The BIG "Little" Family Reunion

Every three years my Dad's side of the family has a family reunion. The last 2 years we have held it at a Presbyterian camp in Lake Tahoe in Zephyr Cove. This year we had about 125 people, which is not even half of the actual decendants of my Great-Grandparents. My Great-Grandparents (John and Louella: they are in the middle) had 15 children, 12 of which lived to adulthood and are pictured below. My Grandfather and his twin sister Alice are in the top lefthand corner. They were the second to the youngest. So by the time my Grandpa was born he was an Uncle a few times over. What is interesting is that I am only fourth generation whereas most of the "cousins" who are my age are at least 5th or 6th generation because of the great age span of this family.

My Great-Grandfather was a Nazarene Minister but he died when my Grandpa was young. One of the neatest (and saddest) thing was getting to hear the letters he wrote to her when he was away and getting ready to have surgery (which he didn't survive). The letters just overflowed with his love for her, his desire to be home with his children, and his drive to still work even though he was very sick. I never got to meet either of them, but it is so awesome to get a glimpse of the kind of people they were.

Ok, back to the trip! On our way there we stopped at June Lake for a picnic lunch, and the boys went swimming in the lake, which was very cold.

The camp where we have the reunion is great. It's really more like a hotel and 3 meals a day are provided, cafeteria style. There are all kinds of fun things planned like park play time, frisbee golf, volley ball, the camp has it's own beach, hiking, day trips, and boat rides. And then each night there was a family gathering after dinner for picture-sharing, story-telling, singing, testimonies, talent show, and family auction. We went on two different hikes, one was almost 4 miles roundtrip and one was almost 3, and Dylan did them both! We were very impressed. We also went on a Paddleboat ride which was really nice. Here are some pictures:


This was on our Hike to Vikingsholm Castle: 4 Generations!

This was on our paddleboat cruise around Tahoe

This was a little cove at the bottom of our second hike

This is my Dad, Kev and Dyl jumping off the dock into the Lake. I did it too! It was freezing. We later found out it was 55 degrees!!

On our way home we took a long detour to visit Kev's brother Eric in Oakland. We had a really nice visit and went to this cute park called Fairyland. It had all these little rides or play areas based on Fairytale books.