Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Weekend at Natalie's

This past week we ended our week long family reunion/vacation at my sister Natalie and her husband Adam's house. They live on a lake on the eastern side of the state. They have a good size house, but for 11 adults and 11 kids, it was a little crowded. We still managed to have a great time, and we decided that my sister Natalie was the perfect sibling to host all of us at her house, because she is the only one that was not bothered by the constant state of messiness in her house. No matter how much you clean up, with that many people there will always be a mess somewhere. We asked Natalie if it was stressing her out having her house such a mess, and she said "not one bit".

I took a ton of pictures, and tried to upload as many of them as I could throughout the day, but we had a little accident this afternoon which put a halt to all of that. Tony dumped water on the laptop so my it no longer works. All my pictures are on it, thankfully I was able to get the laptop to the farms computer specialist and he was able to back up my hard drive so when I get my new computer I will get all my pictures back with it. In the mean time I'll share what I had already uploaded.

My son Tony and my niece Grace had many battles over this little chair. Too bad they are too young for Place Backs. To read about "place backs" go HERE to my sister Rachael's blog.
Bella was the center piece to dinner one night.

My Brother's wife Lisa and her daughter Grace
My niece Hannah (Also my brother's kid)
My niece Katya and nephew Ben playing on the boat together. (Rach's kids)
Tubing on the lake. My brother in Law Adam is merciless when it comes to tubing. We had hand signals for speed up, slow down, even out and stop! He ignored all of them except stop. There were definitely times where we were a little scared.
My step dad Bob on the left, me in the middle in the sumo tube, and my brother Ryan, on the right.
My sister Natalie in the Sumo Tube.
My sister Rachael.
I didn't let Tony go out on the boat, but he had fun playing in the sumo tube on the dock.
My sister Shannon and Bella.
Tony eating a fudge pop. I tried to take it away just so I could hold it for him to not make such a mess, but there was no way he'd let me pry it out of his hand.
My nephew Ben blowing bubbles with Natalie's dog Walter. Ben thought it was rather funny when Walter would try to eat them.
Walter loves the boat, he usually got left on the dock since the boat was too full, but a few times he got to go along. He can't swim, but he hung over the side of the boat trying to eat the waves.
Adam letting Katya drive the boat. He pushed her in the water and she got mad at him, so he let her drive. She went from "I hate Adam" to happily sitting on his lap in about 5 seconds.
Nat was the first brave soul to demonstrate the sumo tube.
My dad with all his 11 grandkids. My two kids are of course both acting up.
My brother Ryan, his son Ryan and my step-dad Bob.
My mom with all her grandkids. I think this must have been take 1, since no one is looking at the camera. Dont worry mom, I'm sure I have a better one than this to send you.
Me and Tony with my dad.
My sister Francie and Bella.
Tony having breakfast on the deck.
My mom and Francie with my two kids.
My nephew Matt (brothers kid) and Kristen (Rach's kid)
Shannon and my nephew Ryan tubing.

7 comments:

Elle J said...

What great pictures!! That boat ride and tubing looks wild. Glad you have a bunch in your family willing for adventure! Looks like a great family! :)

PrincessGreen17 said...

Great pictures! I had fun just looking at them. Y'all must have had a blast & made some great memories! LOL at your kids crying and being backwards in the pic with your dad. :) Tony's hair looks blonde in the last few!

Rachael said...

Great pics! I love your camera!!

Bummer about your computer. Glad you could save everything, but what a pain.

That was pretty funny about what Nat said about her house -- there was stuff strewn from top to bottom and she was totally relaxed about it!

Natalie said...

dido on those being good pictues, and Adam being cruel about the speed of the tubes. I've learned how to hang on, because it's that or not go at all, because he wont slow down for me either. You just have to take it rough or leave it unfortunately. I think it was peaceful haveing a messy house because for once I had an excuse. did you notice the one picture of the 3 tubes, that the sumo one going sideways was Ryan wiping out, the one that had us all laughing uncontrollably.

Tina in CT said...

Wish I'd been there. Your family is just so neat.

I hadn't known that your father came up from OK.

From the pictures, I can see that Adam likes to go fast in the boat. It's hang on for dear life or wipe out.

Did you get your mom on the tube?

After everyone left, you and Adam must have been doing some serious cleaning. I bet your washer/dryer never stopped all weekend with towels and sheets.

I've never gotten to do big family things like that as I am an only, my daughter is an only and I only have two cousins.

BabyMakes4 said...

That looks like so much fun!! I'm glad you had a good vacation.

Paula said...

The pics are fantastic! What a great time!