Joshua's Bride: kiddos

Beautiful country, lots of family-this past weekend was a great one! My family traveled to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to attend my dad's family reunion. Now, this isn't just any family reunion with a few cousins, aunts, and uncles; this is like 4 generations of family.

I'm not sure how long ago it started, but as far back as I can remember, when my great-grandparents (Grammy and Pappy) were alive, we would all get together around Christmas. My grandparents, my uncles and their families, and my family are the largest portion of the over-all McMichael family that live out of state.
The rest of my Grandpa's siblings and most of their family still live in the Lancaster area. So our family and the few others who lived out of state would travel to PA every year and join the rest of the gang for a weekend reunion.

On Saturday night we would all gather in a rented-out portion of the basement at the retirement home where Grammy and Pappy lived and spend the evening laughing, talking, eating, sharing photos and memories, and just catching up with one another. The main event for us kids was carpet-ball (if you haven't played it, you should!). We would line up and eagerly await our turns and as soon as that turn was over we would jump to the back of the line, only to start the waiting all over again. Every year at the reunion my great-grandparents would call each one of their children, grandchildren, and great-granchildren by name and give us each a gift of money and a choice of candy. It really was amazing to see the generations there. Almost 8 Christmas' ago Pappy passed away. The funeral was held on Christmas eve, and I'm so glad that we got to spend one last reunion with him only the week before. Grammy held on another year, but died the folowing Christmas. Just 2 weeks before she died, Grammy's very first great-great-grandchild was born. I'll never forget those two special people, and some of my most treasured memories of them are those reunions.

Although they're gone, the reunions continue on. They're different than they used to be- we've moved them to the summer, more and more of those in my generation have gotten married and we don't see them as much anymore. Many more little ones have joined our group. I don't know what the tally is right now, but Pappy and Grammy's legacy has certainly carried down through many generations. This year's reunion was a blast...here are some pictures, and further description of the trip is below :)

We played lots of games....ladder ball

...frisbee

and, of course, no McMichael family reunion would be complete

without a game of Rook-every good McMichael child over the age

of 10 knows how to play ;)

We visited...

and we laughed...

and we laughed some more...

AH, and the little kids were good at just being adorable!

On Sunday morning my dad and I got up and went to church (the rest of the family was exhausted). AS I sort of mentioned on a previous post, our church installed a new pastor a few weeks ago (:D :D :D). The really neat thing is that he and his wife attended a church in Lancaster for the past few years. Dad and I went and visited, and I loved it! The church was HUGE (well, huge for a PCA church, that is). The really cool thing about this church was that as big as it was, it still managed to look like a church...and an old church at that. It kinda looked like something from the 1800's. The floors in the sanctuary were cobblestone, the pulpit had a staircase that led up to it, there were white pews throughout...can you tell that I liked it? :P

Anyways, after church we went to visit more family, but on our way, we drove down the street where everyone in the family used to live. The first farm on the road is an Amish farm. But the one after that is the farm where my dad and one of my uncle's was born. Every year when we head back there, I hear my dad's stories about that street, but I never tire of hearing them again. The houses after that first farm-house were where all of his aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents lived. He tells stories of how he and his cousins would run through the corn fields to each other's houses and how they would get scared that the old bridge would fall when they ran across it. Ya know, that "good old days" kind of stories. I love hearing them...

Well, enough of my rambling...but just in case you didn't notice from the pictures, I LOVE babies/little kiddos!!!! ;)