The Family Video

First post. But where do I start our story?

The beginning might seem the logical place. There’s definitely many amusing moments, but I’ll save those stories of the first time we met for another day.

Instead, today, I simply want to give you a sense of who we are as a family. Who I’m married to.

This video we made last month is the best jumping-off point for that. 

You see. While we were on our one-year-delayed vacation to Jasper National Park in the Rocky Mountains of western Canada, this wacky idea popped into my head early on the Friday morning of our five-day trip. 

This isn’t uncommon. Wacky ideas usually pop in at various times throughout the day and then pop back out just as fast. And I usually don’t act on them. Either because they popped out too fast or because my wife, the artist, offers me a sober second thought or a stern glance.

But this time. The idea lingered for a few minutes. Just long enough for me to start formulating some credible questions:

• What if we made a family video?
• But not just any boring family video. What if we made a family video of the kids chasing me around Jasper?
• And what if we recorded and edited the entire thing on our phones?

Lack of technical, video-editing skills didn’t stop me from entertaining these questions and a few more. The University of YouTube exists for more than cat videos and this well-produced video (you’re welcome).

My rightfully suspicious and less-than-amiable-to-my-wacky-ideas wife shook her head when I asked her to film me running across a footbridge at Pyramid Lake Island north of the Jasper townsite. Little did she know what else I had on my mind. (I’m sure she knew. We’ve been together for nearly 20 years. Bless her heart for not shutting me down completely from the outset.)

Once I told the kids what dear old dad was up to, they must have stifled their motherly training and were all in. Head first. Right alongside me.

Once I told the kids what dear old dad was up to, they must have stifled their motherly training and were all in. Head first. Right alongside me.

And, my wife, the artist? Well, let’s just say I know her kryptonite: Once our kids are fully engaged, she is too. Despite the wackiness and her (much) better judgment, I knew she would join in our fun… as long as she didn’t have to be in the video itself.

I agreed to her stipulation, incorrectly believing I could come up with something phenomenal to end the video. But, again, bless her heart, she must have known what was coming.

And you already know how this video ends. So, when we needed a fitting final scene to it, who better to give the final punchline than my wife, the artist, who had yet to appear beyond an accidental, opening-scene cameo? 

But, like I said, once the kids were bought in, so was she. She saw the trainwreck vision of what we were making. And, let me tell you, she provided one of her best eye rolls for the video. I should know. I’ve caused at 7,254 of them in our nearly 20 years together. That’s one per day.

But that’s how our family is. That’s how my wife, the artist, is. Eternally loving, always forgiving, and ever gracious; even in the face of some incredibly outlandish and wacky ideas that her husband comes up with.

Why else would she agree to me putting our lives on display on this blog?

Now, where to start our story…