Reunion, Of the XL Variety

We got back this weekend from our family reunion at Priest Lake. This was not a "reunion" like the one we had last year, involving the eleven of us Vaughn kids. This was the entire extended family on my dad's side edition. That's two grandparents, four kids and their spouses, fourteen grandkids (+ ten spouses), and fourteen great grand kids. Every single family member made the trek. From Brasil, Mozambique, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, California, Oregon and Washington. It's quite the list, I know.

There were many times throughout the week when I marveled at just how much I love each and every one of my cousins (and aunts and uncles, etc). None of us grew up seeing each other all that much - yet we seem to pick up right where we left off. It is a huge blessing that we love being together, I know. It's pretty rare for forty-eight family members to get along so well. The week flew by, as time always seems to do when you spend time with people you love.

What did we do all week? Quite a lot of things. We swam, boated, fished, hiked and kayaked. We played huge games of volleyball, ultimate frisbee, soccer and wiffle ball. We napped and read and talked (a lot). We picked huckleberries, went shooting, and attempted to slack line over water. We played the family game, loaded questions, settlers of catan, clue, and poker late at night. We gathered round the camp fire to hear the story of grams and gramps. We had a lively family talent show, where Leah and I were, yet again, coerced into performing (same ol' Jennifer Knapp song from our high school talent show ten years ago). We had a lovely girls' breakfast out to Elkins. And we ate really well. It was a great week.

I think our combined picture count from the week may be somewhere in the thousands, but we haven't gotten copies from everyone quite yet. We only had our camera around some of the time, so here are a few from the Hook camera. Not comprehensive by any means, but maybe that is good. There are quite a few pictures to share despite.

Priest Lake. Is there any place on earth as lovely? (the answer is no)

Meal time: a large undertaking

Mini table for the toddlers

Sweet Kendyl, just five weeks older than Clara

Clara with cousin Jared (yes, she loved all the attention she could get)

How much weight can a Brazilian hammock hold?

And of course we slack lined - over water this time

Trav's awesome wipe out

Jumping in the water to daddy...only because her brave cousin McKinsey did it first

Freezing!

Relaxing by the beach

The Meisel fam, out on the paddle boat

Sweet Everett

The Claranator, pondering life

Uncle Trav slathering sunscreen

The eleven of us with grammy and grandpa (no whole group photo on our cam, sadly)

The nose pickers

The boys

And the girls too

All the great grand kids with their stuffed animals, gifts from their grammy and gramps

Girls' hike to Elkins for breakfast

And Jono and Clara's hike to the waterfall (nice work with the tri-pod, love)

These three girls are within eights weeks of one another - so fun!

Holly and Leah

And a final night time photo of the lake

And that is it. Whew! So many great pictures. And they don't begin to scratch the surface. I may add a few more when I get copies of all the other pictures. But then again this may be a long enough post already ;).

Yeah for family. And yeah for reunions!!