Vacation Day Five

The reunion!  The whole reason for our trip!  And sadly, the last one for some time to come.  My uncle's boys are growing up and doing the college thing and getting jobs and all that combined with a rapidly aging or dying off older generation makes for difficulty in getting everyone to be available for a reunion.  So this is the last "official" year.  There may be another one down the road, but it will no longer be an annual occurrence. So sad!  But we will still try to go up there once a year for a visit, and now we can even plan our trip to enjoy other seasons ;-).   I haven't loaded very many pictures from the picnic onto my computer-just the ones taken with the point and shoot during the brief rain storm, but here's a start:

TJ and my dad's cousin Toni.  She's making a kind of funny face, but it's the only picture I have to the two of them together.

My cousin Mary with my uncle's friend Jim and Ellie who works in their wine store.

TJ and my cousin Sara's boyfriend's daughter playing a game of Set.  Sadie won.

My mom and Mary.  Mary has missed the past few years, so it was great to see her.

The little kids' favorite pastime...tipping the soccer net to the ground and then riding it back up when someone strong pushes on the other side.  Sadly, they managed to bend the net so it won't stand up anymore, but I trust my two strapping young cousins can fix it.  In the net is Sari, I'm not sure who the girl in blue is (there were people there from my uncle's wife's family since it was also a graduation party for Everett) and then the boy in red is Freddy and that's his dad Andrew on the right.  They just moved back from Hawaii!!!

Freddy, my cousin Sara, her beau John, my dad's cousin Mark, and on the left, his brother Richard.

My dad's oldest brother is the family historian, and here he is telling stories to his cousin Toni and her husband Rich.  The guy in red is the uncle we stay with, and the folks in the background are old family friends.

The end of the picnic was bittersweet.  My older uncle and his wife left for their home a few hours away, and both my girl cousins took off for their homes too.  My oldest boy cousin, Daniel, had to leave to go back to where he lives because he has an amazing internship with GE and had to be at work the next morning.  And in the morning, my husband and mom and sister and her family were heading back home to FL, my brother and his wife were leaving for OH with my girls, and Everett was heading off to FRANCE, so this really was the last time we'd all be together for a long time .

That night there was much packing going on, and a little bit of card playing (Euchre mostly-TJ joined us and he soundly led his team to victory), and then off to bed for everyone as there were a lot of folks getting up and out early in the morning.