Waggoner-Conrad Family Reunion

My grandma has been organizing family reunions for several years now. The first one involved just the Waggoner side in Custer State Park in South Dakota.  My grandma grew up in this area, and she wanted to bring everyone there to experience her history.  

Lap Baby

Since then, we've gathered approximately every other year.  Some of the places we've visited are Vancouver, B.C., Glacier National Park (which I missed due to being very pregnant with Abby), and most recently - as in last week - we met just outside Traverse City, MI.

This was our first airplane ride with two kids.  All in all, it went pretty well.  No delayed flights, kids mostly in a good mood.  The only exception was on the flight from Atlanta to Traverse City.  Abby was dog tired and opted to let everyone on the airplane know this.  Also, due to being so overly tired, she decided to ignore all her potty training and let loose on the airplane seat.  During takeoff.  Ugh.  

Abby's Ride

 Also, because we have two kids, that means we have to travel with two car seats.  Now, I'm sure a lot of people just check their seats on through, but, we are paranoid.  No way will I take ANY chances of getting stuck at our destination sans car seats.  Because, what the heck do you do then?  I know some car rental places will rent car seats, but, I just don't trust that either.  Who's to say they aren't expired or that they haven't been in accidents?  Maybe someone needs to start a "car seat fax" site much like "car fax" that has the history of a car seat.  haha.  So, instead we bought these covers on amazon and Steve lugged them around.  Something else we tried out was a strap that attaches the carseat to your carry-on, and your kiddo can sit in it.  It worked ok, but, the weight of Abby+car seat seemed to squish our carry-on.  

Family Ride!

Anyway, we arrived alive and well, and the weather was AWESOME!  High 70s, low 50s.  In August!!  Oh how I loathe the Florida heat.  It really made Steve and I miss living up north.  We all stayed at a place called Moonlight Bay Resort.  It's not exactly a resort in the traditional sense of the word.  But it was on a lake equipped with several boats, a floating trampoline, and a huge fire pit.  While rustic, I think the place worked out well for a family gathering.  

We had to improvise our sleeping conditions.  Our room was the only room with a queen bed, which Abby & Steve shared, and then Will & I threw an extra twin mattress on the floor next to the bed as our sleeping/night nursing area.  It worked out ok.  It's not like we were in the room for anything other than dressing or sleeping anyway.

It was funny to see who Will took a liking to.  It's pretty much the exact opposite group that Abby did.  These kids are opposite in pretty much every way.  Will loved my uncles and my Aunt Ritsu (my Japanese aunt), but was very leery of my Aunt Yuenan (my Chinese aunt).  Abby used to let Yuenan carry her away and take her everywhere, which is totally out of character for her.  Funny how that works out.  Will also didn't care much for his great-gmaw.  Well, she could make him laugh and they played together, but, sitting on her lap was out of the question!

Our days were spent either on the lake or in town, and our nights were spent gathering over dinner and chilling by the campfire.  We went through a LOT of beer and a LOT of wine.  But it was fun.  My brother's birthday was that week, so I crocheted him something special...a domo-kun hat!  I wish I took a photo of him wearing it, but I totally spaced it in all the excitement.  :)  Maybe he has one that he can send me.

The best idea about air travel with kids was coming home on a Saturday vs. Sunday.  Having that day at home to decompress and get the kids back on schedule was great.  Abby fell asleep at 4:30pm on Sunday - what we thought was just a late nap.  But, she slept through dinner, Sleeping Beauty, and slept right on through until 7am the next morning when it was time to get up and get ready for school!  Apparently the trip wore her out!

There was a lot more about the trip I could write about, but I am not sure it would be much interesting to anyone except family.  Like our bike ride (with full on Abby meltdown), our birthday/graduation celebration dinner at Mission Table, or the stick of dynamite someone set off the first night.  But, I'll save those for memories.  :)