Saturday, August 20, 2011

Anywhere but here...

We had a family reunion...did you know? I can't recall whether I posted about it. It was about 3 weeks long altogether, but it felt like, alternately, a couple of days or a couple of years. I am tired.

We did a lot of cooking, plenty of eating, a great deal of talking and laughing, and some crying. We went camping, we went canoeing, we played badminton and jumped on the trampoline. We stayed up late, and got up late for toast and marmalade. We drank tea and home-brewed and mineral water, and a few bottles of wine.

We never got around to the champagne though.

Camped out with the whole bunch of us, at a nearby lake where we spent our happiest times as children. It wasn't so happy for my daughter, as you can see here:

Sorry in advance if the price of calamine goes up. It's a supply and demand thing. And we still don't know what kind of bites these are but only the blonde children were affected, Charlotte worst of all...over 300 bites. She looks cheerful here...that's the homeopathic ledum talking.

Celebratory roast chicken at my house. Sixteen of us were there - only missing one. My sister's husband couldn't make it. Pardon the homely laundry and ugly trampoline...I should have taken this photo from the other end of the table so you could see pretty flowers and so on.


On one of the last days, Gwen and I took four of the kids to the lake (not the one we camped at). This was the view from my blanket...one of the most relaxing afternoons of the whole trip.


Mark, Amy, Gwen, Usko, and of course the Seven Dwarves....I miss you all.
Kiss, hug.

5 comments:

kristieinbc said...

It sounds like you had a great time with your family! I am wondering if the bites were swimmer's itch??

kate said...

I thought about you and the family often. Hope the bites have stopped itching!

Annalea said...

Wow . . . over 300 bites. I hope Charlotte is all better by now. And I wonder why only the blonde kids? How strange is that? I know that redheads have some interesting differences from the rest of the population: they are more sensitive to sun (commonly known), but they also require larger and more frequent doses of anesthetic. (I have a good friend who is a flaming redhead, and a medical type to boot.)

I love family reunions. I firmly believe that heaven will be like the biggest and best family reunion ever . . . but without ever having to do the dishes. ;o) I'm glad you had such a wonderful, long one!

Gwen said...

Ohhhhh, I miss you, I miss you, I miss you. Spending so much time with you made it worse, not better. xoxo

Ames said...

I'm so glad we could all make it. I think many, many, memories were made. I hope it is not another 3 1/2 years before we can do this again.

One day, even the bug bites might be funny.