Meandering...: A Family Weekend

The Evening of June 8th through Sunday, June 10, 2012

When we got back to C'ville Friday evening we were all so excited to see that my niece, her husband, and their three young sons had arrived at my brother and SIL's place only moments before we did. This was the beginning of an entire week of fun, fun, fun for our grands and their three cousins. They were all so excited to see each other.

Our son and DIL were already there too! Greg and Jenny had spent much of the afternoon visiting with Mom and were getting ready to set up their ladder toss game, which was a big hit with all ages throughout the weekend.

Early Saturday morning, my cousin Kathy arrived to drop off homemade cinnamon rolls, sticky buns, coffee cake, fudge ribbon cake, cookies, apple pie...are you on a sweets high just from reading this? She is an amazing baker and we all overindulged the rest of the weekend. She, her folks, and her sisters, niece, and nephew all came down to visit in the afternoon. Mary made all the great food to balance out all those delicious treats.

I had made these "Cousins" t-shirts for the kids. There are so many great backdrops at the WM Campground and Amber and I took advantage of the setting to get some great shots of the six cousins.

That evening my group got to the nursing home first. When the kids walked into her room and she saw their shirts, Mom said "They're not cousins!" Then when Amber's kids walked in, she thought it was all so cute. There were fourteen of us and she kept counting us over and over, recalling the time years ago when her dad looked over at her mom and said, "Just look what we started!" at a gathering when we were all together. It was an amazing evening...the end of an amazing day.

Here is Mom with all of her great-grandkids.

This is a favorite of mine. At the end of the day Saturday, after so many photo shots, lying on the floor of the nursing home family room, the kids were all still smiling and cooperating...what an amazing group of kids!