Myrtle Beach 2013 Family Photo

There are a lot of us. Thirteen of us actually that encompass the "J. Stein" clan these days... 10 adults with three sets of husbands/wives, two sets of boyfriends/girlfriends, 2 grandsons/nephews (with another on the way for Juls) and 1 granddaughter/niece. It is a lot of people, opinions, and expectations... especially on a vacation... especially in our family. 

In my "post something rather than nothing" mode these days my plan is to post a collage of each day as soon as I can. With photos I absolutely love. Most especially, this one.

We had planned to take family photos this vacation. On the beach, at sunset. A big group photo and then individual families. We had a great camera, tripod, and our plan. With my Grandfather passing away back in March it makes you think of life differently, it is that fleeting feeling. A reminder that we all have limited time here on Earth together. So I wanted this photo, of our big crazy family now.

Well, it didn't happen as I would've liked. It was too hard with our do-one-million-things-in-one-day, stay-up-way-too-late schedules. It didn't work out to meet up at the beach. So, this photo was by luck. During dinner on one of the two nights Jeff and Grace were in town fireworks started over Murrell's Inlet and we all headed outside. I grabbed a stranger and crossed my fingers that a photo would come out where you could see everyone and eyes would be open. I got my wish. And although it isn't something that looks like it is from a magazine, it isn't perfectly positioned, with the perfect sunset... it is perfect to me... with the littlest ones watching the fireworks, and all us "grown ups" smiling.