Family reunion #1

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In Michigan we know how to make the most of heavenly summer days. November through April - half the year - we wrap every bit of our bodies except our eyeballs in layers of down, Thinsulate and wool to go out in cold, snow and freezing rain. Evening is coming on by 4:30, and after soup for supper we light candles and read by the woodstove. (I actually love winter.) So when abundant June, July and August warm up the stage, we take advantage. Don and I both come from large extended families, and we have three family reunions, one for each month of summer. Two of them are one week apart, Don's family's at the end of June, and mine over the 4th of July holiday at the lake cottage. Then we have a third gathering for my family at our farm the first week of August, which we call Farm Day. (Last year's Farm Day was Farm Wedding Day.)

Yesterday was Don's family's - Reunion #1 - at his second cousin's farm, over in the thumb. When you live in Michigan, and you want to explain where you live, you hold up your hand, and point. We drove about an hour and a half to get there.

You can't choose the family you're born into, or adopted into, so if you like them, it is one of the good fortunes of life. You can choose the family you marry into, so if you don't like them, it's really your own fault. Or maybe you bear your in-laws with gritted teeth, because your partner is so winsome that you're willing to pay the price. Well I have had good fortune both in my biological family and my married family.

The farm wagon was covered with green salads, bean salads, fruit salads, 
fried chicken, baked chicken, chicken salad, 
baked beans and taco salad,
but desserts are the most important part, 

especially Jolie's flag cake, which she unveils to cheers every year;
this reunion is always just a few days before the 4th of July.

Michigan berries are world famous; this American flag was stitched
with blueberry stars and raspberry stripes.

To put icing on the cake, my husband's family reunion on the final Saturday of June every year is at the farm of Don's second cousin Cheryl and her husband Pete. I know I usually try to sound positive, so I wonder if you think I wear rose-colored glasses. Maybe sometimes I do look for silver linings, but I am not positivizing anything when I say that Cheryl is one of the coolest and favorite people in my acquaintance. You can see from these photos how she and Pete have saturated their farm with loving attention. It's like a personal park. In the photo below, you can see Cheryl in turquoise welcoming young distant cousins with a Hello, Cousin! and a kiss, making everyone giggle as the boys wiggle. By the time she got around the table to the eighth little one, he was hiding under the table. But I know he still adores her, you just can't help it.

There is a pond, and it was plenty warm for all the kids to swim and play on the raft; 

then they played on the farm equipment.

You can guess that Pete and his son Todd run a landscaping business. 
(In the winter they specialize in snow removal.)
One of their specialties is crafting with stone, like this yard chair where Nickie is wiggling
(he's the one who hid under the table from Cheryl's smooches); 
it's anchored in the ground and bounces when you sit on it;
they put the stones on the wall of this barn,
and the fireplace and window sill below that in their family room.

I'm sorry, I am not a thinking photographer. I should have gathered everyone in one shot for a full frontal family picture of the forty or so of us.There were many missing this year, including our Lesley & Brian, and Peter.

I wonder if you have family reunions in your neck of the woods, and if you do, what you eat, what activities you do, and how far people travel? Do you meet at someone's home, or in a park, or a hall?

I really hate saying this, because I don't like it when someone else says it, but here I go: Why does it seem that as soon as summer begins, it feels as if it's already coming to an end?

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