July 21, 2014

Back From Our Family Gathering

July 21, 2014

Three of our four cabins for our Family Gathering

Did you miss me?  We were away for several days to spend time with our family.  There was just not time to keep up the blog and visit with our great family.  Now, it is time to catch up on the blog, but I am tired so this will be just a little of the information and I will try to tell you more tomorrow.

With the help of our daughters-in-law, over the last nine years we have had 4 family gatherings.  The wife of our second son has done most of the planning on these trips, but this time the wife of our oldest son got the ball rolling.  She was taking a 3 day class in Pflugerville, TX this summer and asked if any of the family could come see them while she and our son were back in Texas for a few days.  EVERYONE wanted to see them so we turned it into a Family Gathering.  Two girls did a LOT of research looking for a good spot for the 20 of us.  We all agreed to their choice and it worked well for us. 

This is all of us except for me (the photographer)

At this point, I must say, we were all together for Christmas this past December, but these summer gatherings started as anniversary celebrations for my husband and me on our our 40th anniversary.  Then we did the 45th, and everyone said that was not often enough.  Next we did our 47th anniversary.  This year our 49th anniversary was in early June so the get together was a little later than usual, but worked out with the needed schedules.

Our little hiking grandson

We had four cabins.  There was one for our son David and his family, one for my husband, me, and my mom, one for all the other guys, and one for all the other girls.  The grandchildren are all getting old enough that they don't have to be watched every single minute - maybe every other minute.  I must say one of the most amazing things is that there was a pond that covers several acres, with a trail around it.  Our youngest grandson made at least 8 trips around that pond yesterday - mostly alone, usually wearing his vest and backpack and jogging much of the time.  We could see his route from the porches of the cabins.  According to the weather, it was 93 and felt like 104.  He could not have been happier.  His mom says she thinks he will be a Marine. 

When you get 20 people in one of those cabins, it is noisy to say the least!  Usually not all 20 of us were in the cabin at one time, but it would still be very hard for me to hear the one voice I was trying to listen to.  There were several times I would ask the speaker to step outside with me so I could hear.

We were so blessed with wonderful weather.  We left Friday morning and by the time we had been on the road an hour or two we passed through a cool front (in JULY) with some rain, and from there on, it was in the 70s all that day and much of the second day.  We made up for it Sunday and Monday with temperatures in the low to mid-90s, but the days were beautiful.

There were times that I was tempted to remove the sound processor when the noises would just become a little overwhelming, but I never did take it off during the day.  It was just so wonderful to be ABLE TO HEAR.

The laughter of the children in the swimming pool was a joy to hear.  I did not try to go in the pool.  In a pool, I take the sound processor off, but with other people besides our family in the pool, I was not comfortable being in there and not being able to hear at all.  There are a couple of newer ways to use the sound processor in the pools, but I am not ready to do that at this time.  The options are a little expensive and I just don't need to do that at this time. 

Just watching the children and grandchildren at play brings joy.

There were games, walks, quiet times, and almost always - laughter.

What a fun filled weekend.  I did ask one of the girls today if she had fun.  She said yes.  I asked what she liked best.  She said the food.  I asked which meal was best.  She said the hot dogs.  It doesn't take a lot of money to create a fun memory!  I loved her answer.