We arrived Saturday night. Mike's brother had made plans to be with his friend a couple hours away, so we called his aunts and uncles to see if they were available to meet with and catch up. His mom's sister, Carolyn, invited us over for dinner on Saturday night. When we arrived it wasn't just them, but Joanne (a sister) and husband, their daughter and grand-daughter, plus another set of cousins on this side with their daughter, plus a close family friend. Two of Carolyn's grandsons arrived to spend the night and we got to see his other cousin very quickly. What a treat for us to catch up with family that we usually only get to see at holidays! Samantha and Amanda hadn't gone with their parents and had decided to head out to Carolyn's as well to see everyone.
I don't think I could have worked any harder to take a worse picture of all the grand-kids!
Amanda, Samantha, and Maddie headed out a little early to shop at the mall. We called them later and offered to meet them at Whitey's for ice cream. It was packed and eating outside was cold. We all squeezed into our car and enjoyed our delicious treats! Some of us {ahem...} might have been wrapped up in a blanket to combat the cold.
Jake is our resident tea lover and he was thrilled to see that our hotel-supplied breakfast included hot tea. He was in heaven!
Sunday morning we got ready and headed over to Pat & Missy's. We spent a little time catching up with them before heading out to meet Mike's other side of the family. His dad's sisters had been so nice in helping us find a time to meet up with them while we were there. They invited us to a graduation party for a second-cousin of Mike's where they would all be attending at once. We crashed this party and got to meet up with his three aunts, plus a boat-load of cousins. I was so busy talking with people that I didn't get a chance to take any pictures before we suddenly realized we had to leave to get to Amanda's graduation on time. We were disappointed to not spend more time with everyone (we missed out on chatting with LOTS of family...this side of the family is HUGE!). Still, we were very grateful that everyone was able to set aside even a little bit of time so we could squeeze in a visit!
The big event...Amanda's graduation! We had managed to take some family pictures beforehand at Pat & Missy's house:
Pat and Missy had saved us some seats with them, thank goodness.
Then suddenly she was graduating...
I was extremely disappointed that they didn't throw caps, but I had expected it after Steven's graduation. Samantha has vowed to get her class to throw caps next year. I'll have my camera ready!
We all headed back to their house for a quick dinner and we were on the road again. Maddie and Jake still had school the next day (and finals) and we knew we were in for a very late arrival. Congrats, Amanda and we look forward to seeing all you are going to accomplish!
1 comment:
thank you so much for taking pictures. Loved visiting with you guys.
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