Awkward family photos

As I mentioned previously, while all of the siblings and grandkids were together with my dad recently, we took the opportunity to snap some quick pictures for posterity. Let the record show that posterity will be highly unimpressed with our collective inability to present ourselves well (aka smile normally) for a family picture.

We tried to get a Sunday morning shot of all six grandkids before the girls and Isaac took off for home. Bless Hazel's heart, she was the only one able to withstand whatever distracting individual was standing off to my right.

And now the distraction has moved just above me. Also, poor only child Isaac had obviously had enough of cousin bonding time.

Out of like seventeen pictures, this is probably the best one... and it's BLURRY, so I feel like that's a pretty good indicator of how awesome the others were.

Before my dad left on Saturday, we commissioned Chuck to take some pictures of this awesome group, aka my dad and his four children:

I like how both Cody and Quinn look like they're high. VERY happily, I can promise that neither were!!

Honestly, I'm just happy that Sam and Quinn both contributed to the utter ruining of this shot instead of spreading it out to two different pictures. Why Sam is preparing to attack Cody, I'm not sure. Quinn's expression is the same one found on his face in multiple club/team pictures in his high school yearbooks. Stay classy, San Diego!

I just like how sweetly Cody was looking at me in this shot. Not to brag or anything, but I'm pretty sure I'm his favorite sister.

My dad suggested we mix up our arrangement a bit, so we opted for birth order. My favorite thing is how Sam's efforts to inch away from me placed him disturbingly close to Cody :). 

(No worries, I remain quite secure in the fact that I am also Sam's favorite sister!)

I'm not sure what idea my dad was proposing, but I'm 88% sure Cody was trying to line us up for the can-can.

In true Jana fashion, I ended up laughing so hard that my bladder was threatening mutiny, so I had to step aside in an effort to not wet my pants. Much thanks to Chuck for capturing this special moment...

I honestly can't account for the expression on any of my brothers' faces. Again, I think it was thoughtful of them to all contribute to the dreadfulness of this one picture instead of spreading it out though. I also want to point out that we [obviously] didn't intend to coordinate outfits, but somehow each of the boys ended up wearing t-shirts of their college (Boise State, U of U Med School, and BYU). I'm sure each of those fine universities would be pleased to have these faces representing their establishments, haha.

Alas, even a crew as motley as this one can sometimes produce one good shot, and I think this is ours. I'm a lucky girl to come from a family of such great guys!

And finally, after staying up too late (darn video games!) and getting up too early (darn children!) the four Braden siblings lined up (literally) for one last photo op.

Group mug shot. I love how giddily happy Cody and Quinn and I look, whereas Sam's expression clearly pleads for some sort of belated 'you were adopted' revelation.

Luckily we redeemed ourselves somewhat with this one, although I think next time we should all opt to wear hats :).

And that's a wrap! Let's all hope we get miraculously more photogenic before our next congregation, eh?