What Happens on the 3rd Sunday in July?

 The Huffmans get together for their annual family reunion, that's what!

(my family of 7, plus my parents, my Aunt Helen visiting from Chicago, and my brother David who drove down from Pennsylvania)

This year was special: the 50th time this group reunioned!  (I know that's not really a word, but a workshop I attended at the homeschool convention back in June liberated me from strict grammar rules, so now I feel quite free to make up words as needed.)  ;-)

(the people listed above, plus my Uncle Rufus and Aunt Elaine, and their sons Matt with his wife Megan and new baby girl Sidney and Tim with his wife Amber and their daughter Kinley...this was just one of the branches of the family tree that was there, but this is a pretty big branch)  :)

I remember that first reunion well...

OK, I don't.  I didn't get to be born until 13 years later.  ;-)  But the couple I sat across from today remembered that reunion.  Paul is 97 and Anna is 94, and they've been married 74 years!  :)  During the review of family history today, it was mentioned that the Huffmans have longevity in their genes; and Paul and Anna are a great display of that (although since Anna married into the family, she doesn't have the Huffman genes, of course...but I guess the longevity can even rub off by marriage which is good news for Jeff).  ;-)

There are certainly aspects of the reunion that I enjoy every year, and this year was no exception; but the best part by far of the 2013 reunion was that my brother David came down for it.

 He admitted today that he hadn't been to one of these reunions since he was a kid, but I sure appreciated him spending hours on the road just to make it to this.  :)

 Maybe it's because I'm older, but I found the review of family history to be pretty fascinating this year.

 My little ones, however, found it significantly less fascinating, for some strange reason.  ;-)

 But Josiah and David each took something to read which kept them occupied...

 ...and the younger ones?  Well, after a while, I let them get down out of their chairs to roam around on the floor.  And then, seeing my camera around my neck, Tobin asked if he could take some pictures.  I handed the camera over to him, and he took this picture of Moriah...

 ...and this one of Shav.

 I'm not sure if Tobin or Shav took this picture of our table (because of course, Shav wanted a turn with the camera when he saw that his buddy Tobin was taking pictures with it!), but I like it because it shows Paul and Anna, as well as a box of crayons that Tobin had been using to keep quiet and still at the table.  Crayons: never leave home without them!  :)

 I do know that Shav took this last picture.  Can you tell that it's of Tobin?  And that I'm the lady in the white skirt?  :)

After they "played" with the camera for a while, I took them and Moriah out into the hallways of the building we were in, and they had a grand time running back and forth and all around.  Moriah would squeal as they came towards and past her, and she would crawl (her own unique style of crawling) after them as fast as she could.  I enjoyed watching them have so much fun together (and it sure beat trying to keep them all quiet in the room where the reunion was being held!).  :)

Before I end this, let me just record one funny thing that happened--funny to me, but not so much to the lady to whom it happened (although I hope by now, she's able to laugh about it).  ;-)  When the little ones and I first went out into the hallway, I heard a woman's voice coming from the bathroom across the hall.  She was calling, "Help!  Help!  Somebody help me!"  I quickly rushed over there and pushed the door open, saying, "What's wrong?  What's the matter?  Are you OK?"  I soon discovered that there was really nothing wrong.  The poor lady (who was not part of our reunion, by the way) had come to the doorway of the bathroom after using the facilities and had started pushing on what she thought was the door out of it, but which was really a locked closet door on a wall that stands at a 90 degree angle to the wall with the real bathroom door.  When she couldn't get the door to open, she panicked, apparently thinking (as I overheard her tell her family a few minutes later) that everyone had left and she was locked in.  Plus, a little earlier that afternoon, the electricity had gone out in that building, so maybe she was a little on edge because of that.  At any rate, after I "rescued" her, she pronounced herself quite embarrassed, and soon went on her way with the rest of her family.  I didn't dare think about the humor of the situation while she was around; but I'll admit that after she left, I did let out a giggle or two.  Or maybe more.  ;-)   Oh my!  I do hope the dear lady has recovered from her scare!