Finally Easter photos, a week late

The best thing about family gatherings that involve my dad is that there is no shortage of photos. When we're all together, there are posed photos, candids, photos of the table at meal times, photos of people at the table at meal time, photos upon photos upon photos. I used to laugh and wonder why we needed so many. Now I'm a parent, and I get the compulsion. What really geeks me, though, is now that we all have digital cameras, we take about six times the number of photos we did in the past, often not waiting until everyone is in place and the pose is struck. These are my favorites. Take, for example, the world's best family portrait below. Even if we were all trying, we could not look more ill-prepared (and some of us just downright bad) than in this, my new favorite shot:



I want that in a huge frame on my desk because it captures so much more than any polished shot would.

My other favorite photos came from two photo shoots when we were trying to get all the kids in a shot with their matching dresses. My mom's friend Judy sews these cute little outfits that I will treasure forever, and we always like to get a great picture or two as a thank you. We started with the little cherry dresses (called "Tidal Basin Dresses" in honor of the blossoms in DC which we missed by a few weeks) and a difficult shoot at the FDR memorial. First we got situated:



Then we started to work on the pose




There were some adjustments to be made



And finally, much to Abby's relief, we were done



We were such a circus when trying to get these shots that people stopped to take pictures of us taking the pictures. Click on any of them above and go to my Flickr account to see the whole series (keep in mind that these are just the ones from my camera--there were at least three other digitals pointed at us at all times).

But then there were the bunny dresses when we got home:



Abby didn't join us until the end of that shoot, and when she did she was pretty much over the whole smiling thing, as was Clementine.

Next there were Easter eggs to find:



We had some down time:




And then, photographed so much we thought we needed to duck the papparazzi on the way to the airport, we headed home sated with chocolate:



So, there you have it. Two of my other favorite photos that didn't make it into the narrative and then I'm off to bed:

Abby looks soooo guilty.