Family Reunion, Olsen Style!

As I said in my earlier post, we headed up to the Chicago area two weeks ago for my mom's side of the family reunion. She and her five siblings and her three cousins arranged to have a cookout at my uncle's house. I haven't seen most of her family since my grandmother's death 7 years ago, so it was nice to meet some spouses of my cousins and see their children. My grandfather is 90 years old and has been in the best shape for years. He had been driving alone and working out weekly and was just so independent. He had a stroke in May and has been in rehab since. He was able to make it to the reunion, which was so nice. The stroke slowed him down tremendously, and it was sad to see the toll it took on him, but it was so nice to have the chance to see him with all of his kids, grand kids and great-grand kids. He truly enjoyed himself:) I didn't get as many pictures of the party as I thought I did, but here are a few...

Okay, here is Eleanore and Charlotte in the backseat of the car, getting ready to go help with the set up...



We had a huge cookout with tons of food. Dawn, here is the nice fruit arrangement you sent. It was gone in no time! HUGE hit:)

Some of the cousins' children:

Caroline and Samantha:

My uncle and aunt have a pond in their back yard, so everyone enjoyed paddle boating. My Uncle Mike was the "fun uncle" growing up and apparently he's the "fun great uncle" too. He did a cannon ball jump off the dock in his clothes. The kids loved it!

Then he gave row boat rides to whoever wanted them. I think Roy Austin spent most of his time near the pond that day.

And there was a fun jump house in the front yard. The kids loved this, too!

This made me laugh...I came near the jump house just in time to witness this. Roy Austin knocked Wyatt down in the jump house in a playing way. He wasn't being mean but thought it was going to be funny. Wyatt didn't like it and so his brother, Juette, comforted him and was telling him that Roy Austin didn't mean to, etc...

Then Roy Austin got sad because he felt bad and he started to cry. Maybe it was nap time, too, and they were exhausted:)
One of my other uncles brought a DVD of old family movies. This was a sweet sight to see my grandfather, in his wheel chair, looking at old times. Kind of sad:(

I had plenty of help taking care of Charlotte. My Aunt Amy was always willing to hold her!

And of course Grammy!

And our Grandaddy!

This little guy is just TOO cute. He is my cousin, Jack's, son James. He is a carbon copy of his daddy when he was little. This is exactly how I remember Jack as a child!

And this is my cousin, Suzanna, who just had her first baby, Ruby. I can't believe she's a mommy. I remember when she was born!

It was a great day and hopefully we'll start having these kinds of get togethers more often. After we left the party, Roy took our family to a Cabela's that he saw down the road---he was very excited to go. The kids loved all the animals, but I think Roy loved them the most!!