The Good Family: You Can Pick Your Friends But Not Your Relatives

Thursday, August 26, 2010

You Can Pick Your Friends But Not Your Relatives

On Sunday, August 22, we headed up to Greenwood Furnace State Park near Lewistown, PA, for the 2010 Doane Family Reunion. Dad organized the gathering, and I helped him quite a bit. I helped him with posting it on facebook, and the night before I helped prepare the meatballs. He arrived at our house at 6:30 am to get the food and ice out of our freezer and switch the macaroni salad into bowls I had. Here's my Dad and all his siblings: from left to right it's Dad, Uncle Ron, Uncle Jim, Uncle Wayne, Aunt Rose and Aunt Anna Mae.

Shawn and I arrived at the park at 10:30 to help set up. Some of my cousins were already there. We helped arrange the food & crock pots, paper products & drinks, etc. Here was the pavilion that Grandpa Georgia rented, which was really nice. There weren't any bees or bugs, etc. That morning, the heavens had let loose and it was POURING out. But, Joshua & Caleb both prayed and asked God to stop the rain and bring out the sunshine. And, God answered their prayers (and ours!). It was a beautiful day.

Here I am with Dad at the picnic. It was a lot of work for him to do, even with a lot of help. There was sooo much food left over. We've been eating picnic food this whole week. Everyone brought a covered dish to share, and Dad also took enough to feed a large army.

When we arrived, the boys were anxious to RUN and play. So, Daddy took Caleb on several walks to adventure around the beautiful grounds. We had been in the car for two hours to get there, so he was excited to be out and about.

In the meantime, Joshua headed to the playground which was right next to the pavilion so we could see him as we were working. He LOVED the seesaw. His only problem was that he weighs so much less than all his cousins, so they didn't have much fun playing when it was his turn. He loves Emma, who's on the other side.

Grace & Faith came to his rescue and helped push him down to make sure Emma would get in the air. I took a turn with him for awhile when Grace was on the other side. He kept begging kids to go on, but he it wasn't much of a see-saw without help.

Caleb highly enjoyed his walks with Daddy. There was a lot to explore there, and the temperature was perfect.

Joshua wanted to swing, and Daddy said he didn't think it was a good idea. Somehow, he tried to go on anyway even with the puddles from the morning rain...

And he fell right into the water. His shirt & pants were soaked and covered in mud, as was he:

Thankfully, we had his swimsuit along and he wanted to swim anyway. The other kids were starting to play in the sand, even though the sand was a bit wet. I love Joshua's mischievous grin in this photo below. The girls were digging a pit and when they weren't looking, he'd kick sand in it. What a turkey! We shooed him away from such behavior, but he thought this was hysterical. He loved the attention from the girls.

Caleb was the picnic's official "cookie inspector." Doesn't he look so adorable?

Eventually, he fell asleep in Daddy's arms. I carried him around for a little while, then I suggested laying out our blanket so he could sleep. The closest thing handy was his hooded frog towel, so we laid him on it and he slept for a little while until it was time to eat. Then Joshua took it upon himself to wake up his little brother.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the food. I especially liked the pigs in a blanket that someone brought and the cheese ball. The cupcakes were also delicious! After lunch, some folks stayed at the pavilion area to chat while others went down to the beach to watch the kids swim. Still others played volleyball and other games. Here are Jen & Mike at the beach area with John. Below them is a picture of some of the volleyball players.

My dad's cousin's son, who is mentally handicapped, followed me around all day. I didn't mind at all, but I literally had a shadow. Brian is about a year older than me. Here he is with his mom, me and my sister.

The kids enjoyed the water. I was debating about getting in myself, but I knew we had plans that night and it was about time for us to leave. So I watched, took pictures and mingled until it was time to clean up and go.