Vacation Photos: This year's "awkward" shot

Every year there's one shot taken, usually by the children, that must be immediately deleted. Usually taken at an upward angle. Up the nose, just right for creating a triple or quadruple chin. Mid choke on a bite of food, while in the process of getting up from table, so as to get a photo with the perfect storm combo of closed eyes, open mouth... and a view straight down the bathing suit top. It's always the worst shot of the trip, and it generally seems to be my luck to be dead center.

Not this year. In sorting through the images restored from the deleted memory card, I've managed to recover most of the vacation photos which disappeared when the laptop was stolen. And, in the tradition of shots taken of mom at awkward angles, highlighting my least favorite attributes, here is this year's shot. It was taken at Garden of the Gods, while DD and I were scrambling to get a better look at some of the holes in the rock. Higher up, beyond where we climbed, the birds fly in and out of the many holes in swooshing waves, looping around and back into the nests. There were many parts of the trip which were wonderful, but the mini-adventure with my daughter was definitely a highlight.

I'm going to treasure this photo, expecting next year's crop to be back to normal.