Our Amazing Family Reunion

BBB Family Reunion 2010

This past 4th of July the Illinois contingent of our family hosted a Family Reunion.  It was so much fun! Our last reunion was 9 years ago ...  we were so overdue!!  Forty eight of us came from all over the country ... from New Mexico, California, Indiana, Wisconsin, Washington D.C., Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania and of course Illinois.

Evan designed the logo for the reunion cake

It was really fun to meet and greet everyone on Friday night in the "party" room that we rented at the hotel where out of town family were staying. After enjoying good food and drink, lots of conversations, and much picture taking we played a rowdy game of Family Jeopardy!! For several weeks Sheri and Gary had been conspiring via e-mail (between Boston and Chicago) to create an amazing "hi-tech"game packed with facts about our family.  It was a perfect start to the weekend!

On Saturday a small group went into Chicago to see "Billy Elliot" where Abby is appearing in the cast!! They had a great time and brought back pictures of the "star" of the family.  We were all sorry that Abby couldn't be with us for the weekend but we are so proud of her... and we understood "the show must go on!"

Andy with Cathy and Jerry ...petting a dolphin

The rest of the gang headed to Brookfield Zoo.  Andy is a keeper at Seven Sea's where he trains dolphins and works with the pinnipeds (sea lions, seals, walruses, etc).  So he arranged for groups of us to take some "behind the scenes" tours of several exhibits.  I saw the big cats  .... stood up close to a beautiful snow leopard and some amazing tigers while their keeper told us lots interesting facts about them .... It was awesome!!  When our group tours were finished we all met at the Seven Seas Arena to see the Dolphin Show.  It's always a fun show .... it was neat to see Andy swim with one of them.  After the show he gave us a behind the scenes tour and told us how important the daily care is that the keepers provide for the animals and how they use positive reinforcement to train them. The animals are never forced to do anything ... even allowing a vet to examine them and administer meds is a trained behavior.    Even though it was very hot and humid (mid 90s) everyone agreed that it had been an amazing day! That was a trip to the zoo that most people never get to take.

Next stop  ...  back to the hotel to relax, grab a swim or a nap, and dress for dinner!!

We had a lovely (adults only) dinner in the private dining room of a nearby steak house ... dinner was compliments of my Mom who is 93yrs old. She enjoyed the reunion every bit as much as the rest of us, attended all of the events (except the zoo) and was the last to leave the party each time ... I think she was afraid she would miss something if she didn't stay :-)  This was another fun evening filled with much laughter and good times!

The next day was Sunday ... nothing was scheduled 'till 2pm so everyone was free to do their own thing!  Since "some of us" had stayed very up late for the last 3 nights partying in one of our hotel rooms ..  "sleeping in" was my choice :-)  Later that afternoon we all gathered at Walt and Jane's lovely home for more food & drinks, great times and MORE picture taking!!  To date we have over 550 pictures posted on our family photo web site .... YIKES!  At dusk a group headed to the July 4th Fireworks.  Later, back at the hotel we began saying our goodbyes!    REALLY?    It seemed like we had just begun the weekend and it was time to say goodbye already???

As I sat on Walt's deck on Sunday afternoon and looked around at the kids playing in the yard (after shagging the teenagers away from the video games in the family room) and at the groups of people sitting around laughing and talking, I realized how great is to be part of a family likes ours. Not every family makes family a priority,  gets along and likes each other as well as ours does, or would make the effort to come from such distances to spend the weekend together and enjoy it!  So as the title of this post says we truly do have an "amazing family".  I for one, do not take that for granted and I'll always treasure ours!


SO ..... who's planning the next reunion???