We survived the reunion. Every last dish, bowl, and coffeepot has been washed and put away. I washed 8 loads of laundry and put the clear Christmas lights back in the basement. It was a lot of work, but at the same time, it felt wonderful to be a part of the Graham family. This picture was taken at my parents' home for the Friday evening picnic.

The food line twisted through the family room into the kitchen. It was warm and humid outside, so most people were glad to be indoors.

Here's Mom setting up the desserts. The menu was roast pig, cole slaw, 20 lbs of fresh blueberries, potato salad, chips, hotdogs, and corn on the cob. My sil made a cheesecake dessert that disappeared quickly, and Mom made her famous chocolate eclair dessert (see last post for recipe). Several folks asked for Mom's recipe.

In a few years we will wonder how we fit all the cars in Dad's yard, so I took this picture...but many more came after this was taken.

The children had fun swimming.

Everyone found places to sit on the decks, around the pool, and under the tent.

Cody and his friend had fun in the paddle boat.

And Allen caught 4 fish. On Saturday, we had our lunch and dinner picnics on the naval base. It too was hot and muggy (89 degrees). The beach house that we thought would be air conditioned, wasn't.
When I got home that night, I couldn't believe it when I looked at facebook and saw that my cousin's wife had already posted her reunion pics!! This is Richard and Deb, part of our local family who was hosting this year. Deb let me use her pictures for my blog. (All the good pics are hers:-)

Richard was in charge of games this year, a position no one wanted. My family said he did a fantastic job. I thought he was heartless...an egg toss??! But Richard was so good that we've already decided he's in charge of the games in 2019. Go Richard!
I am tired tonight, so I know my writing will be jumbled. This picture (above) makes me laugh every time I see it. Only the Grahams wouldn't mind running through mud to get to first base! It was fun playing Grahams against the Grahams. At one of our reunions in PA, we played against the amish...and got creamed!The coffeepot challenge went like this:

COFFEEPOT CHALLENGE
One of these coffeepots belongs to the Graham family and gets passed to the host family each year. Guess which coffeepot this is.
One of these coffeepots was picked up at the dump. Which one?
One of these coffeepots was bought on eBay for $5. Which one?
One of these coffeepots was bought at a thrift shop for $6. Which one?
One of these coffeepots was bought at a thrift shop for $8. Which one?
BONUS QUESTION:
Four of these coffeepots belong to Kathie. Yes, she uses them. Kathie has one complete collection of something. Can you guess what that is? (Folks who read Kathie’s blog are disqualified from this bonus question!)

The answer to the bonus question is that I have a complete collection of Roy Roger's movies (90 - Roy actually made 96, but 6 have been lost/destroyed).

The answer to the Skittles game (see last post) was 2100. Victoria, I should've put an apple next to the jar so you could see it was a very large mayo jar.

The coffeepot that has been passed down since 1935? The above blue one. We don't use it anymore, but it is still fun to get the coffeepot when it's your turn to host. Some of us enjoy traditions no matter how off the wall.These are my 3 brothers cooking the hotdogs and hamburgers for Saturday's dinner. For lunch, our menu was BBQ pig sandwiches, cole slaw, potato salad, fruit salad, fresh salsa, corn on the cob, 6 lbs of fresh blueberries, baked beans, a wonderfully healthy salad (thanks Dorleen and Patty!), and way too many desserts. I didn't realize our extended family has so many vegans or we'd have provided more dishes for them. As usual, we enjoyed taking turns with darling Abby.

One of my memories of my grandmother is of her standing at her kitchen door with a wet washcloth in her hands, waiting to wash our faces and hands as we came in to visit her. So on Saturday, when it was obvious that the only two toddlers were suffering from the heat (they had the reddest faces, poor darlings!), I enjoyed getting a wad of wet paper towels and washing their faces, arms, and legs. Oh how they loved that! And I would tell them about my dear grandmother Dicus washing my hands and face. Such wonderful memories!

Speaking of babies, this is Uncle George, the baby of the family...of the original ten children. Uncle George says he works out twice a day for an hour each. Wow! My Dad wasn't feeling so well...he will be admitted to the hospital next week for 3 days while the Dr. tries to correct his arrythmia...his heart's irregular beating. The humidity didn't help.

Oh how I loved my cousins on Saturday! Just when the day was coming to a close, and I was getting tired and worn (mostly from that humidity), my cheery cousins, with their energy and smiles, asked how they could help clean up. Wow! They made quick work of it. What a wonderful bunch! (Do you see the menfolk anywhere?!)
Some of the Grahams braved the jellyfish and went swimming. What a beautiful view.

All too soon it was over. Next year the reunion will be at the original reunion place ~ Shawnee Park near Pittsburgh, PA. Hopefully we will make it.

It was good to catch up on folks' lives. I was surprised at how few children there were.

While I was preparing for the reunion, I came upon this website for another family's reunion (you may want to turn on your mute first). I thought their itinerary was interesting.

Enjoy your week. Keep cool. Do NOT visit the amish in this humidity:-)

My brother in law just came to visit and said he almost ran over a huge copperhead on our road. So now everyone has put on their boots, and gotten their flashlights, and they're outside in the dark looking for snakes. I'll let you know if they are successful.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

PS ~ Did I mention the humidity?