For a few years now, I have been wanting to have all my family come for a visit. Well this year, I finally made it happen. I sent out the feelers back in January, and over the next few weeks, we had it all pretty much planned for the second weekend in June.
A few weeks before everyone was to arrive, I starting thinking about the idea of designing a t-shirt to commemorate the occasion. After talking with Mom about a few different options, I visited my trusted old t-shirt designing website, to see what their costs would be. At about $9.00 a t-shirt, I felt confident that I could present this price, and it would be affordable for
everyone to purchase how ever many they would need for their respective family. But before I could put the question out there, Dad was Kind enough to offer to buy ALL the t-shirts. How Amazing was that? His thought being that this was a Very Special Occasion... who knew if we would ever all be together again like this. THANK YOU DAD!!!
So with that said, I got serious about designing the shirts. I wanted the weekend to have some kind of Title, but was having trouble coming up with one. And then it hit me!! None of this weekend would even be possible without these two Amazing People...
Maxine and Gene Edwards, my Mom and Aunt Debbie's parents. Thanks to them having two girls, and the First Letter of their last name, this Weekend, and it's Title, was made possible.
Thank You Grandma and Grandpa. You both left us back in the 90's to go to heaven, but we all still think about you every day. We all Love and Miss you!!
And so...
let T.H.E. F.L.I.C.K. Family Weekend Commence.
I know, I know, our family's last name is not Flick. The words THE FLICK used the first letter of all of our last names, including Grandma and Grandpa's.
Everyone was due to arrive on Thursday evening, June 9th. Thanks to some wonderful friends here in the neighborhood, I was able to "borrow" two homes for everyone to stay in. In both homes, on each person's bed, this is what they found when they arrived.
Their new t-shirt, and a Welcome Goody Bag. The goody bag was tagged with their name, and labeled. The label had our Title, and a little picture of Grandma and Grandpa. The Title was specialized in that the letter "E" was signified by one color, and then that family member's last name Initial was signified by another color.
My sister and her family arrived first. They surprised me by leaving the day before, so they didn't have nearly as far to drive the second day. Luke and Grey, right away, took to their cousin Zach, and within minutes were enjoying a game of Chase.
Over the next few hours, the rest of the family started to arrive. Once they were all there, I can't even begin to tell you how Amazing it was to have All my family sitting around in my tiny little house. There were a total of 20 of us - 10 adults and 10 kids, ranging in age from 2 to 16.
It was going to be a Fun weekend, Indeed!!
Friday morning dawned sunny and hot. First order of business, was for Grandpa Charles to give his three grandsons each, a very special gift. A friend of his in New Mexico, had lovingly, Custom Built a Fishing Rod for all three boys.
After making a boat load of sandwiches, and packing the coolers with plenty to drink, we all headed down to the beach. It was going to be a hot one that day, so we had set up the canopy for a little much needed shade, but mostly, everyone stayed in the water. Including Aunt Debbie, who had fun playing with her Grand-daughter Joslynn.
The older boys did take a break, however. Hopefully, at this point, they are remembering to put on more sunscreen... NOT!
I finally coerced all the older kids to come to the end of the dock with me so I could get some pics of them jumping off the pilings. Reluctantly, at first, they followed. And I'm so glad they did, because we got some really great shots (and I did some fun editing).
After the Big cousins jumped off the pilings, I wanted to try to also capture the Little cousins jumping off the dock.
Grey. Funny story... a few times after this pic was shot, Grey made a jump that did not have a pretty landing. Meaning, he couldn't get his footing, and was struggling to keep his face out of the water... meaning, he swallowed a lot of lake water. It's now the middle of August, and he's never jumped off the dock since.
Mr. Grey and Miss Joslynn had a great time in the water.
I can't remember the story behind this next pic... either she was trying to put her face in the water or she was trying to blow bubbles. Needless to say, she inhaled quite a bit of H2O.
Everyone had a Great time at the beach that day, but Way Too Little sunscreen was applied, and we would all pay for it the following day.
That evening, before we all sat down to a yummy dinner of Spaghetti and Meatballs, Garlic Bread and Salad, we took the Big Family Photo. I set the camera up on a tri-pod and used my remote shutter release. I think I took about 30 pics hoping to get a least one good one. Unfortunately, no such luck. But, Fortunately, thanks to the power of Facebook, I was able to find a friend (thanks Dave) who was kind enough to take a couple of the pics and work some amazing Photoshop Magic. And so...
T.H.E. F.L.I.C.K. Family
Back Row - L/R: Matt Koons, Natasha Koons, Megan Lainhart, Debbie Tippet, Sandy Charles, Tony Isaacs, Larry Charles, April Isaacs, Marc Faucheux, Grey Faucheux, Kristi Faucheux. Middle Row - L/R: Jerrad Tippet, Morgan Koons, Cole Lainhart, Zach Isaacs, Miranda Isaacs.
Bottom Row - L/R: Joslynn Horning, Luke Faucheux, AJ Horning, Matthew Koons.
I also tried to get a pic of all the kids, but the light was fading and they were all moving. So the shot is a little fuzzy.
On Saturday morning, Marc, Tony and Matt got up at the crack of dawn to go Striper fishing with one of our neighbors. When they got home, all the little cousins got a kick out of seeing their catch.
Then someone convinced Matthew he needed to Kiss one of the fish. I could never catch him in the actual act of kissing, but these two shots are cute none the less.
