“Mom! Levi is pulling my hair!”

“She’s stepping on my foot!”

“Kids, if you don’t straighten up for these pictures you’re not going to be in them.”

Linda was about up to her neck in screaming kids who wouldn’t behave. She started wondering why she agreed to go on this trip in the first place, and more importantly why she had agreed to let her friend set her up with a photographer she knew in Arizona to take much needed, updated family photos. They stood in front of the vastness of the Grand Canyon, all wearing flannels and hiking boots, trying desperately to seem like a put together family.

“I get paid by the hour.” Said the photographer in a stuck up, annoyed voice.

“Well we still have thirty minutes.” Said Linda’s husband Luke as we looked down at his watch. “And I think we got some good pictures so far.”

“Oh Luke don’t kid yourself, this is a disaster,” said Linda out of the corner of her mouth.

“Mom it’s so hot!” Said their daughter Lily.

“Yeah and I’m tired!” Said Levi.  

“You’re preaching to the choir kiddos,” Linda said in a low voice so only her family could hear her.

The photographer continued to snap pictures of the tired family swinting in the Arizona sun. Linda liked traveling, but with the added hassle of children’s snacks, car seats, games, and of course the hourly tantrums, made things a bit more difficult or unbearable she couldn’t decide which.

“Sorry this vacation hasn’t gone as planned,” whispered Linda to Luke as the photographer changed his lens.

“What are you talking about?”

“You know, the photographer doesn’t know what he’s doing, the kids are miserable, it’s not exactly ideal.”

“Well I’m having fun. I’ve always wanted to see the Grand Canyon, and now we'll have pictures in our house commemorating the trip for years to come.”

“Oh, I sure hope not,” Linda sighed.

“Can I spit in the Grand Canyon mom?” Asked Levi as he turned around.

“Absolutely not are you insane?”

“Alright family everyone smile at the camera,” said the photographer in a bored voice. “Say ‘Grand Canyon.’”

“Grand Canyon!” Said the family.

“I still don’t see it.” Said little Lily.

“See what, Monkey?” Said Luke.  

“The Grand Crayon.”

“The what?”

“The Grand Crayon. I’ve been looking everywhere and I can’t find it.”

“It’s the Grand Canyon not the Grand Crayon, Monkey.” Said Luke with a giggle.

“What’s a Canyon?” Lily asked.

“This,” said Luke turning to gesture to the epic landscape behind him.

“That’s the Grand Canyon? That big hole?”

The family bursted into fitful laughter, they couldn’t contain themselves. Even little Lily was laughing profusely. At that moment Linda realized that their vacation wasn’t a disaster at all. They were together, as a family. Even in the midst of mayhem it was their mayhem, and Linda loved that more than anything. That was the picture that hung in their home for years, the picture of a family laughing in front of the big hole.