August Reunion #2

The third week in August, we had a reunion for my Mom's paternal family. Everyone gathered "en masse" at a campground for the weekend. My grandpa, or "Pop", and all his siblings and their families, plus some extended relatives dating back to my great-great-grandfather's lineage we never really knew about until the past year or two.

I have to say this reunion was much more difficult for me to be at than the one on my Dad's side earlier in the month. This is the family - our branch of it, anyway - that I grew up with having in my everyday life. As I've aged, well, it's always amazing to me how people can forget about the love we've had for others in the past and move on with their own lives and... let's just say, I hate family politics. It also wasn't a very kid-friendly gathering spot, which never would've bugged me prior to this year. But I now have three pre-schoolers who can't be expected to sit still at the top of a rocky hill in the summer heat. Our poor little kids were bored out of their minds so we spent most of our time playing in our campsite or in the lake. I really wish I could've visited at more length with some of the more distant family I never get to see but, overall, we still had a pretty good weekend.

Here's the big group photo of everyone... from an angle that doesn't portray how big the group is but it also doesn't show individual faces, either... there are a lot of children I would never post pictures of (including my own) without permission from their parents. Each branch of the family had their own color t-shirt so families were grouped according to that.

Here's a candid of me (almost caught off-guard) with one of my beloved great-uncles:

And my family's branch color was purple... not a color you will ever catch me wearing. It looked great on my kids and those in our family blessed with the darker Native skin... but for those of us with the predominant Irish coloring... yeah, not so good.

Another loved great-uncle:

My brother and I always seem to end up playing cribbage when we're camping and even though I lost this game (simply because it was my crib and Bro got to count first), it was the best hand I've ever gotten! Only a Jack could've made it better! We were actually all excited over this for quite a bit. Simple things amuse simple people...

One of the family friends brought his boat up and since our little kidlets have never been on a boat, Daddy just had to make sure they got a chance, however brief. Faces blurred, obviously, to protect their identities.