I guess it started after my Dad's funeral. We were together, well most of us, discussing that we wanted to organize a reunion with the entire extended family so we could see each other more regularly than weddings and funerals. We came up with a plan of every other year and taking turns organizing it by going down in age order through the cousins. My older brother is the oldest cousin, so it was his turn first.
My brother and his wife set the bar really high for the rest of it as far as organization goes. They chose a destination about a year in advance and started a family messaged board for all of us to be able to keep updated with how the plans were going. They worked really hard to find ways to keep the costs low knowing that several of us were going to have to spend alot just to get there.
I think the most amazing thing is that everyone came who could. We were only missing one person from our entire extended family, and Uncle Jake couldn't come because he was in Iraq. Several times we paused and acknowledged that that was an amazing feat in and of itself.
We first gathered to Baltimore, where we got to meet the newest member of the family, two-month old Carina, and see her blessed. It's always so precious to see a new baby. After the blessing we went to a little park that over looked a bay for dinner. We had some yummy food and the girls got to chase fire flies. Kim's dad also gave us rides in his boat. That was a wonderful feeling. It was warm enough that the wind on the boat felt really good. We were able to see a light house and several birds on our ride. We stayed up really late debating politics and health food before finally crashing all over my brother's house. (Seriously, bodies everywhere!)
The next morning we planned on leaving asap to drive four hours down to Virginia Beach. And as most know ASAP with a large group means in hours, I think it was about 11:30 before we all were on the road. Before we could even really get going we had to make a couple of stops to pick up some last minute things, and do some chores. (Like my Sister faxing some papers to sign on her house, hooray for selling!) Then the kids were going crazy, so we had to stop for lunch too.
While at MacDonalds we got a phone call from my brother. He and his wife were hauling a camper-trailer, it had fish-tailed and caused them to roll several times. We were not far behind them so we hoped we could be there quickly to help. The traffic on the highway was backed up for a couple of miles before we could even get close, so they arranged for an escort for us to follow in the emergency lane so we could be there. Kim had already been taken to the hospital in an ambulance, Spencer, had been cut, but was doing okay and was still at the accident site. Their two daughters didn't seem to be hurt or affected at all and Barbara, my sister, who was riding with them was sore and in shock. It seemed unreal, to see. I wanted to help but there was so little I could do. We mostly just hugged each other and were grateful that the girls weren't hurt. The police let Spencer pick out a few salvagable valuables, the rest was cleaned up by a towing company. My sister Amber and I road in a fire truck with Spencer's two girls while our families and Spencer and Barbara in our two cars to the hospital to see Kim. Kim ended up with some deep cuts on her head and a fractured vertebrae. They kept her overnight. We left Spencer and Kim at the hospital and took their two girls with us and finished the drive down to Virginia Beach.
Now the camper had been carrying almost all of our camping supplies so we had to make some more emergency grocery shopping trips and buy a cooler or two. We were also down a couple of tents, luckily another of my sister's, Sarah, had brought an extra. And a couple people braved sleeping out under the stars.
The campground we were at had a nice pool pretty close to our site that we found really nice early the next morning. With the hot sticky humidity we all wanted to get in the water as soon as we could. We mostly lived in our swimming suits. The best times were at the beach.
