Day Two-- Professional Family Photos and Games

Monday-- Family Picture Day    My only defense for this "ritual" is that my parents even when things were tight financially placed a high priority on professional pictures and I treasure those photos.  So as our kids were growing, we also did family photos over the years. These were never what you would call--happy family memories and usually involved Gary saying to the kids at some point-- "We are doing this for your mom.  Wear what she wants and BE HAPPY!!"  Oh, the memories!  I do think that our pictures in 2010 (in Grandma Hall's yard) and the ones in 2025 were a bit more "joyful."  Everyone picked their own clothes for the most part and engaged in the process with more engagement.  Then we started adding more grandchildren and it all became so much more complicated again.  Yet, I love them all and grateful for the efforts we have spent over the years making them happen.  And my kids are taking pictures of their kids so they mustn't be too "scarred" by those combined photo shoots.

So this time, it was 20 of us all preparing for a family photo shoot. Although we were actually in the mountains and would have loved a photo shoot up there, it didn't make sense for us to manage clothes and the weather.  The family photographer I found had the option to use the Fifth Floor in Ogden--an event center with lots of windows and natural light who rented to photographers when they didn't have events.  We decided to try that even though I love outside photos.

The other thing was I had decided anything but BLUE--almost every picture we have ever taken had blue as one of the major colors.  There were exceptions, but there is definitely a trend.  After some back and forth, we decided on greens, purples, and shades of white/creams/tans.

So, Monday morning was filled with hair spray and kids complaining that they had to get dressed up and couldn't play with their cousins.  All of the typical sounds of family photo days---but at least, my "kids" weren't complaining to me.  It was their children to them.  Do it for grandma might have been said a time or two.

The venue had lots of windows and different types of brick walls as backdrops.  They had different backdrops as well.  We did all of the usual photos and I will post them later.  Here are some of our personal outtakes----

Ezri and I

Jessica with Carter and Alex

Alex and Carter liked that their dresses twirled---good while you were waiting for your turn.

Ben keeping Carter busy....

Cooper, Ava, and Niki watching a video as they waited

Jena liked the flowered backdrop...

Tosha and family planning their shots....

I think about every kid sat on Gary's lap to be silly with him.

Austen with Niki and Ava

The window seat waiters.....

Gary provided lots of distractions for the grandkids.....

Scarlett and James enjoying a break

This is one of the shots that Jessica or Tosha took during our grandchildren shot.

Afterwards, we headed to a nearby pizza place for lunch that Scott and Chantel know about.  Chantel called ahead and got tables reserved for us and we had a great lunch with...

the grandkids at one table--

While the 10 adults sat at their own table.

The pizza was yummy.  I had the California Sunrise which used a green goddess dressing for the sauce.  It was great.  Everyone loved theirs and the kids ate five pizzas between them.

The kids did so great at their own table.  It was amazing to look at them sitting together, eating and talking.

There was one moment I happened to catch Scarlett and Niki having a conversation of their own.  It went on for a bit even in the middle of all the other younger cousins.  It made my heart just warm so much to watch this sweet exchange between them.

We enjoyed our adult conversation as well.  I can't believe our grandkids are old enough to sit at their own table.  How great is that!

Then it was back to the cabin for more fun and games. Again the weather was great as we traveled to and from the valley to Ogden.