Sunday Snapshot {extended family}

Over this past weekend, I reflected upon the definition of family.  Webster's online does give [a group of persons of common ancestry] as one definition.

The faces of our children that spent the past weekend together may not all share common earthly ancestry.  But my favorite part of the word family is the fact that there are several definitions listed, and common ancestry is number two.  The first definition is listed as, [a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head.]

The way I see it,  according to Webster's, we can consider these folks we spent time in fellowship with family.  After all, we were under one roof ~ even if just for a short time ~ and we are all under the one head of our Heavenly Father.

From an outsider's view, the weekend could have looked like a recipe for disaster.  Take thirteen kids ranging from age two to fourteen,

add six folks from different places in life who when you stop and think about it really don't know one another at all

this is what i get for not checking my camera before we head out ~ hoping laine can supply me a shot that includes a bit more of lee ann...

and mix into one large cabin for three days.

For us though, it was a recipe for sweet success!

Over the time we were together friendships were renewed.

kimmie and darcy quickly came up with their own strategy of claiming a sleeping spot ~ no, they didn't actually end up sleeping in drawers.

Despite the fact that it had been since April since our kids had seen the "fabulous F 8" kiddos, my gang fell right back in with theirs in a matter of minutes.

caleb and quan were perhaps the most active pair...

It was as if we lived right down the street and they had seen each other on a regular basis instead of only twice in the past year since they met.

the girls were treated to a mani by biggest sister katie lyn

And my gang was totally spoiled by benefiting from the perks of having much older siblings.

i'm pretty sure i've heard katie lyn's name as frequently as i've heard about "the one with the purse" in the past 24 hours.  you're pretty special in our book k.k.!

We also had the chance to get to know precious Emma (who mostly "did her own thing" but really seemed to start enjoying having a slew of other little kids around)

we had to resort to distraction tactics to catch photos of this little beauty

and her big brother Holden (who was in "typical teenage boy fashion" rather elusive when the camera came out ~ don't let that fool you though, I saw him loving on my kids...) rather well too.  

The part that I loved best was that at any given time, you could expect to find any combination of kids

 

mixed up across family unit

and age

eating,

playing,

or just enjoying being together

as if they were one, big, happy family.

It was the perfect way for our families to celebrate one year with our newest additions, Darcy, Kevin, and Emma.  And I'm so glad we got to do it together ~ as a big, loud, eatin' too much, stayin' up too late, lovin' being together family.

Even if it meant at the end of the weekend that we came home feeling rather like this...

We returned EXHAUSTED, but it was a good exhausted.  The kind of tired that you know means that you enjoyed EVERY LAST MINUTE of your time together.

F and B families, we look forward to the next time we can celebrate being family with you again!  And T family, we sure hope you can make it next time!

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Sunday Snapshot is just a way to capture that special someone or something right now, because we all know time is fleeting... right now will be a distant memory before we know it!

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