"Our Family Reunion"

Last week we went to Blowing Rock North Carolina for my Dad's family reunion.
We have continued with the long family tradition
of his and my Grandmother's (Mary) family.
We had a great time at the "Chetola"... the mountain resort we stayed at.

The paddle boats were a great way to relax and get a little sun.

There were 3 beautiful white swans in the lake with us.

It was an indoor pool...
so the boys were able to play ping pong right next to us
while we swam a bit.

Lyric and Olivia were like 2 peas in a pod.

The girlies found a nice spot in the sun by the playground.

Thursday night we had a meet and great with all the cousins. It was an awesome house for a party. We had somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 family members attend.
(can you believe that is smaller than usual?)

Here we are a Uncle Thad's house.
(The original house my Great Grandparents MaMaw and PaPaw raised their 11 children.)

It's pretty cool having the opportunity to bring my children back here to climb on trees in the yard that all my relatives have played on for so many years.

Here's our Freas Clan. Emma is getting so TALL... Wow!
We were excited to have all 7 grandchildren together.

We had a lot of fun playing games after the Bar-B-Q.

The 3 legged race got a bit extreme.

Here is Olivia... catching a water balloon in the face. Oops!

Me and my brothers!

This game was a lot of fun too. You had to squirt water into your partners cup. But... you better choose your position wisely... or you might end up getting wet!

Doug and Emma were gamers...

... but in the end
It was Kristin and Zoe who won the game!

Cousin Gregg and Kristin couldn't help themselves!


Our Hike at Hounds Ear

Steph thought it would be a fun idea to wear "Do-Rags"...
Kev said we looked like "mini-maids"
Oh well... it was nice to get outdoors.

Not sure if we were brave or stupid...
for taking all 7 children into the woods without the guys...
but we did it!

The climb was a bit rough at times... but the they did it!
They really had a great time. (So did we)

The little ones hung in there pretty good. Samuel was the only one to fall in... and Megan was the only one to cry... but all in all a fairly fun afternoon.

The rocky climb was beautiful...

What a crew!


"Banquet night at the Chetola"

"Megan out by the lake"

She got to dress up like the big girls.

Olivia, Zoe, and Lyric let me put there hair up too. It was fun fixing up our little pixies.

Here are the guys. Jacob and Samuel wore their first real ties! Handsome.

"Our family"

Look... Kevin's mini-me!

Daddy's little Princess

Gammie and Jacob

Sissy and I

The Freas clan!

Lil' Samuel giving Uncle Doug a Hi FIVE!

Hooray... the boys did it again! They won the Gordon Freas Memorial golf tournament. 10 strokes under. Cousin Ron filled in as their fourth... Dad would be honored.

Michelle and the four older girls did a beautiful performance signing to "Remember me". It was in remembrance of all those family members who had passed on... especially their Pop!

Down town Blowing Rock

Ice cream in the park!

Back to Mill Creek for a few more days.

The views were beautiful this time of year.
I'm use to the fall color... or winter.

We stopped on the side of the road coming back from the grocery store.
The flowers were so pretty.

We enjoyed a few days up here before and after the actual reunion just to get away. We helped plant flowers at Mom's place, rode the golf cart, played in the creek, collected rocks, played on the play ground, painted, and watched movies.

Here is Jake at 11 months

Megan enjoyed playing at the new splash park/playground in town.

Jake and I enjoying the back porch.

Hangin' around on the golf cart.



On Monday when we got back from Blowing Rock... Mom and I decided the painting over her couch needed to be replaced. She wanted me to paint her one... but like always... I never seem to make time. So I said... lets go find a store to buy a canvas and do it right now. So... we did!

I was shocked after all this time... that if you just have an idea... and get off your butt and do it... it really doesn't take that long. This is the painting I did to replace the one over Mom's couch. The colors turned out pretty nice to match the rest of the decor.

In all... the trip was a success.
We were tired... had lots of fun... and ready to head back home.