The rest of the day was pretty low key. All of us girls went to the Farmer's Market after the guys returned from fishing, and then after lunch we went over to one of the other houses to hang out. The Judy's home was way more conducive to holding all twenty of us, plus they had a ping pong table. So Saturday afternoon was spent recuperating from our sunburns, visiting, and playing some serious pong. Good thing we were inside, because a nasty summer thunderstorm blew in.
That evening was, in my mind, our Big Night. I was going to attempt to take family portraits of every one. After a quick dinner of Big Cheese Pizza, we headed down to the Point to take the pictures. Of course, you all know me, I was in total panic mode. We didn't get down there as early as I wanted, so I was freaking out that we were going to lose the light before we were done... and it looked like the storm was coming back. I apologize to my family... I was mean!! I was yelling at everyone, and just not being nice. Sorry, I was just Stressed!!!
Regardless, I think they all turned out pretty good.
First up, the Whole Charles Clan...
The Koons' Family + One
The Whole Tippet Clan...
The Isaacs Family
The Faucheux Family
The Charles Grandkids
and finally, the Lainhart/Horning Family. Little Miss Joslynn was not in the picture taking mood, so after countless attempts throughout the evening, this is what we finally got.
AJ, Megan, Cole and Joslynn
Then one last shot that I wanted to try to get, was of all the Little Cousins. I had gotten the Big Cousins the day before on the dock, now for the Littles... yeah right! Grey was just not having it... as far as laying on his belly that is.
When we got back to the house, I still had my camera out, I just kept snapping away.
Mr AJ was quite the little Ham. I literally could have filled this entire blog post with all the silly faces and priceless expressions he made whenever I pointed the camera in his direction. When I took the picture above, I had asked him to be my little model. He eagerly obliged.
Then there's Matthew. Oh Matthew!! Not sure how my cousin does it. This is Quite the Spirited little boy. That Spirit is not coming through in this shot, but I have to say, this is probably my favorite picture from the whole weekend. This shot shows the Serious, Still, Quiet, Matthew... a very rare moment in this little boy's Mama's life.
And of course, Zach. He didn't want to be left out. He is the youngest of the Big Cousins, but wanted me take a picture of him jumping off the swing. So maybe he is the oldest of the Little Cousins.
Saturday night was Girls Night. The men were in charge of the kids so me, April, Natasha and Megan could hang out, eat popcorn, and play Euker. I don't really remember how much Euker was actually played... we mostly just talked and reminisced. Funny Story... I learned that Natasha, was so traumatized by the fact that when her and Megan were little and they were sent to bed rather than being able to stay up to play Euker and eat popcorn, she joined the Euker club in high school and became quite the little champion. Classic!!
Sunday was a day of pretty much nothing. Marc took Jerrad and Cole fishing at the Hunt Camp in the morning, but other than that, we pretty much sat around and visited. I guess we were all awaiting the big dinner that night - Hawaiian Steak, Baked Potato and Salad. This meal was a favorite of ours when us four girls (me, April, Natasha and Megan) were growing up. We couldn't wait... Natasha being the most excited. She was the one who requested it for the weekend.
Since we hadn't been back to the beach since Friday, because we were nursing our sunburns, we decided we would go for a little evening swim after dinner. Once we had filled our bellies with the much anticipated deliciousness, had sung and ate cake for Morgan's upcoming Birthday, we headed down to the beach.
What a beautiful evening God bestowed upon us.
Love this picture of my Dad!! What is he thinking? "I am so blessed to have a wonderful family"? or "Thank God this weekend is almost over"? or probably a little bit of both.
and Luke insisted that he didn't want to put on his swim suit, but once at the beach, and everyone else was in the water, he needed to swim. So in to the water in his undies he went.
Monday morning dawned, and it was time to say our goodbyes. April and her family got up early and headed to Norfolk to see the battleships, so they would be back that night and then say goodbye to us the following morning.
This is me and my Bestest most Favoritest Cousin, Natasha! We were crying and blubbering like crazy, but also trying to plan another get together for next summer.
By 10:00am, they were all gone :(
Well, except for Mom and Dad. They weren't due to leave until the following morning, so after everyone left, we all headed into Fredericksburg to take Grey to have his 2yr. old pictures taken.
all my family had gone :(
What an Amazing weekend we had had!! It is something we will all Remember for a Very Long time!! And, I truly hope we can do it again... every summer hopefully.
Once they had all left, I went about getting the houses we had "borrowed" back in order. Most importantly the LeFevre home. After remaking the beds and cleaning, I set about preforming the most important task...
Hanging this sign!
Doug LeFevre, along with his wife Maria, and they're two kids, Dillon and Morgan, were due to arrive at their lake home the following day. This was Doug's first time back to the Lake in over a year. The previous Friday, he had returned safely after a Year's Tour of Duty in Iraq. As a way to thank them for the use of their home for my family, and to Welcome him Home, I wanted to make this for them.
I want to also thank the Judy family for the use of their home. It was a Big Help in More ways than one.
I want to Thank all of my Family, from the bottom of my heart, for taking the time to have this little adventure. I know the drive here, and home, was LONG (but thanks to April's creative GPS'ing, we now know of a shorter route).
So with that said... let's start planning...
T.H.E. F.L.I.C.K. Family Weekend, Summer 2012!!
I LOVE YOU ALL
