La Salette Shrine

Alternative title: Daddy, why did you bring your golf bag?

Those of you who live south of Boston are probably familiar with La Salette Shrine in Attleboro. Each year for the Christmas season, they decorate their property with a few hundred thousand lights and invite all to visit for free. I hadn't been there since childhood and over the past few years, Rich and I had casually mentioned bringing the girls but never did for one reason or another. Like having to wrangle three small children in the freezing cold. New Year's weekend was fairly mild for this time of the year and so on New Year's Day, which was the last night of the lights, we announced to the girls that we were going to another surprise.

"Disney?"

Um. No.

"Disney on Ice?"

Twice in one weekend? Yeah, no.

In an effort to improve upon my photography skills, I packed up my camera bag for our outing. Rereading that sentence almost makes it seem like a chore rather than a want. I really wanted to photograph the lights at La Salette. I wanted to be Sarah the Photographer in addition to Sarah the Mom. As I was pulling my tripod out of the closet in the basement, Allie asked, "Is that Daddy's hockey bag?" Rich does not and has never played hockey. When I asked her why she thought it was a hockey bag, she told me that Grammy had been looking in the closet one day and had thought that it was Daddy's hockey bag. (Grammy denies that this ever happened by the way.)

We were searching for an empty spot in the parking lot at La Salette when the lights were turned on. Perfect timing. The first order of business was a ride on the carousel, which was only temporary so it was small, didn't have fantastic lights and was surrounded by an ugly metal gate. The girls, of course, didn't know the difference but my camera did.

After riding the carousel, we walked around and soaked up the sights. The girls were well behaved and Rich and I have learned that the key to keeping them happy is to move at their speed. They are only four years old so their attention span for light viewing is different than ours. We did make the mistake of bringing the single stroller for Anna because she does tire easily, especially at the end of the day. Well, Emily said that she was tired and wanted to ride. So now we know.

I stowed my tripod in the basket under the stroller. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to use it. Although the girls were well behaved, they weren't going to tolerate me setting up the tripod and taking time to mess around with the camera. It was dark and I was nervous one of them was going to get lost. So the tripod stayed under the stroller and Emily kept pointing to it and asking Rich why he brought his golf bag.

We lit a candle for Abbey.

We had fed the girls before we left the house but they were asking for food again (still demand feeding) so we visited the cafeteria for some snacks and to warm up.

Here is my attempt at a funny family photo. I used my wide angle lens so our heads are distorted. (Just saying.) I wish Anna would have participated but she kept hiding on the other side of me.

Even though I wasn't able to photograph the lights, I did step outside of my normal routine and used the timer on the camera. After snacks, we walked over to another area for a quick scenic tour before heading home. I sobbed when we came across a photographer with his DSLR on a tripod.

Two photos before I sign off. I changed back to my 35mm lens for these before we left the cafeteria.

Emily and Rich - this one makes me laugh.

And a cute one of Allie.