Blast from the Past: Family Pictures

The bigger my family gets, the harder it becomes to have a family picture taken. We have had plans at least a half dozen times over the last couple of years and then something comes up and someone can't be there, so we cancel and try to arrange something new. We actually have a pretty tight plan for July 28. We'll see what happens...

My parents didn't have that problem. We only had one real family portrait taken the entire time I was growing up although there are a few that were done at family gatherings and weddings afterward. When my oldest brother was getting ready to go on his mission, my mom pleaded with my dad to make it happen. She was afraid the family would splinter while he was gone for two years, and she was right. I'm pretty sure he left for his mission in 1980 and my sister was married in 1982, but by then my other brother was off on his mission.

But this post is about the picture...

I don't remember the photographer, but I do remember driving to Manti and going up around the back of the temple to pose on the back steps. Li'l Sis truly was little then. She is the smallest in the red dress. I'm on the far right, standing next to my dad. My mom made that tux for my brother to wear to prom that year and just for the record, I made my own dress.

It was a crazy, out of the ordinary summer day when we all donned our church clothes. Even Dad. And we spent time together doing something important that would last through the generations. We were being a family.