Family

One of the best parts of the wedding for me was seeing people I haven't seen in a long time. I said in "The Wedding Day" post that we got to see Dudley and Beverly from Royal Center and that was a real treat! Of course, we got to see people from dad's church and from the First Baptist Church as well, which was great! But, I think the best part was seeing some of our family. My dad's sis Judi and my uncle Alan (her husband) came up, along with their daughter Becky and her husband and kids, and their son Phil and his two oldest. I saw them a bit off and on throughout that day, but they came to church on Sunday and we all hung out afterwards and went out to lunch. I didn't think of taking my camera then, which was stupid, because then I could've gotten more pictures, but I forgot. So, I didn't get any pics of my Aunt and Uncle. But, getting together as Old Country was so reminiscent of our big get-togethers in Runnemede where my grandparents lived or our thanksgivings together. They didn't happen all that often, but when they did, it was always fun! We're a big, italian family. So, it's loud and busy and funny. Judi and Alan had to leave after we ate, but Phil, Becky and their families came back to the house for a few hours. The kids all played together and had a ball. Dan (Becky's oldest) played Wii a lot, while Madie, Olivia, and the girls - Rose, Grace, and Annie - all played dress-up. David, Noah, and Micah's boys all played together as well. It was a really fun afternoon of catching up and talking. We're all hoping we can do it again soon. Our visits with any of our family members are so far and few between, because we're spread out all over the place. Thank goodness for this blog and for Facebook where we're able to connect through that. Anyway, here are a couple pictures from that afternoon. Oh, and of course, dad passed out baseball cards and beanies to all the kids. ;-) What would a visit to "Uncle Mark" be like without that?!