Family, Reunions and Celebrations

For some reason I forgot to blog about the family reunion we attended for Joe's side of the family several weeks ago. It was HUGE! I was expecting to see mostly distant cousins, family I have met before but that we don't see very often. Instead we found ourselves among family that even Joe's parents and Grandmother had never met. It was truly monumental and bigger than I ever could have imagined. We had great conversation and great food and the kids had a super fun time playing bocce ball. Note the tables behind the kids. There were at least 4 other tables filled with family around the corner.

Then last weekend, we went to Joe's parents house to celebrate his mom's birthday, which was the week prior and his sister Leigh's birthday was on that actual day. It wasn't until I saw the cake that I realized Joe's dad had also decided to celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day, which we had not gotten together for so basically all the adults there that day were being celebrated for one reason or another. And yet, to no one's surprise it was the kids who had the most fun playing with their cousins on a slip-and-slide, hitting the baseball around and having BOTH cake and sno-cones for dessert. It was a fun-filled family day.

My mom and her husband George came to visit the day after the 4th of July. On Tuesday we met them at Ruby's for lunch and that night we introduced them to the brutal game of Uno Attack, which ironically enough Jake and Jadyn like playing and are pretty good at as far as strategy. This is especially true of Jake, who after stating that he "had a plan" stunned us all when he was able to go out in a stealth move and racking up enough points to almost win the game with just that one round. On Wednesday, we went to the spa pools. I took this picture of my mom with not only her grandkids Jake and Jadyn but her new grand-dog Kuma, who totally cooperated for the picture on Thursday before she left:

Another thing to love about the summer - a chance to see and spend time with family who we otherwise don't get to see very often.