Virginia adventures - Part II (Family)

Hands down, the best part about our trip to Virginia were all the moments we shared with family. The Texas Wilsons rented a house with the Florida Boekenoogens and we visited every chance we got with mom and dad when they were not working. One evening we celebrated the fact that my brother-in-law John recently earned his Ph.D! An amazing accomplishment after many years of effort. Well done John!

Later in the week we had the pleasure of celebrating mom and dad's 45th wedding anniversary! Forget about the fact that the actual anniversary date is in June. We enjoyed having fun with them later in July! Below are all of the grandchildren with the proud grandparents in our cabin underneath the beautiful sign that Laura created.

To commemorate mom and dad's 45th anniversary, Laura and I hosted all of the family couples to our cabin one evening for a family supper and our version of "The Newleywed Game". Laura, John, and I carefully selected questions for the couples, and either the husband or wife had to write the answer on the white-board and hope that their answer matched the answer provided by their spouse. The four couples in contention were Aunt Penny and Uncle Lyn, Aunt Kathy and Uncle John, Alice Ann and John Dinger, and my parents. Because all of the couples know each other so well, they all easily understood the answers provided for the questions that each couple gave. Its easy to say that there was a lot of laughter during our game time!

Laura was the hostess for the game (held on our scenic deck below), John kept score, and I took photos and drank beer while enjoying the laughter and funny answers.

We were blessed that many members of our family came to visit during the week we were in Virginia. In addition to the aunts and uncles I have already mentioned, my cousins Kim (with children Leo and Kate) and Kelly (with daughter Astrid) came for a few days. We enjoyed some fun family moments at the picnic pavilion onsite at the RV park.

As to be expected with this group of family, we played lots of games! MY FAVORITE PART! I was tickled to death that Amelia enjoyed playing card games with Alice Ann and John and my aunts and uncles as much as I did. I have the fondest memories from when I was about Amelia's age of playing cards for hours at my grandmother's dining room table with these same people. So it was extra special for me to be able to experience game time with both generations.

So many awesome memories! Thanks to everyone involved in planning this mini-reunion for our family. Mom and dad were the best hosts at the RV park, and we are grateful that so many extended family members came from Indiana and Ohio to gather for good times.