Hubby's Family Reunion Weekend June 26-28th

Each year we make the trip up to the northern part of the state for Hubby's maternal side of the family. With this trip, a college friend of ours lives not to far from the reunion location, so we have for several years now contacted her to see if we can come for a visit and invade thier home for a couple of days. So this year was no different, other than since our friend also had her three neices and nephews along with her two, and then our three, we were quite frankly outnumbered with 6 of the 8 of them being 5 yrs old and under!

We drove up to thier place on Friday night and had a bonfire out around the fire ring, where we roasted hot dogs and made smores. Since our friend "A" lives on her hubby's family farm, his brother and sil live next door with thier kids. Thier kids came out as well and that put the number of kids up to 10 that were running around! The kids played until it got dark and then we took everyone in and started the assembly line of jammies, tooth brushes, going potty and so forth that it took to get them all in bed. :)

FRIDAY~
The kids around the fire pit, roasting thier hot dogs on skewers:

Our friend's youngest "D" playing with the end of the long lead I had brought for Rei:

KT and MD kneeling on the ground and looking at the fire and roasting thier Hot Dogs:

Unfortunately when MD's dogs were done, she didn't realize that the skewer being metal would be hot and able to burn. She touched the end of it and got a pretty good burn. Daddy took her in and doctored the burn and she came back out shortly to eat her food and all was well after that.

AC facing away from the camera and sitting in a step 2 cozy coupe car with a gas pump right behind the car. You cannot see his face but can see the glow of the sunset upon the car.

SATURDAY~
We'd decided that we'd try to take all the kids t the Chain O'Lakes State park and hopefully run some energy off of everyone. We got up and went to the park and the guys and Rei and I with the bigger kids went for a mile hike around the small lake that we were by. "A" stayed with the couple of little ones at the playground until we got back and then "A" and hubby went out and got some food to bring back into the park for lunch.

AC laying back on the air mattress in his Thomas the Tank Engine pj's and protesting having his picture taken:

Kids huddled around hubby waiting to take off for the hike around the lake:

The veiw across the lake, surrounded by green trees and foliage green algea along the edges where the water is most still on the water top, the boat ramp going down into the water and a couple of canoes upside down on the bank closest to us:

"A"'s hubby, Rei & I, and the kids on the wooden walk bridge overlooking the creek that comes off of the lake:

An interesting large, gnarly tree that must have broken off or been hit by lightning during a storm. It was on the left side of the trail and you can see hubby and kids passing by the tree/trunk stub:

Rei at a sit stay and facing the camera on another wooden walk bridge:

A shot from the wooden walk bridge Rei is sitting on above: beautiful area of water and foliage at the sides and the water lillies growing on the water too. The water is still enough you see the reflection of the trees and vines in the water as well as if looking in a mirror:

Looking in the other direction over the creek an out to the larger open lake itself:

An opportunity for learning too: "A"'s hubby with the little ones bent over and hecking out the millipedes that were on the trees and trail too:

The first time I've ever seen a water lilly in bloom in the wild in IN- I've seen them in tended gardens and such, but have never seen one in bloom out in the wild- so here it is:

BACK FROM THE HIKE~

"A"'s youngest, a white headed blond petting Rei, who is laying at my feet by the picnic table:

As we were waiting for hubby and "A" to get back from Subway with lunch, the kids were all playing Hide N Seek, by hiding behind the huge oak trees that were around the playground area.

Here's AC & the kids finding KT and running to keep from being caught:

AC up against a tree hiding from the others- looking off to see if anyone is coming:

MD off to herself on a climbing thing of the playground equipment, as she usually seems to be:

VISITING THE NATURE CENTER~

KT overlooking a large table covered with various nature items- a turtle shell, dear antler pcs, small animal skulls, snake skin shedding, etc:

Hubby, MD, KT looking at the bee hive colony made from glass panels so that the honeycomb can be viewed. It has a pipe that goes to the outside for the bees to come in and out as needed:

A close up of the bee colony panels:

AC attentatively talking to the Nature Center employee about the small critters in the various containers on her desk in front of him:

AC working the monarch butterfly wooden puzzle on the table:

MD squatted down with her chin resting on her hands upon the table in front of the monarch butterfly puzzle she has completed:

BACK AT THE HOUSE~

We finished up at the Nature Center and by this point, all kids were well past naptimes, tired, and getting crabby. So we loaded everyone up and headed back to "A"'s house and put all of the kids down for naps and most of us adults took naps as well.

After a while, one by one, everyone started to wake up and I snapped these few shots of AC with Rei, which I absolutely LOVE as well. They are of Rei sitting up straight, tongue out in that smiling look, and AC is kneeled beside her with his hands completely around her neck and leaned against her head. Soooooooo sweet! :)

SUNDAY- REUNION DAY~

While we'd enjoyed our stay with "A" and her family, we were ready to move on and be heading towards home. So we took off Sunday morning after breakfast and headed to Middlebury to the reunion and while the group was small, it was good to see hubby's family again. It was at a church this year with an enclosed play area, which was really nice. The kids played a lot out there and a game of 4 squares even got started! It's been YEARS since I'd seen or played it, so it was fun to watch the kids and some adults really get into it! :)

The family circled around and talking amongst themselves as they waited for people to arrive and time to DIG IN! ;)

The 4 squares game taking place with several onlookers at the sides and a child swinging in the swings to the right of the picture.

KT getting ready to bounce the ball in the game:

After the food was devoured, the annual meeting was held and the plans made for the next year. Most everyone then gathered thier stuff up and said thier goodbyes to head home. We packed up the kids, breaked Rei, and loaded up in the van to begin the drive back to home.

Upon arriving at home, we found out that the new toy I'd ordered from http://www.helpingudders.com/ had come in and Rei was in LOVE. :) It's a toy that can't be left on the floor for her to chew up, so don't have any pics of her with it, but do have a tired and happy Rei after playing with it:

Close up of Rei's head and shoulders, tongue lolling out.

Rei sprawled out on the tile kitchen floor, looking at the camera, tongue lolling out.

So that concludes the 2009 Northern IN Reunion trip and night all, it's late and I'm headed to bed!