Well summer means time at the beach and family reunions. Each year my husband and I arrange for our family to join together for a few days. This year we celebrated our gathering in beautiful Longboat Key, Florida.

In addition to the reunion we were able to celebrate my mother in law's 90th, yes, 90th birthday. It is the new 70 you know! She definitely does not look or act 90! We all stayed at a resort directly on the beach within yards of the water! Each family (there were 8 families for a total of 28 people) had their own condo with a full kitchen. Unfortunately a few members of our family were not able to attend this year - my brother's family all came down with the flu, our eldest son was in China working the Olympics and our youngest daughter a week before had a new baby boy our 10th grandchild! Those missing were definitely missed and we had many toasts to them!

Nine of our grandchildren and 3 children from my husband's sister's family, both of my parents and my husbands aunt were in attendance so there were many of us! I decided to make the theme of this reunion the Olympics. With so many children there we were able to have a great variety of events - swimming, running, potato sack races, limbo and baseball. The kids dove right into the idea and participated with much zeal! Nathan our eldest grandchild created the schedule for the events. I found a blow up limbo set that was easy to transport to the resort. The boys blew up all of the balls for the events as well as the limbo set. After each event we had an awards ceremony and presented medals for all. The best event was the potato sack race. It was so much fun watching them jump their way to the finish line. Even the adults got into the action, although they were not nearly as good as the kids! We were so surprised at how well the kids did with the limbo game, oh how limber they are! Some of them really were able to bend very low! Another game we played was for each child to put a small blow up ball between their knees.

They had to race with the ball in place. If the ball fell then they had to start over. Our little Allie (age 3) was so determined and never gave up, the look on her face was priceless! She was so much fun to watch. We also had several foot races, swimming contests and a baseball throw. The kids were kept very busy the entire time. We all swam in the ocean where the water was like a bath and surprisingly calm. There were waves but none that were too large for the kids. The last day however, I was riding a wave to shore on a raft and really wiped out! Gone were my sunglasses and hat!


Each family was responsible for a meal whether it was breakfast, lunch or dinner. This has become the tradition so that no one family has to do all of the cooking or cleaning. The day we arrived my daughter in law and I went to do the shopping - it took two very full carts to fill all of the orders. The bill came to $696.96. I then bought a lottery ticket with combinations of the 6's and 9's but unfortunately it wasn't a winner! It was so funny because between the check out clerk and bag girl, my daughter in law and my self we made a bet as to what the bill would be. I won with a bet of $650.00!

Each meal was designed and prepared by the assigned family. Our daughter in law the wife of our son in China decided to have a Chinese dinner as her night fell on the opening night of the Olympics. We had lots of Chinese food, fortune cookies and the patio and condo were decorated with Chinese lanterns. We used red tableware and had red tablecloths and plates. The kids even tried to use chopsticks! Each night we had a different dinner - Chinese, chicken Parmesan and burgers. Since all of our condos were in a row we would move to a different one each evening.

The weather was perfect! Not too hot, not too humid which was surprising for Florida that time of year. We had one day of rain (lots of it) so the kids went to the nearby aquarium for the afternoon. Although it was rather small they had a wonderful time checking out all of the sea creatures. That evening was my mother in law's birthday party. Fortunately the sun came out around 3 and it turned out to be a beautiful evening. We held the party at her clubhouse where she lives. For entertainment each of the grandchildren had a letter that spelled out Great Grandma Lot. They were arranged by age and each one recited the letter and something about their great grandma that started with their assigned letter. The ages ranged from 12 - 3. They were so adorable. We also gave Great Grandma Lot a memory book. Prior to her party we contacted each invitee and asked for pictures, letters or any memorabilia to put in the book for her. It turned out beautiful and she loved it. During the party we had a Tiki bar set up with drinks. Several of the grandchildren announced afterward that they had consumed at least 9 soft drinks! This resulted in very wired up children for the night! They were very proud of their accomplishment!


The last evening after dinner we made smores for the kids - my goodness they each had at least 5 of them! After that Aunt Kim and Uncle Drew were gracious enough to host all of the kids for a sleepover. All of the cousins wanted to be together for their last evening together. We did hear that the night before the older kids had a sleepover and that some of them stayed up until 3:30 in the morning!



Well the day came to depart - it was very sad for all of us but we can,t wait until next year! It is so important to my husband and I to come together as a family once a year since we are all so far from each other. A good time was had by all for sure and we have many memories to cherish for a lifetime. We look forward to baby Syler, John and my brother's family attending next year!