Family Reunion, part II : : Anne McAllister

Last month, if you were around, I wrote my blog entry from somewhere in Darkest Minnesota where we (ten adults, ten kids) were in the throes of our First Family Reunion.

If we survived, I promised I’d let you know how it went.

We survived. We even hope to do it again sometime.  There were real highlights:

kids learning to canoe and kayak and having the time of their lives

kids fishing and building sand castles and forts and moats

• one marathon game of chess between Grandpa (that’s my husband) and oldest granddaughter, in which both kings seemed to owe a lot to Henry VIII: they had multiple queens.  We never heard who won, but it went on and on and on.
• kids playing hundreds, literally, of games of Chinese Checkers – and we came home with all the marbles!
• our middle son, on his birthday, catching the biggest large-mouth bass he’d ever caught. It was gi-normous. Made his day.
• two birthdays, two cakes, lots of great meals
• good conversations around the campfire at night
• my daughter, the six-year veteran Girl Scout leader coming prepared for rainy days with all manner of crafty type stuff that all the kids got into
• an afternoon in the laundromat which was actually a nice break for just the two of us who went
• gorgeous sunsets
• a cell phone signal if you stood in the middle of the road and held your phone over your head
• an internet connection for about half an hour every morning – if you didn’t miss it
• the family all together in one photo – minus that one missing grandson
• everyone’s desire to do it again in three years – only probably in Montana next time
• We all went home with the right shoes – and there were no leftovers. Socks? Well, that’s a different story!
• our second youngest grandson, almost 4, on his way home across the endless North Dakota plains, staring out the truck window for hours and then saying wistfully to no one in particular, “I loved living next to my cousins.”  (We did, too, buddy. And we’ll do it again).

I didn’t get any writing done the whole week.  I barely got an email answered. I realize in retrospect how lucky I was to get that blog post uploaded during one of those tiny windows of connectivity.

There weren’t any real lowlights.  A good time was had by all.  If you haven’t done a family reunion, give it a try. We loved it. 

And if you have, tell me about yours. I’d love to hear about others’ experiences.