Sunday, June 13, 2010

Saturday's Soirees

163/365

Big Doin's Yesterday. Why? These guys. The one in the hat is Cousin/Uncle Don. Not really sure why we call him Uncle Don, he's not our Uncle, he's our cousin, but he's definitely old enough to be an uncle. So I've been calling him Cousin Uncle Don. Even though he's Eric's First Cousin, Once Removed. Here's the Chain: Eric's Dad's Dad, is Wilbur Willman (seriously, not making it up). Grandpa was the youngest of 8 kids, spanned over 18 years. Uncle Don's Dad was 16 years older than Grandpa, so Don followed Grandpa around like Grandpa used to follow Don's Dad. Anyway, Don is a Pastor, and this weekend marks his 50th Anniversary of his Ordination into the Church. The end of the month also happens to be his 50th Anniversary of wedded bliss to Aunt Shirley. Thus the Family Reunion was being held in Western NY this year. So that was what prompted this road trip, and why we tagged an extra long visit with my Grandma Pat on to our trip. Anyway, yesterday was the beginning of the Festivities, starting with the Family Reunion at Don's daughter Laurel's place. They were out in the middle of nowhere, and it was really pretty out, nice and sunny. Yes, Mommy was a slacker with the sunscreen and baby got his first sunburn. They had a giant garage, that we just took over, and they put up a western new york spread: Wings, Beef on Weck, locally made cheese, loganberry drink (they even told me where I can buy the syrup!) And we sat about and mingled all afternoon.

So here you see Grandpa Wilbur imparting some great words of wisdom to Uncle Don.



After the meal, comes the Family Meeting, where we all sit around and listen to the patriarchs talk. And Uncle Don and Grandpa can be a little long winded. Grandpa has been writing his 'memoirs' with help from Aunt Betty, so he stood up to read as he has done the last two years. However, he pretty much read the same stories as last year, but with a bit more gore about hunting than I remembered. Something about Grandpa standing to speak causes all the Willman's to be quiet...even the kids...but of course, that didn't last. So Chris started trying to play with the cousins. Cousin Katie lent him her camera and her sunglasses, and he went around taking pictures. She says he actually took some Good Shots, some were terribly funny, but some were good. That made me a bit proud, he comes by it honestly. ;)




Chris also discovered the beauty of Skype, a free phone like program, where you can video chat with people. Well, turns out that a few of the branches that didn't make the reunion were Skyped in, and Christopher was our representative to every Call. He was hysterical, and quite mad when we turned it off. The festivities began at lunchtime, and the plan was for them to run right through dinner too. But the boys began to show signs that they needed naps. Rumor was Karl and Erica wanted to pop up to the Falls at night, so did Mom and Dad, and a nice drive to Canada was exactly what some tired boys needed. Only they didn't sleep, Sam did, about 30 minutes, better than nothing, but Chris chattered at us the whole way, mostly about how he didn't want to see the waterfall, but how he wanted to ride in Grandma and Grandpa's car. We got there at the same time a rainstorm hit, but that didn't stop us. We parked on the American side, and Walked over the Rainbow Bridge (bridge that crosses the International Line) into Canada. That was pretty nifty. Here we all are at the halfway point with Niagara Falls behind us.




Someone said that it doesn't matter much if it's raining when you see the falls; you'll either get wet from the rain, or wet from the mist of the falls. And it won't change the pictures, there's so much mist, the water is kind of blurry anyway. That was true last night too.



So we padded around in the rain a bit, before stopping to have dinner at a Sushi place, very good, very quiet, and it was quiet nice to just chill out a bit. By the time we were done it was dark outside. Did you know they light up the Falls at night from the Canadian side?



Yup. They do. And the light colors change every 10 minutes or so. The white seemed most romantic, all HoneyMoony and stuff. The boys did great. So yes, we let Chris ride back with Grandma and Grandpa. But we all didn't get to bed until 11:30. Oy. We're having a great time, but it will be nice to get back to a regular bedtime and nap schedule again.

1 comments:

Melissa A. said...

Niagra Falls looks gorgeous! Beautiful pics. :)