The Whole Family Gathering

These past two weeks seem to have flown by in a bit of a blur. When Craig and family said they were coming this summer for a visit we went into planning mode as I know they did. They had to get plane tickets, car rental, activities and tourist things they wanted to see.  We had projects around the house we wanted to finish and also plan activities around what they were doing.  The first week I blogged about the trip to the Falls and then they had their whirlwind trip to NYC, Washington DC and many stops along the way.  We chose to stay here and get ready for the next part of the trip. It had been a while since any family pics were taken and I wanted to grab the Grandkiddos for a group shot of all of them. Not always easy with everyone's work and vacation schedules but somehow we pulled it off. The weather cooperated by not raining, turning pleasantly cool and low humidity to finish off their last few days with us.  We even got permission from the family who bought my in-laws farm to let us come and tour the grounds.  It brought back tons of memories for the kids. It's been 18yrs since they were there. The family that lives there now are so nice and did a beautiful job of remodeling the home and taking great care of the property. We thank them so much for letting us invade! I won't post pics of their home since I don't want to put them out on social media without their permission.  I will post these many pics from our group photo shoot on Thursday.  On Friday my sister and Mom came to join us for a family BBQ and for Mom to see Craig's kids again.  It all turned out great and I can't believe they are all back home and tomorrow I'm back at work. So here goes:

We are missing only one member. That would be Jackie's wife Evelyn. We had originally scheduled the pics for Friday but the two oldest Grandkiddos couldn't be there so we went with Thursday. I felt so bad she couldn't be there but she understood since it's been so long between pics with all the grands together.  (my Granddog Kip made it but Arnie wouldn't cooperate!)

Jackie, Craig, Jordan, and Phil...this wasn't the final normal shot..they had to get the wiggles out first.

Boys!

They had a good time catching up and just laughing all the time.

Jackie's clan...

Craig's cuties...

Phil's girls.

A few jumped for joy when we were done!

Some cousin bonding going on here...Addy Rae and Sophie really hit it off. So fun to see them play and get to know each other better.

Mom was happy to get together with her Grandkids and Great-Grandkids.

A little cake never hurt!

The kids have grown since Mom last saw them in person!

As the evening wore on we had fireworks, gun shooting, golf ball hitting, bow and arrow contests, and riding around the Pines on the old Gator...yep, I think they had fun.

We also had icecream sundaes all around...even Kip tried to snag some from Anthony. We really enjoyed this time with everyone and we were very sad to see Craig's family head back home yesterday.  But we'll be back out to visit them and I hope they can make it East again soon.  Love my family..they are the best!

Finally, I think Arnie was ready for a little rest! Us too!