July 13, 2008
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Reunited and it Feels so GOOD ...
Photo taken from the walking path along the Oauchita River, Malvern, Arkansas, July 1, 2008.
It's the season for family reunions. I hope you are enjoying yours as much as we enjoyed ours! In the first place, my family is pretty cool. We have the usual assortment of fruits and nuts that you'd think would just irritate each other, but we all have fun together. Now it's occuring to me that maybe the ones we wouldn't have fun with just choose not to come, but we also had a pretty good attendance.
My parents have a 6 acre place just on the edge of town. They've erected a pavilion in the backyard that covers enough tables to seat at least 150 people. There are celing fans, a restroom attached to it, and a summer kitchen. (Although mostly we just use the refrigerator.) My sister decorated the pavilion with red, white and blue and hung strings of lights around for night-time.
The permanent features of the backyard include swings, a trampoline, benches in the shade, flowers, and rocking chairs on the back porch. For the reunion, Mom also rented a giant Slip-n-Slide inflatable for the kids (some of whom were in their 40's) to play on.
We had game night, at one point there were eight people gathered around playing bananagrams - from 7 to 61 and all were having a blast. I was kicked out after I won two hands in a row. We had tables set up indoors with jigsaw puzzles, two or three people would gravitate in, work a few pieces, talk a bit then wander out. During the reunion we completed three Thomas Kinkade puzzles that way.We had dinner entertainment, my sisters, cousin Julie, cousin Zoe (Laurie's daughter) and I all sang patriotic songs and favorite family hymns. We took hikes along the River just down from where my parents live. And the last afternoon everyone was encouraged to head out to area attractions so they could enjoy some of the other things that Arkansas offers.
A few images from the shindig:
Laurie posing in front of the decorated pavilion.
Julie jumping on the trampoline.
Julie laughing with disbelief that she's been jumping on the trampoline.
The crowd gathers
Redneck fireworks. (I promised I wouldn't put this on YouTube, but I said nothing about a Blog-a-torium
)
The youngest attendee - clutching her hotdog in one hand and powdered drink mix-in in the other. I don't think the mix-in was ever opened, and I don't think she ever actually ate the dog, but she got to have the trampoline all to herself for a while and she was happy with that.
Comments (10)
Now that looks like a serious Southern shindig!
Glad you had fun!
and I just thought my family was weird!
What a nice place for family!
Fun! Is there enough time for all the fun?!?
We are, We ARE having family reunions! They haven't been the big event yours was, but Shawn's family has one in Iowa the last weekend of this month & we have our days off for attending it. It very well could be about like what you just described. The one we just had for my side ended up being indoors at my niece's (her hubby pastors) church due to inclimate weather. We still enjoyed lots of chatter, good food,lauging at old photos and singing hymns. I love family. Like you mentioned, nuts & fruits in quite an assortment, but what a blend when mixed.
Glad you had such fun!
Hugs,
Deb
I love family reunions! I'm glad you're having a good time at yours.
Is there any openings for adoptions? I want to be part of your family!
Looks like a great time, glad you had fun!
Hugs
That's an awesome slip'n'slide! Yay for winning bananagrams. I love games like that! I don't think our family reunion will be quite so much fun, but hubby and I will be joining his sister, mother, and grandmother in West Virginia at the beginning of next month (hubby's fam is from Texas, so I don't know why the reunion's in WV).
Great photos and a beautiful place to meet. Glad it was a lot of fun.
What a wonderful Family reunion you all had - and it sounds like it was well organized for such a huge group.
It is good to see you are having a lovley Summer.