{Our Visit with the Heinkels}

My mom's side of the family holds an annual reunion every summer.  This year was number 29!  There must have been between 40-50 from the two sides of the family (my grandpa and his brother).  This year all but my brother and two cousins were there from our side of the family.  Pretty cool.  My Uncle Dale coordinated the event at a beautiful park in Freeport, IL.  The shelter house sat up on a hill with a nice overlook and a waterfall was right by us...as well as a playground.

This is the big group with both sides of the family

This is just our side

These are the cousins and spouses present

Cousin Jen and me catching up

Daddy and Chase go on an adventure with Uncle Dale

2nd cousins Chase and Alex

We had lots of fun staying at Grandma and Grandpa Heinkel's 125 year old farm house.  It is always an adventure there because so many of us end up staying there and it's a race to the bathroom, because there is just one!  Chase loved running around in the great outdoors and there were about 6 new farm kitties that had recently been born.  She loved those.  So did daddy!  She named two of them Shadow and Tiger.  You can probably guess their coloring.

It's always a tradition to go to church as a family on Sunday morning and then Grandpa takes us all out for breakfast.  I think this year it was 20 of us.  Thanks Grandpa for making sure we all get fed well!

This year so many were staying at their house that two couples slept on the grounds in a tent and a Jeep!  That's a full house.  Cards were played (not by my little family though), lots of visiting was done, always eating good food (especially the local cheese!)

It was a great stay in the country.  It is a different world than we are used to for sure.  But it is a treat to be able to experience something new and different.  And I have lots of childhood memories there.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for hosting everyone!!