Final pics of Kingsley Reunion 2013

Today I rediscovered a Kingsley Reunion CD that was tucked away in our movie binder. It's chock-full of pictures Nana Kingsley took during our 2013 Kingsley Reunion. Many of you know I use this blog as a family journal. SO, before I can move on to more recent stories, here is the last post (promise!!) sharing pictures of that memorable trip. 

It's so rare to have all 10 Kingsley siblings together, so we took family pictures our last day of the reunion. Here are all the children, spouses, and grandchildren. 

Here are Kingsley siblings and spouses/fiancees.

 
 
Nana Kingsley REALLY wanted to get a good picture of all her biological children together. I had forgotten what an ordeal that request was.

They were very pointedly NOT doing anything she asked them to do (face the camera, smile, etc) and they were having a hilariously-good time about giving her a hard time. When I opened the image files, I found what seems to be 100 images documenting her attempt of a family picture. The Kingsley siblings kept doing weird poses, covering their faces at the last second, making sad faces, and generally laughing together at each other's ridiculous attempts to mess up the photo. I think it took about 30 minutes to get one good shot of this group, but everyone was laughing so hard we had tears.  Here is one example of their 'family picture  pose'.

More glimpses of the DC trip and the National Mall:

Many of the relatives enjoyed feeding bits of their sack lunches to the flocks of birds around the capital. They had such fun seeing who could get the closest to the birds. 

Nana Kingsley also brought a time capsule the family created 10 (or was it 20?) years ago. The siblings had all written letters to their future selves, so it was great fun to gather and hear these letters read aloud. Some letters were very thoughtful, some were very funny, some were sarcastic (I could just imagine an unwilling 10 year-old begrudgingly writing a letter for the capsule). We really loved seeing a glimpse of the childhood lives and hopes of each person.

Then Nana passed out papers and pens, requesting us all to write our own letters for the next time capsule. Just a year later, I can't remember the slightest detail of what I wrote.....I hope I didn't set any goals in my letter that were forgotten so soon!

Here is a better picture of all the grandchildren together. LOVE these little people!

And finally, one picture of everyone all together. LOVE LOVE this family! The next reunion can't come nearly soon enough!