reunion day two

after breakfast and a bike ride for randy on the greenbelt, we headed to the water park with randy's cousin, bryan, and my sister-in-law and her kids.

two bathing beauties

we had a great day at the water park and then headed over to municipal park for an evening picnic with the whole group.

marte and diane



omi, kim, and lainey



carsten, on the move



jeanie and diane



madeleine and lainey



madeleine and calli



bryan and calli





ruth anne and diane

madeleine was not very happy with me when i loaded her in the car and made her come home with me. this was a theme throughout the reunion.

reunion day one

made the long trip up to boise thursday morning,

went immediately out to grammy's backyard and got out the toys



found a watering can and tended to the garden





and then the cousins arrived and the fun really began.



diane and kyle



lainey



madeleine



calli



these girls already know what it's all about. sitting around the food and gabbing.





catching up



looking through old photos and reminiscing

i loved the sound of memories pouring out and filling the air in thick german and southern accents.

moll family reunion

over a long fourth of july weekend, we headed up to boise for a moll family reunion. randy's mom has been planning this reunion with her cousin for several months and it finally happened last weekend. it came together wonderfully and we had a great time. as you should expect by now, i will flood you with several posts about the weekend, containing hundreds of pictures. perhaps not an exaggeration.

as a great visual for the reunion, my mother-in-law made some genealogy charts and hung pictures of the moll ancestors above it. jeanie had several cousins who came, many of whom she has not seen in almost forty years. here are some pictures from the weekend of those who were able to make it.

this is the only picture i have of jeanie and all of her cousins. we did get a big group shot as well, but i don't have that one either.

jeanie's cousins: mark and lee (in the middle), with mark's wife, carolyn, and lee's boyfriend, david

jeanie's cousins: susan, bill, and betsy

jeanie's family: marte, jeanie, marion, and ruth anne

jeanie's family and spouses: bob, jeanie, marte, marion, chuck, ruth anne

kyle, randy, jeanie, bob (i believe kim and i were off chasing the kids)

marion (omi) and susan were the family historians for the weekend, providing great information about who was who in photographs and telling great stories. omi, because she was the oldest attendee and only one still living from her generation and susan, because she is the oldest of the cousins.

it was really fun to get to know jeanie's family and see her reconnect with all of her cousins. it made me glad that i am so close to so many of my cousins.

swimming with the cousins

audrey and joseph were in town with their kids yesterday, so we met up at my aunt and uncle's house to spend some time in their pool. madeleine could not have been more excited. swimming and cousins all at once. what could be better?

diane opted to nap through most of it.







(it was very bright)

austin and matthew have been taking swim lessons and were two little fish in the water the whole time.

elizabeth looks so grown up all of the sudden. one of the things i hate about audrey living two hours away is that i don't see them every week and i feel like the kids are completely different whenever i see them. who is this tall, skinny girl that is running around?

elizabeth found madeleine's sunglasses and loved them.

i was trying to take pictures of madeleine but she was too busy to look at the camera and wouldn't be bothered.

when it was all over, we packed up and went to leave and madeleine tried to climb into audrey and joseph's car. she did not want to leave her cousins. she cried when i finally pried her out of the car and made her come home with me. sad times.

harvest

i just got home from almost a week away (more on that to come) and came home to a bounteous harvest from my garden.

sugar snap peas



the last of my spinach.

and carrots galore. these suckers are hard to harvest. i had to really dig around them to loosen up the soil before i could finally pull them out. and even then (as you can see), i had a few casualties.

this was a fun one to dig up.

i am looking forward to more of the same, as well as some new veggies. zucchinis are coming and i know they will be huge in the blink of an eye. the peppers are starting to change color and the tomatoes are fruiting, but not ripe yet. those can't come fast enough. everything else is still coming along. sick of hearing about it yet? just wait until the fruit trees give me something to talk about...