Ah, vacation... You gotta love it!
Every year we attend a family reunion in Laughlin, NV. We meet up with distant aunts, uncles and cousins to enjoy a few days of catching up. This tradition started YEARS ago with my grandmother's generation. Eventually they started inviting my mom's generation and as the older crowd began dwindling due to death (sorry, but it's true), old age and poor health, they started inviting my generation. Of course my generation has young kids, so we bring them along.
This is something that our family looks forward to EVERY year, especially my kids. Perhaps it's the arcade, but this year I actually heard less "Can we go to the arcade now" and more "When are we going to see ____ (fill in a family member name here)." It was REALLY neat to watch my kids become close to all of these people, some of whom I hardly know myself and others whom I probably see once a year if I'm lucky.
On Sunday my dad and B took the kids to Kingman, Arizona, to check out the old trains. The kids had a blast climbing on the train cars and playing in the rain (keep in mind this is in the middle of the desert where it RARELY rains, but this year the weather was quite cold and it rained two of three of the four days).
Sunday is when the reunion 'officially' started, so Sunday evening we enjoyed catching up with family. Typically we spend the later afternoons in the 'hospitality room' then eat dinner together. After dinner people split up to do whatever it is you do in Laughlin (gamble, eat ice cream, walk along the river, catch a movie, go to the outlet mall, bowl a few games, etc.) then we meet again for breakfast and spend the afternoon doing the things mentioned above before meeting again in the hospitality room, and the cycle repeats itself for two or three days.
Hanging out with Cousin Stoney
Grandpa fixing your plate in a buffet = We can have cookies for breakfast. After all, this IS vacation!
Will it be a strike???
The view from our hotel room... Notice the snow on the desert hills!
Another view from our room... Looking down the Colorado River
Goofing off with Cousin Bud (or "my other Grandpa" as Little A calls him)
Sitting for awhile with Uncle George
Chillin' with Cousin Gary (or "DUDE" as Big A calls him)All in all we had a great time! It is so much fun to meet all of these people and to catch up from year to year. I wish we all lived closer and stayed in touch better, but I'm thankful for the opportunities I'm given to see my family!
Stay tuned for the 2nd leg of the trip... Laughlin to San Diego!
1 comment:
It's great to see family reunions,
It's been years since our families have had one but as children we really enjoyed going. Keep it up.
Love to all
Auntie A
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