Monday, July 23, 2012

Full Bellies and Hearts

Saturday was the annual family reunion on my mom's side of the family. My great-aunt is a graceful 90, and her gorgeous home in the mountains of Kentucky usually serves as our gathering place. However, to take some of the pressure off of her (and because a different location had a pool), we headed my mom's cousin's home in Hazard (yes, like "The Dukes of Hazard") instead.

We did a lot of swimming.

We did a lot of eating.

We did a lot of new-cousin-meeting.

And there are just plain a lot of us!
We've been having these reunions ever since I can remember. I always looked forward to them as a kid and still look forward to them as an adult. We've only missed a year here or there. As I get older and as we sadly lose family members, I see the value in these gatherings even more. I want my kids to experience the fun of a multi-generational day of eating, story-telling, and photo-album browsing as often as possible.

When the kids get sleepy...

...we know it's time to head home with full bellies and even fuller hearts.

Hazard isn't too bad of a drive from where we live (we can go roundtrip from our door to theirs on one tank), so we headed home. My parents had to come from farther north, so they stayed overnight in a hotel. Miss C desperately did not want to leave the reunion, so my parents offered to take her with them for the night and drive through our city en route to their home. C loved staying in the hotel with Nanny and Poppy. One Ordinary Dad and I enjoyed sleeping in (C is our early riser, but B likes to sleep in).

What about you? Do your families get together often?

~One Ordinary Mom

** With apologies to my dad's side of the family. I know you had a reunion this year, but flying to Colorado, renting a car, finagling car seats through all of the traveling, etc., with two young children just wasn't realistic for us this year.

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