July: White Family Reunion

Early on July 20th, the three of us headed out in our orange Element for two weeks of vacation in beautiful Michigan. I hadn't been to my grandparents cabin in two years and this was Joe's and Leah's first trip to Marysfield. In addition, my entire immediate family was going to be there. Needless to say, I was really excited.

This was Leah's first big road trip and she did wonderfully. It was only at the tail end of the trip that she began to dread getting back into that car. Her body language and face screamed, "please no, not the car again!!!" But, I would carry her in and after a very short bit, she would get used to the small space that was her home for the day. She really was a road trip natural - she must get that from my side. Anyway, we made pretty good time and took a moonlit walk down to the beach before cuddling up for the night.

After a week of fun with the Dillons and my family, the rest of the relatives began to trickle into Montague, MI for the big reunion week. In all, there were (I believe) 116 of us -- my grandmother, all of her children and a great many of their children with their children (do you follow?). It was a pretty good turnout, don't you think?! Take a look:

We even had a very special guest, Bishop Conley, in attendance!

We spent lots of time at the beach and Leah absolutely loved the lake. It helped a lot that the water was unusually warm and beautifully clear. We also spent a good amount of time watching potatoes, glow sticks(my favorite!), and other various things being shot out of Uncle Tom's awesome spud gun (pictured above, front and center.)

Here are a few pictures from our vacation:

Celebrating Mom's (Guggie's) Birthday:


Lots of naps on the beach:


Notice Joe's hat. I spent lots of my time at the beach keeping an eye out for this hat. Joe was so thrilled at the idea that there were no sharks in the Lake (unlike the ocean at home) that he would swim far far far out into the lake where no one could rescue him. Anyway, I watched for his hat to pop up out of the water every minute or so.


We saw some spectacular sunsets






Lots of cousin time!






See the kites? Well, I think you can only see two of them - Joe's stunt kites (which were a big hit). I wish I could have gotten a picture of my dad flying his kite. It was amazingly high. Dad was far out in the water and the kite was sailing strong high high above the bluff. So cool.


The beach (which is usually quiet and empty) during Reunion week:




Leah got to be a very very good swimmer:




And I just have to include a couple videos:

We had a wonderful time in Michigan and I can't wait to go back again. It truly is a special place!