worth it

(August 6, 2011)

What's it like to cram 15+ people (five of whom are age 6 and under) into a small 3.5 bedroom beach house for a family "vacation"?! Craziness. Fun, loud, claustrophobic craziness.

Makes for some startling wake-up calls! Poor Curtis.

But some fun morning photo sessions!

Ah, cousins. And Soothies pacis. Doesn't get much better.

When it gets a little too crowded, thankfully we can always escape down to the beach!

With my whole side of the family together (all in one country!), we had to take advantage of that fact... so, it was large group family photo time! Yikes.

It started off well with a late afternoon stroll to the beach.

A few practice shots to get the camera settings right... 

You cannot tell me that they don't look alike. Wow.

My older sister Ashley and her sweet little boy, Myer.

My cute parents.

Then it was go time- for both the group photos and the apparent torture of most involved (especially anyone of the male gender). At least they look pretty happy in the pictures!

 

The whole gang- all 15 of us!

Lest you think it was all pretty smiles and appropriate poses...

And I wish you could've heard the groaning and complaining when I asked them to do this one...

Cheesy? Maybe. But I'm fine with that.

It was worth all the drama in the end to have pictures like these.

(my siblings, in order of birth: Ashley, me, Peter, Whitney, Heidi, Kevin)

See? I think they loved it.

And who could forget the kids?

At least they were joyful!

To top it all off, we even got a picture of the four of us! It's not stellar, but it's pretty good. A Chesney family photo only happens about 4 times per year so anything is better than nothing!

I'm so thankful for my big and beautiful family, even when they whine more than my 3 year old, but next year?

We're hiring a professional. Geez.