Family Reunion

 

      If you have noticed that I haven't worked on my blog for a few days (Facebook has), you'd be right. I got the chance to hang out at my parent's house, this weekend for our family reunion. This has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. Some of my cousins were my very first friends and I love them all dearly, even if we have drifted apart.

     Every year, we meet at the same place at the same time for Labor Day. If things were to ever change up and we had to go to a different pavilion, I'm sure most of us would all show up here anyways and make whoever got to rent it out first, move over because this is our spot. (They already took our baseball diamond.)

      Things have changed so much since I was a child. For one thing, that blue cover wasn't there and all our food was always laid out on the picnic tables where everyone is huddled at on the left. Someone finally said, "We've grown so much, there's no room for us if we put our food here. Let's pop a tent thing and have our food go here." 

      Another thing that has changed is the park area. When I was younger, the park area here was a fitness park. My cousins and I would climb the fitness bars and if you could get to the top one, you were pretty cool. 

      They were kind of like this except I want to believe that the shorter bar was a little shorter and the sides were wooden and half of the attempt to get up there was also to try to get up without getting two inch splinters.

       They have removed the bars several years ago and replaced them with an actual park.

       It's that yellow thing way back there. This is something that I would have enjoyed when I was younger, but my cousins and I occupied ourselves with paddle boating, canoeing, or playing baseball, if we weren't trying so hard to climb those bars or looking for tadpole in the man made pond. 

My Great Aunt paddle boating with her daughter and nieces (aka- my cousins)

     One thing that hasn't changed throughout the year is the food!!! I loved seeing my cousins and all of my aunts and uncles, but I also loved the desserts and awesome food that everyone would bring. I think my kids liked the same thing. 

     My oldest kept cracking me up because he kept taking his plate back to the buffet to grab more... He's so much my mini-me in so many ways. If you notice, there is hardly anything NOT a dessert on their plates. I rationalized that we were going to my grandma's (on the other side) afterwards and they could eat something there. 

      We had a great time and I was able to get a selfie with my baby girl. 

Got to travel with #MyTravelingSpider

     And I even got to bum around with my my youngest sister's b/f while she was on tour with her band Thistle and Lace to Iowa and then next, Oregon! 

Hubby trying out Virtual Reality Game

One of the games he tried. 

     I even got to hang out with my grandma and grandpa and played Uno. I forgot to take pictures. (Shame one me) All that was missing was my other sister and her wonderful family, but she just started a new nursing rotation (She's a traveling nurse- I'm super proud of her) and they weren't able to make it. (Give the kids hugs and kisses from Aunt Brittany!)

      If you have family and you don't have a reunion, you're missing out! Even if you see some of them all of the time, it's a great excuse to come together, hang out, tell stories, and eat yummy potluck food!