Lads to Leaders Family Photos 2019

Tradition

Over the past several years, we have attended the Lads to Leaders convention in Nashville with our Bartlett Woods church group. While there, we have developed the tradition of taking some family photos around the Gaylord Opryland Resort after the Sunday morning worship service. It is always Easter Sunday, after all, and all of our family is dressed up. Not to mention that there are several beautiful garden areas around the hotel. And they are all indoors, so that the weather is not an issue. So here are some of our photos for this year.

A photo of Laura and Jaylin is always a good starting point. This year, the sun was actually shining through the glass ceiling overhead. While it is always good to see the sun, it sometimes creates some shadows for photographs. So we had to work a little bit to find some good spots.

For this photo of my Mom and Laura, we couldn’t find a good shady spot. So we just used the sunlight as best we could.

To go with the girls’ photo above, here is a guys’ photo, taken on the small footbridge that we often like to use for our photos. Sorry to the people who were wanting to cross the bridge while we had it blocked!

And here is Jaylin by himself on the footbridge. This almost looks like it could be a senior photo, doesn’t it? Fortunately, we still have another year before those happen.

We also can’t pass up the opportunity to take a photo of Jaylin and his grandparents. They actually are not taller than he is. They are just standing on a step, while he is not.

This photo of Laura is another example of fighting with the sunlight. But once again, I think it worked well. I do like how the sun is lighting the fountain behind her, too.

We also take some photos of all of our church families who are there at Lads to Leaders. It is another tradition that goes back before the Burnses were involved in Lads to Leaders with our church group. Here is our Burns family photo from that time.

More Family

In addition to those Sunday photos, we also sometimes take some other family photos at other times. We were walking to the song leading competitions with the Riedels. They are our family, too. Although we never can remember if Karen and I are siblings or if Brant and Laura are siblings. We do get asked that, from time to time. And it is sometimes fun to keep people guessing.

But anyway, we passed by the small gazebo in the Garden Conservatory, and it looked like a good photo spot. I just happened to have my camera, too.

Fortunately, Jaylin and Katie haven’t minded being photographed together so many times over the years. Not that they have much choice in the matter.

We also did some individual photos using the gazebo. Again, sorry to those who were waiting behind us. This would be another senior photo candidate, wouldn’t it?

And here is Katie by herself. That gazebo really did provide some nice framing for these photos, I think.

Brant didn’t want to be left out, so we got him in there, too. After all, how could you say no to the guy who was carrying everyone’s stuff?

Karen didn’t have a gazebo photo made. But I couldn’t leave her out from this post. So here she is with Laura and Brant as they were waiting for one of the awards ceremonies to start.

Kaitlyn and her family are like our family, too. I hung out with them while waiting for Laura, Jaylin, and my parents to arrive since I had gone to Nashville early. We were with them several other times during the weekend, too. And when we went out to eat Sunday night after we got home, there they were again! We didn’t get any photos with the rest of the family, but using my phone I did take this photo of us with Kaitlyn as we were waiting to take our big group photo.

Speaking of the big group photo, here it is. And actually, I would count all of these people as family, because we are all part of one big church family. Not to mention that they are a fun group to be around. I always enjoy the time we get to spend together growing closer at the Lads to Leaders conventions. To me, that is always the biggest blessing of going.

We are already looking forward to next year!

Bible Verse

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. - Romans 12:10-13