KY Reunion 2013

Last week we traveled to Camp Waltman Lake, north of Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the annual gathering of the Kentucky Reunion! 

Camp Waltman Lake

What is the Kentucky Reunion, you might ask?  To make a long story short...my parents volunteered with the Mennonite Central Committee soon after they were married, and lived in a house with other volunteers.  They grew close, and have since met every summer for a "family" reunion somewhere in the US.  After many marriages and children adding to our numbers, we have over 40 people in the group now!  The KY Reunion week is always a highlight of the year for us, and this week was no exception!

Yes, we are a crazy bunch...

Camp Waltman Lake was a beautiful setting for our group.  At the camp we swam and boated in the lake, organized an "adventure race", had several tournaments (corn hole, ping-pong, etc.), worshiped together and, of course, played lots of Werewolf!

Singing together

Ping-pong tournament

The lake was a lot of fun!

Adventure race

Adventure race winners!

Playing with the kids

Cornhole!

Phil presents a Werewolf defense

We also took several day trips during the week...
...to Millennium Park, where there was a nice beach:

...to a petting zoo full of familiar and exotic animals:

...to a dairy, where we toured the farm and drank our bottomless cups of milk:

Styling with our red sanitation caps!

...and out for ice cream one evening!

It was a special treat to get to spend much of the week with Caroline and Andrew!

At the end of the week, we continued the tradition of waving each other off as each car left.  As always, it was hard to say goodbye, but we are already looking forward to next year!

News from North Carolina

Sorry for the long delay in blog posts recently!  Jonathan and I have been busy traveling around North Carolina, visiting with Jonathan's family and some of our college friends.

We started out in Greensboro with Jonathan's parents, helping out with some house projects, getting Jonathan's car fixed, visiting the  new SciQuarium at the Science Center, enjoying meals together, and I even experienced my first AquaZumba class!  One day we also drove down to Charlotte to visit Tim, Andrew, and Meghan in their new homes.

Dinner at Tim's new apartment

Go Deacs!

The Queen City!

Next, we traveled to Winston-Salem, where we stayed with Larry and Susan Jones.  We went on a classic Larry Jones morning run, saw a play at the Theater Alliance, and reconnected with NC barbeque at Little Richards!  It was also great to see some friends from college, including Joel, Jamie, Jack, and Grant Grim.  Jonathan and Jack quickly became BFFs!

Visiting with the Jones' and the Grims

On Sunday morning, we visited with the Trollinger family and joined them for worship at Hope Church.  We loved seeing our church family there in the beautiful new church building!!

That afternoon, on our way back to Greensboro, we rejoined Mom and Dad Newman for an afternoon hike at Hanging Rock State Park.

Next stop: the beach!  We spent several days at Figure Eight Island with Jonathan's extended family.  Before everyone arrived, we celebrated our 3rd anniversary with dinner at La Brasserie du Soleil, a delightfully French restaurant near Wrightsville Beach.

On Figure Eight Island, we made some sand creations, swam in the ocean, played games, and joined in the fun Fourth of July celebrations.

Our Sand Dragon!

A sand castle and sand pyramid

Fourth of July at Figure Eight Island

"The Girls"

Fourth of July Picnic

Grandfather and Grandmother waiting for the fireworks!

 This summer is just flying by!  Our next adventure will take us to Camp Waltman Lake, Michigan, for KY Reunion 2013...