear front runner.


It's now getting ridiculous Olivia!


Precrop. This was perf if not for closed eyes. Ugh.


OLIVIA OPEN YOUR EYES!!


Precrop. O M G! Another good one if only....


Maggie's gone from dreamy to meditating while enjoying her own personal wind machine. And what lovely eye makeup Mags. There's no precrop for this pic.


Lindsey, "As long as my eyes are closed, no one can see me! That's how 4 year olds do it."


Precrop. Doesn't matter anyway Lindsey. Apparently Carlie's ruined this pic because she's taken this time to lecture about the ills of ruining photos. And Bill's excited to have just seen a long lost friend across the yard. The boy's excited.


Austin, "I can just tell that I'm even hotter looking with my eyes closed."


Precrop. This was the one good photo of the Turners if only Austin hadn't been dreaming of his hotness.


I think Maggie's got something in her eye.


Precrop. No matter, Lindsey was in mid lip lick.


Maggie, "I could do this ALL DAY LONG. Horses sleep standing up!"


Carlie's obviously attempting to say the word milieu which is defined as: surroundings, especially of a social or cultural nature: a snobbish milieu. If you don't get the joke, say the word without screwing your face up.....I can't.


Precrop. Carlie and Maggie.....way to screw it up for everybody!


Mollie's just been told by Whitney, "There's a chicken about to swoop in on you."


Precrop. Swooping chickens!? Swooping chickens!?


I'm just so cool, I can even close my eyes.....no precrop.


Final tally:
Emma - 1
Lisa - 1
Owen - 1
Becky - 1
Carlie - 1
Melanie - 1
Lindsey - 1
Grandma - 1
Caitlin - 2
Austin - 2
Mollie - 2
Maggie - 3
Jared - 4
Olivia - 6

The grand prize winner for the most photos with closed eyes is Olivia Grace! Jared gets an honorable mention.

This post was ridiculously tedious and time consuming.

Let's do lunch!