Call Family Reunion 2010

Last week we hosted our very first family reunion here in Maryland! After months of planning, organizing, and figuring out how to house and feed 19 people, the festivities began on Wednesday, July 21 with the arrival of Jason's parents and sister Jennifer. Family continued to arrive later that night, the next day and finally the last one arrived late Friday night. It was loud and messy, but incredibly fun and we loved it!!

We were able to get a complete family photo on Sunday night. A pretty good-looking bunch I think!!

This is the reason why it was a bit loud and messy...8 grand kids all 5 and under! The kids had a blast playing together though and almost every day now I hear laments from Abby about how much she misses her cousins!

We went to the Washington County Ag Expo on Thursday morning.

We saw some pig races...

Practiced milking a cow...

Gave some love to lots of different animals...

And even got kissed by a few friendly beasts!!

Later that night, some of the adults attended a Baltimore Orioles game. The Orioles lost (surprise, surprise!!) but we did enjoy seeing one player and two coaches ejected from the game as well as a crazy fan who ran around the field for a good five minutes before he was finally arrested by Baltimore's finest!!

The baseball fans (minus Jason's dad who was taking the picture!)

The next morning we headed out to the Washington Monument to hike a portion of the Appalachian Trail.

The views of the valley below were incredible!!

But the real beauty was found along the trail...simply gorgeous!! (Both the people and the scenery of course!)

Later that day we had lunch at the Pennsylvania Dutch Market and shopped at the outlets. Some even ventured on to visit Antietam Battlefield (the bloodiest single-day battle in the Civil War.) We wrapped up the day with a yummy BBQ but ate it inside because it was HOT!!!

The plan was to spend the whole day on Saturday in Washington DC. We made a visit to Arlington National Cemetery, Iwo Jima and the National Air & Space Museum before finally calling it a day though. It was just too hot and crowded. The heat index was at 107 and the Worldwide Boy Scout Jamboree that weekend made D.C. a bit less than the ideal location for all of us!

We were able to relax a bit on Sunday. After church, lunch, naps and a few board games, Jason's mom had us play some really fun games that she had prepared from the game show "Minute to Win it." We all laughed and enjoyed making a fool of ourselves.

(Or maybe we laughed at others making a fool of themselves!!)

We finished off our reunion on Monday with a trip to Gettysburg...

A visit with good ol' Abe...

And more games, talking and s'mores over the fire pit that night.

It was a great reunion and so fun to see everyone again. We hope everyone had a good time because we sure did! Our home seemed very empty and quiet when everyone was gone...a little too quiet. We enjoyed having a home full of laughter, conversations, kids squeals of joy and love. Can't wait 'til next time!!