Playing Pretend in a Flashback

It's safe to say I got my acting chops from my Dad. He never actually did any acting, but he probably could have. I can even go a little more broadly and say that it's from his side of the family. My Aunt Mary used to dress me up and stage funny photos like this one:

The fact that my lantern is not even lit just completely ruins any credibility this photo had. 

She actually did this to anyone who would cooperate. She has a whole photo album on Facebook with only pictures of my dad wearing funny things titled "Things I Have Made My Brother Wear for Pictures", but those are for another day.

Due to this family history of sorts, I'm lucky to have married a man who is game for silly pictures. It's not like that last statement was a surprise if you've noticed our sidebar image. Yes, he has a mustache tucked upside down behind his glasses to create eyebrows. I didn't even notice it until after the photo was printed. There's one in particular of him sitting on the small, wooden rocking horse, looking very pleased that I'd really love to share, but I'm pretty sure that he doesn't want me to share that here. But let me reassure you that you really are missing out on a fantastic photo. You can dream it up in your mind if you'd like, but it won't be very satisfying. However, if you're personal friends with me on Facebook, you can find it if you dig deep enough.

I digress.

What I'm trying to get to is that, frankly, my mom doesn't know how to pretend for pictures. This first example is from 2010 when my parents came out to visit, and we took them to San Diego to tour the USS Midway. "Pretend it's an ejection seat."

Jamie

Mom: "But my feet don't touch the ground!" No, because you're being EJECTED!

Then there are these:

"How do you fly this thing!?"

Dad's actual quote: "This is a pretty tiny steering wheel for this big ship."

Then there's this: "Pretend you're looking off into the distance."

Just kidding. She was actually just looking off into the distance.

That evening, we had dinner and drinks at a neighborhood restaurant. I told Jamie to pinky-up sip the drink. Then I told my dad the same. Then I told my mom to chug hers. This is what happened.

Sip it.

Sip it.

"It's hard to pretend to chug without actually chugging."

Mom and I were in the back seat of the car once. As we were stopped in an intersection, the front of a bus was right up close to her side of the car. I grabbed my camera and told her to look scared because it looked like the bus could run into us, and she couldn't do it. She just laughed and said, "I can't look scared because I'm not scared!"

She's getting better, though. See?

"Pretend like it's going to come down and poke you!"

This photo may have required five takes in the almost-rain, but we got it! We'll keep on trying, too, because even though it doesn't come as easily to her, it's still a lot of fun.