Don't Take It Too Seriously...

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my family, this is my dad, Larry Pritchard. The Padre. This is one of my favorite pictures of him. He has no idea I took it. It's not my best work, it's not particularly beautiful. What I love about it is, that I know that look. There is a lot going beneath the surface here. He is about to say something that is going to make us all crack up. He doesn't usually have a lot to say, but when he does it's worth hearing.

I could go on and on about life lessons my parents have taught me; never camp in a wash, never buy a horse before you ride it, don't do business with anyone you wouldn't shake hands with, etc. None of that will mean to you what it means to me. What I can tell you is this, we laugh our butts off. We find humor in almost everything, and dad is usually the ring leader. Mom is like a savant with one liners, Seth is on the bleeding edge of left field, I have a gift for understatement, and Raym is all about physical comedy.

A recent trip to Sam's Club included Padre and Raym doing Captain and Tennile on an electric keyboard, Seth spear tackling me into a mattress display, and mom saying things like "I don't want one with jiggly balls, I just want a regular one." Obviously, we are not welcome back to that particular Sam's Club, but whatever. We had a good time. And that's the beauty of things.

Growing up, I just remember one crazy fun adventure after another. All the crappy stuff always seemed to be happening in the fuzzy peripheral part of things. Times were tough when I was little, and we moved a lot. It never seemed like a burden then, and it still doesn't. I think it's because we never let it get to us. I know times are tough for a lot of people now, and all signs point to them getting tougher. We'll get through it like we always have with hard work and a healthy sense of humor. So, be good to each other and always remember that fake dog poop is funny.