End of School & Family Reunion

With the last day of school over, our summer began.

Here's Lucy waiting for her turn to go up at the award's assembly.

Kindergartener EJ got to bring a bear to school on teddy bear day. He always can't wait to remove the fun hats his dear teacher would send him home wearing.


So, we started our summer with a LONG drive to my father's family's annual reunion up in the foothills of the Sierra Madres--golden hills studded with California Oaks. If you are aged or have health problems, or have a baby who froze last night in your tent, you can sleep in Great Uncle's farm house. Otherwise, you sleep in your own RV, trailer, or tent. In our case, our family of six no longer fits in our big tent, so we now have two.



We eat large, splurge (in our estimation) meals, with dessert after lunch as well as after dinner. You spend all of your other time chatting, taking a hike, swimming, or playing a number of games--some depending upon whether you can gather up a group: frisbee golf, bounce volleyball (one bounce on the ground allows a wider range of ages to participate and makes for some long volleys), over-the-line, horseshoes, jungle ball in the pool, swinging on the tire, Bocci, badmitton, crochet, Loopie ball (with tennis balls connected with rope and a PVC pipe ladder), wandering, poking in the dirt and mud, and various other lawn games or table games on one of the spacious porches.


The ultimate table game of all time in our family is Pollyanna, a long-time family game based upon the game of the same name made by Parker Brothers. The story goes that a relative drew a version of the game on a tablecloth after the original game board wore out. Over time, my grandmother began woodburning it onto plywood, finishing it off with four colors of paint and varnish. Now, every year, there are Pollyanna champions.


Each year, there's an auction which includes store-bought, homemade, or second-hand items donated by family members. They proceeds of the auction go toward reunion expenses as well as Great Uncle's reunion-related improvements on the grounds. Over the years, he has extended his wrap around porch, added a pool and hot tub, built a covered concrete eating area complete with tables, chairs, counter space, refrigerator, sinks, stovetop, and grill.

We all had a great time and loved seeing everyone, but boy, was the drive long with four kids, including Little Bit. I usually extend the family reunion trip to include a visit to my mom and friends in the SF area, but I decided it was too much for me this year, especially because we have one car at the moment.