...the Wise, the Witty, and the Waste of your time...

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Lotsa pictures

I've been informed that it is not in fact, conceited to post pictures of your own mug on your blog, but it IS conceited to leave only that particular post on your blog for weeks on end. Wha.....?? I was just giving everyone ample opportunity to gaze upon the pair of us and say ooooohhh....
Ok fine, I'll post NEW pictures!:)
At the end of April Justin and I went to a Miller family reunion in WA at my sister's house. I have two sisters that live on a tiny 8x8 mile island of the coast of WA. Its an excellent place to visit and vacation but takes a special patience to live on because your entire life revolves around ferry schedules. That includes marriages, funerals, and births. Pretty much you can only die at 9:45 or 10:30 or 2:30.
But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how much fun we had. My parents and 5 siblings came up from Wyoming, one sister came from TN, two brothers and their families from MT, and Justin and I from BC. We all stayed at various "cabins" (flat screen TV, sleeps 6, on the beach type of cabins!) within a mile or two of my sister's place and spent three days eating and playing and partying! ....As one parties with their baby nieces and nephews and parents, you know, croquet and chocolate milk.
So I'll walk you through it with some photos.
This was taken on our way while killing time on the ferry. We may not be photographers but I have to say, I'm pretty sure this photo rivals Dustin and Christy's expertise. I think it really brings out my natural beauty!
This is why we're married, we're very compatible.After horsing around with self portraits, a kindly woman offered to take a picture of the two of us so we put on our "normal" faces and smiled for the camera.


This picture is mom and dad opening their wedding attire and finding out they have 1 hour until the party! We surprised my parents with a late 30th anniversary celebration. My sister Diana put tons of effort into it, ordering my mom a beautiful white dress and sewing a classy vest for my dad. She organized a photo album that we all put together online and had wedding cakes made and a party planned...all while keeping 5 children in line and homeschooling!
After indulging in some truly delicious chocolate cake we went outside for family pictures. It hasn't gotten any less "gong-showish" as we've aged. There's still never a single picture that has everyone looking at the camera and the little ones are always a blur of movement. I guess you might say it captures it the way it is. I haven't gotten any of the entire family pictures, these are just ones that we snapped with our little camera.

All the girls- L-R in the back: Debi, Kimberly, Krystal, Janette, Mom, Serena, Whitney, Diana, Myself ....Serena and Whit are the brave women who married my brothers!


L-R Cherie, Remi, Constance, Lindey
This is the youngest of my sisters and three nieces. The fourth niece got away.



And this is Kaitlynn making her getaway, she wasn't so into the pictures.


The sisters: Debi, Krystal, Mom, Kimberly, Diana, Constance, Me, Janette
This would be all of us doing the "Trevor smile." Very attractive. Yes, I'm afraid we ARE making fun of my down's syndrome brother. My family's joking around is a bit sacrilegious at times. And this would be the original "Trevor smile" and why it's so funny to us. It's not his real smile, it's the smile that comes out when he's posing for the camera. Has anyone seen that episode on Friends of Chandler posing for his engagement photo....it's a similar phenomenon with Trev.
Big brother Don is giving Trevor the rules, "don't smile for the camera."
All the guys. Great posing guys! What exactly does "look at the camera" mean to you?
Ok this one is a little better. What do you mean it's blurry! So it turns out I'm NOT good at taking pictures! Sheesh, give me a break already!
L-R Josh, Donny, Justin, Dad (and Trev) Nathan, and Matt. (Justin and Matt are the inlaws)

The Ma and Pa. Mom never got a white wedding dress so we were pretty excited to get one for her anniversary!
The whole family. I stole this picture from my sister`s blog who has better details and better pictures. You should read it.
Aunt Connie and little Myles.

Aunt Kimmy and Lindey.Aunt me and....oh wait...he's not my nephew. Me and Trev. He's mad because I'm not letting him take the picture.
Uncle Justin and Myles. Myles is the sweetest, best natured baby ever!
Over the weekend we took a hike and a picnic along the beach!
...looks like we're taking over the island...
She looks like a little island flower!
About 30 seconds after the photo was snapped he tripped and his tuna sandwich landed face down in the sand!



We collected rocks and found sea creatures...






































Anyone who was anyone climbed the log...


















Kaitlynn talked to us about log climbing safety...


















We ate mermaid popcorn straight off the beach...it's dried seaweed



















Josh ate worms...






















Janette dreamt about boooooyyyyyssss.....






All in all...we had a wonderful time! The islands, while perhaps inconvenient to live on, are stunningly picturesque!





Krystal wanted a shot with her and the nephews and nieces....good luck!
I like these pictures because they capture the constant movement at our get-togethers! It's actually getting better as most of us are old enough to wipe our own bums now but that pretty much means it's gone from Straight Insanity to Mostly Chaos. It's a step up.