Family. You know we have a lot of it!! And we are about to introduce ourselves to more!
Tomorrow after church we’re loading up the truck and driving East. Like to the Atlantic Ocean East. We’ve been ready to go for a while, but with the busy holiday season over, we’ll finally be connecting with several members of Gary’s birth family. And we are excited! Lord willing, we’ll be meeting one of Gary’s older brothers and his daughter who live in Myrtle Beach on Wednesday. He is the second oldest child in Gary’s birth family and was 11 when the family was split up, following the death of their father in 1949. He’s 83 now. Then later that week we are planning to meet with his older sister (and hopefully her daughter) who is living near Asheville, NC. She is about 5-6 years older than Gary. How amazing to be connecting with family that six months ago we didn’t even know existed. Along the way we’ll be visiting with friends and family, so that is an extra blessing as we make this cross-country trip. If you have a mind to – prayers for safe travels and joyous connections are appreciated!
It could be a quiet week here. There will be several days on the road and I know there will be much to process as we grow our family! I’ll be updating when I can (and posting pictures once I’m sure it’s okay with everyone!).
Oh how it’s grown! Generation One
Berton & Pauline Dwinell (Mom & Dad)
Generation Two
The Four Siblings
The Four Siblings and Spouses Generation Three
The Four Siblings, Spouses and Kids (missing 3)
The Four Siblings, Spouses, Kids and their spouses (missing 5)
Generation Four
EVERYONE (only missing 5! once we photoshopped in the bride and groom who arrived after the photo shoot!( No they were not coming from their wedding – it was just the photo available!))
Of the 39 cousins and second cousins, only 3 were missing (two were working and one was a week old).
I think I’ve spent so much time going over the preparations for our family reunion because I can’t quite figure out how to put into words the wonderfulness of it all! The weather was not especially cooperative (more rain and clouds than sun), but that didn’t seem to slow us down one bit!
From crazy antics at the pond
to the fishing competition
to massive Bingo games to stay out of the rain
to fun on the swing
to naps in the hammock
to games under the tent
to the peanut gallery always watching the activities
it was a fabulous, fabulous time! Since pictures most often speak louder than words, here are some galleries of the multitude of pictures taken over our long weekend.
Pond Fun
Along with all of the Big Jobs that were accomplished during our pre-reunion time at The Cabin, lots of Little Jobs were done too!
Some things were very small – like the replacement of some faded Rummikub tiles.
(Who knew you could buy individual replacement tiles for your Rummikub game? Go, eBay!)
Some might have gone unnoticed by many like the shined up indoor hot water heater (Thanks, Joie!).
We added a new multi-person swing back at the old maple.
And next to the pond, it was quite the place to be!
(Number of children on swing added for the photo! We tried (!!!) to keep the max occupancy at 4 for actual swinging!)
Gary spruced up the outdoor spa (aka hot shower at the cabin!)
for those of us staying ‘on site’.
There was a bit of pond raking to help make swimming a bit more appealing to the ‘eeew – it’s a squishy bottom’ crowd-
But given the number of kiddos (and adults) in the pond at any given time
I don’t think it was that much of an issue!
Gary gathered the supplies for a replacement fence along the bank of the pond
and completed the job with help on the first day of the Reunion.
(I love how it works great to keep little ones from falling over the embankment, but is virtually invisible otherwise!)
See what I mean?
We replaced our trusty red sofa, which was purchased used in the early 90’s,
with a good quality (not as) used sofa that is super comfy and came with free pillows and a little cedar trunk. Thank you, Facebook Marketplace!
The red sofa lived on the porch (where it was pretty handy)until the end of the reunion
when, with the help of an ATV and several strong guys,
it was ceremoniously burned (along with a leaky tent and a fair bit of trash and tree debris) as a final bonfire for the reunion!
Farewell, good and faithful sofa! You have served us well!
We loved, loved, loved being up at the cabin with the sweet anticipation of the Reunion to come. But just because we were ‘on campus’, doesn’t mean that others were not pitching in to make this marvelous family time come together. There were meal planners and game planners and activity planners. EVERYONE pitched in to make this a Reunion to Remember, and one of these days I’ll even move this blogging thing from “Reunion Prep” to the actual Reunion!
Gary finished a major upgrade on the dock just last summer. What started out like this –
ended up like this –
Which was huge improvement and more than adequate given the two boys wrestling on it!
(To see the whole progression of the Dock Reno you can check out Here and Here and Here!)
But Gary is a forward-thinking kinda guy, and he was picturing the the 30+ kids that would be at the reunion and knew that our single family-size dock needed to be super-sized to Reunion Size!
And he got to work –
(He hasn’t used those waders for fishing in about 6 years. But here at the cabin they come in mighty handy!)
Here’s a little time lapse of getting the second side up on its posts –
Phew! I can truly say he couldn’t have done it without me – but he sure could’ve done it quicker with someone who has more upper body strength! (Where are those boys when you need them???!)
He kept working away down at the pond (while I was working on those cobwebs in the cabin) and before I knew it we had the new Dock-Ma-Hal!
It got a little light-use testing before the reunion
but it was at full capacity during the reunion!
Fishing or Swimming
I’m pretty sure every square inch of that dock was used!
