Our family reunion was going to be held in Virginia beach- but because all the family was coming out my brother and his wife decided to bless their new baby the Sunday before the reunion in Baltimore (where they live) so that we could all be present. So that’s why we drove to Maryland first.

Sunday church didn’t start until 1:00 (yay!!) which was great because we had 25 people who needed to shower in a house with 2 bathrooms. My brother did a great job on the blessing of little Carina Jean (totally not sure on the spelling there) and she is completely adorable. I for some reason didn’t get the camera out for pictures the day of the blessing. I’m waiting for copies from siblings who did. (HINT HINT).

After the blessing we went to a beach park for a picnic dinner. It was so pretty. Makes me want to move to ann arbor and live on the beach. We met up with my sister in law Kim’s family there and had a good time. Lots of good food, space for the kids to run and her Dad took us all for rides on his boat. That was a blast. Megan kept telling him to go faster and faster. Finally we made her sit in the front with Aunt Barbara and he went REALLY fast. She decided it was more fun to go fast when you sat in the back.

Also when it started to get dark there were fireflies! I showed my girls how to catch them and we had quite a collection of them. It was like having my childhood in a jar. I have so many summer memories of running around in our backyard catching fireflies in my nightgown. It was fun to show them to my kids who’ve lived in the West their whole lives and haven’t ever seen fireflies before.

Sunday night all eight of my siblings sat around and talked and hung out and it was so fun. It makes me want to have them all move closer so we can do that more often. Right now though we’re pretty spread out. I’ve got siblings in Baltimore, Boston, Texas, Phoenix, Jackson Hole Wyoming, St. george Utah, Logan Utah and a Brother-in-law in Iraq. Jake (the one in Iraq) was the only immediate family member who wasn’t able to make it to the reunion. Which we understood. Of course he’d better be able to come in two years!

It was so much fun to talk to my siblings and have discussions and political debates and talk about parenting and even about which is better for you- white rice or brown rice (um, brown!)

For your viewing pleasure here is a picture of all nine of us (I’ve got one older brother and seven younger sisters) Plus my mom.

Picture order: Rebecca, Katie, Spencer, Angela, Mom, Me, Barbara, Sarah, Hannah, Jessica
Age order: Spencer, Amber, Katie, Hannah, Sarah, Jessica, Barbara, Becca, Angela

Oh! The driving post (below) is updated with more details and a link to pictures- since I can’t figure out how to embed a slideshow on my blog….