Family Reunion

Over the weekend, we headed to a State Park a couple of hours away for a family reunion on my stepfather's side. Family members came from Louisiana, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, and of course Ohio. A total of 57 (36 adults and 21 children) out of a possible 63 relatives showed up for a 90% attendance record! In Uncle Ron's words, "Looking at our geographic diversity, that was quite a feat."

We had a great time hanging out with family, many of whom we met for the first time. Addison had an absolute blast swimming and playing with all of her cousins and even more so, her Gammy and Poppy.

Addison was so excited to get there and couldn't wait to sleep in the lodge! We arrived Saturday morning. Chase slept almost the whole way and Addison sang her songs and asked us a million questions (typical...she doesn't ever stop talking!) about what we would be doing on "vacation".

After saying our hello's to everyone and watching an animal show in the lobby, we headed for the pool. It was already 90 degrees and we needed a refreshing dip!









Aunt Chris and Chase


It was hard to get Addison in from the pool, but it was time for family pictures.

The Deger Clan (we're in the red)

The Phil Deger Clan

Us. :)

Next up was dinner and slide show, after another quick dip in the pool for our little fishy!

Our ice cream lover!

We all took an after dinner walk to the lake (well some ran down a huge hill to get there, which Addison wanted to attempt and I said no to because I saw broken ankles in our future).

Addison saw her first fireflies. She's never been out past dark in the summer before. She loved it!

This picture is out of focus but I thought it was kinda artistic.

Racing Daddy back to the lodge.

Addison slept in Gammy and Poppy's room that night, while Chase, Dustin and I slept in an adjoining room. Addison got 7 hours of sleep (Sorry, Mom and Phil!). Not good when she is used to getting 11 or so! Stay tuned to how this affected her later. :)

Once our room awoke (Thanks Mom and Phil...Dustin's one wish for Father's Day was to sleep in!), we hit up breakfast and then the beach. Chase napped while Addison swam in the lake and played in the sand.

I wasn't successful in building a sand castle with the big green bucket, so Dustin wanted to show me how it was done.

The moment of truth.

Haaaaa Haaaa! Nice job, babe.

Attempt #2.

"BOOYAH!"

3 seconds later.

Phil thought he could do better.

Fail. :)

After the beach, we took another swim, had lunch and hit the road. It was 2pm, which was an hour past when our darlings usually nap so I figured they'd sleep on the way home. We arrived home at 4:30 and they were both still sleeping in their car seats. We left the car on for them and started unloading. Chase finally woke up. At around 5:30, Addison was still asleep, which I didn't think would fare well for bedtime, so I decided to wake her up. I first tried to gently rub her arms and legs and softly talk to her. When that didn't work, I upstrapped her from her car seat just certain that would do the trick. It didn't. So, I carried her upstairs, laid her on her bed, turned on all of her lights and loudly put her clothes away and organized her closet. At 6:30, I decided that I REALLY had to wake her so I climbed into her bed and eventually got her to a coherent state. I had never seen her like that...it was almost scary! She was so exhausted (and we are pretty sure dehydrated). Needless to say, she went back down for the night at 8:30pm!