Christmas Vacation - Family Pictures - Entry #2

Tuesday morning (the 21st) dawned bright and early because we needed to get 26 of us fed, dressed, and ready to meet April Williams of April Williams Photography for our family pictures by 9:00 a.m.  That was quite a feat in and of itself!  We hadn't had a family picture taken of all of us since 2000----plenty with just one or two missing, but not all of us!  We had really hoped this would be the day; but, as you know, we were missing Mike's family.  We decided that it would be better to take one, than not have anything at all.  Here's kind of a pictoral record of all it all came down!!!

This is what we call multi-tasking (having your hair done while you do somebody else's)!



Love how there's no mirror in our bathroom?---we were in the middle of a painting/"renovate the mirror" project:.  Guess this is where you had to trust the one doing your hair because you couldn't see what they were doing!  The only mirror in the bathroom was on the medicine cabinet.

Once at our destination April worked with David's family first (we sent them up ahead as car load after car load of us arrived).  Conner was wonderfully co-operatitve, and we all agree that they got lots of great shots:

Next up were the Arciniegas since Israel had to get to work, and we were working with another one of our babies!

Okay, it was time for the family shot so Iz could get on his way.  This was quite interesting.  Trying to get us all on the bridge without losing someone in the water, getting families into groups, trying to get kids to hold still and/or smile, and making sure April could see everyone's faces.  We lost one of Kate's shoes in the water and had to fish it out.  We couldn't get a shot with everybody (babies/kids) looking at the camera or everybody smiling, but we got a shot that we can live with and will cherish, nonetheless, as the years go by.

We grabbed a few quick shots of DJ and I and then one of us with six of our kids next (oh, and yes, we did do our hair before we left home---the wind was a bit on the breezy side!):

The Butterfield boys were getting antsy  Time for their pictures:

Now for a break in the professional picture posting to show you what was going on behind the scenes:



Next, it was time for the seven Daileys.  Considering their numbers, things went relatively fast.  Abby or one of the other girls caught April in action:

Matt's family had been so patient.  Sometime in the middle of all this (I think it was right before the grandchildren pictures), Cade touched a landscaping light that had apparently been on for quite some time and burned at least one finger to the point of blistering.  He was not a happy camper.  Luckily, April caught some cute shots of them before all that.  Note:   Don't pick out a black shirt with red stripes for a picture even though the red is a real red---you get a maroon look from a distance!  Anyway, here's Matt's family:

And last, but not least, the Perrys.  They were REALLY patient and so helpful with the little kids and taking pictures.  Only downside for them was that they laid on the grass for one shot and got pine gum on Steven's new sweater (Cashmere)---a quick trip to the dry cleaners on the way home got it out.  I love the shots April got of these two:

The very, very last thing we did, which wasn't probably the wisest thing we did, was to take a picture of DJ and I with the grandchildren--------DRAMA!  The babies didn't want to sit still or smile, Cade had definitely burned his finger and he was soooo sad, and even the big kids were a little on the grumpy side by now.  But... we got one.

First notice how hard this was to pull off (kids that didn't want to sit down, kids that wanted their parents to hold them, etc.), and then notice how much some of the parents were getting a chuckle out of this fiasco and how others ran to help!  Liz is actually behind us holding William in place!  I can't tell if April is amused in the last picture or ready to pull her hair out!!

And there you have it!  So crazy, but so worth the effort.  I just bought 16 matching frames, eight to flank each side of our dresser and mirror in the bedroom so I can put pictures of our 13 grandchildren and the next 3 to come in them!  Can't wait to get them up and see their smiling faces each morning when we wake up.