Family Reunion 2009

The family reunion was again in Gleason, WI this year. This is the third year at this location and I still miss Irma. But, I guess if the family's there, it's still a blast. In previous years, 200 or more family members were in attendance. This year's attendance numbers were 139. Each year, everyone brings a dish to pass and donations for the raffle. We purchase tickets for the raffle and hope you don't get your own donation. Mom did this year. :) Money from the raffle goes to purchase meats for the next year and any items like plates, silverwear and napkins.

My cousin Johnny and his girlfriend, Jenn made the trip from Maryland for the reunion. They were so much fun to hang out with during the past week. I'm sad they had to leave. I hear they are hoping to move to Wisconsin in the next 2 to 3 years. Jenn will have to start a sweater/sweatshirt collection for when she moves here. Throughout the last week we had pizza and watched poker on Monday, Tuesday they went to MOA with Sam, had a Mexican feast on Wednesday where Johnny, Martin and Bob tested the new hot sauce and depleted Mom's milk supply. Thursday, they headed back to Joppa. It was a fun week.

Speaking of Martin, he is Sam's new boy. He seems very nice and didn't mind 4 of us, Johnny, Jenn, Bob and myself "interrogating" him about his future goals and my sister. He was a good sport and told Sam later, he thought we were easier on him than he expected. Note to self for future reference. LOL

The tent set-up crew consisted of Grandma Servi, Keah, Jenn and Johnny. My mom was the foreman reading the instructions.
Madeline driving the horses. You will note my daughter is the one waving to me. How could you ever miss her.

Our camping area. The reunion was at a lions club park. 20-25 campers or tents lined the perimeter.

Jed Norman Forster

Arrionna KayeLee Forster

Grandma Servi, aka Grandma Slurpee, aka GMA2

Jenn and Johnny. We differentiate our names with 1 n versus 2 n's. Very easy when writing, not so much when just speaking. Sam and I also kept catching ourselves saying Jenny and John. And, we all know how I feel about the -ny word. lol

Jenn and Sam. They really need to work on their weird faces.

Keah and me. She looks more and more like Bevy everyday. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Bevy. Bad niece, Bad!

Madeline Katherine Gray

Believe it or not, she is a big stinker just like her father. She tried to take me down in the field. It would have worked too had I not been concerned with tearing a tendon in my knee. The rest of the night if I smarted off to her, the response was "you wanna go out to the field?" Just like her father!!

Madeline and Bobber

Alex and Aubrey

Sunday morning, it was Alex's job to keep tabs on Aubrey. Alex decided quickly she didn't need a brother or sister anymore. LOL But, aren't they cute?!?! They picked flowers and pet the dogs at a neighboring tent.

Miss Alex

Joey Gray

I feel bad that I don't know his middle name. I'll have to ask Bevy.

The Tent removal service. The actual instructions read to take down the tent reverse the previous instructions. Wow.

Crystal Cave

I just don't know how this much time has passed already but..... We went to Crystal Cave over two weeks ago already. WOW. On the Wednesday prior, Alex saw a billboard for it as we were heading to the Farmer's Market downtown. After talking if over with Bob, we decided Alex could take a friend and we would go Saturday after I was done with work. Bobber later decided he didn't want to go saying, "if you've seen one hole in the ground....." And, while it was interesting, this cave did lack a little compared to Ruby Falls in Tennessee. Ruby Falls is the largest underground waterfall in the US. Simply amazing. So, back to Crystal Cave. We did learn facts about bats, which do not live there in the summer. Whew! And, the girls panned for gems after the tour. That was way cool. After panning and shopping for fudge, which was way too good, we went to the a Creamery and purchased squeeky fresh cheese curds. Yummy! It was a fun afternoon. I don't think we'll have to go back in the near future but it was something to check off the list. Next maybe we'll visit the House on the Rock. lol

Alex and Sydney

Looking for gems. Both of them found some nice gems. I think I was more excited about the panning than actually going into the cave.

8 year old State Queen

Here are pictures of Alex with her latest Crown. She is the 8 year old State of Wisconsin Queen. This title was won through North Star Elite. The crown itself has pink, purple and white crystals and is actually very heavy. She was very excited about her crown and we are extremely proud of her!!!

4th of July

Happy Belated 4th to everyone. We had a very relaxing day. Fortunately, HTI was closed and Bob was able to join us for the festivities Saturday evening. So, during the day, Alex and I went to run some errands and I found the cutest sundress. We bought groceries and glow bracelettes for all the kids. That evening, we went to Troy and Krista's for dinner with the Freeman family. Troy grills up a mean steak. Melt in your mouth good. We also had corn, potatoes, pasta salad, popcorn salad, homemade pickles and dessert made by Alex. I forgot to take a picture of the cupcakes she made. She frosted each star cupcake white and then decorated it with Blue and Red frosting. She did a great job. After dinner we went to our traditional fire work watching park. It's located between Cameron and Vine. And while there's no bathroom, it's a great place for the kids to run and play until 10. Afterwards, we went back to Troy and Krista's and watched the kids play with snaps, sparklers, smoke bombs and bottle rockets. Yes, Bob and Troy were considered part of the "kids" there.
We couldn't have asked for a better day. Thanks so much to the Klecker's for another fabulous 4th!!!

I don't really know what Alex is doing. She's a crazy kid.

Elizabeth
Alex

She loves those glow bracelettes

Heading for Home

The sunrise the morning we left. Way too early in the morning.

I guess you could say they were tired. :)

Charactors we Met

Princess Jasmine... I mean Princess Alex
Max. The first one we met and Alex wouldn't go stand by him for a picture. We got his autograph though.

Princess Aurora

The card we made in case we met Princess Jasmine. She wanted to bring Calla Lillies from home so, we compromised with making a card with Calla Lillies on it.

Jasmine, Alex and Aladdin

Alex with her FAVORITE Princess!!

Belle

Aurora again

Cinderella

Snow White

Us with Ariel. I asked her if she wanted to borrow my dinglehopper. She said Prince Eric said there's other kinds of dinglehoppers to comb ones hair with now. LOL

Mulan

Fairy Godmother

Irredessa, Not really sure how to spell it.

Gettin' Sassy with Tinkerbell

Rosetta

Chip and Dale. They thought it was cool that they had their own pages to autograph. But when they noticed they weren't on any of our shirts, Chip went off to cry. Dale comforted him. I told them next time we would wear them on our shirts.