This past weekend was so laid back, so very necessary for me, and just a little boring! I had to laugh at something my friend Kat posted on Facebook that perfectly describes the cycle I go through.
I did have time to slow down, to do some cleaning around here, to enjoy eating with Dick. He worked until noon on Saturday, and I was shopping for groceries at Giant. One of the Giant supermarkets here has a really cute sidewalk cafe. Every time I walk past it I think, "We should sit there and eat sometime." So on Saturday we did. The weather was so perfect.
And for dinner we sat on our side porch eating scrumptious corn-on-the-cob from a roadside stand and hot dogs. We sat out there until almost dark. It was so perfectly lovely.
On Sunday morning at Fillmore we had a joint service with the three little churches in the Buffalo Run Charge. A few people from one of the other churches joined our choir for a special song, and they sounded so good. I just love to do things like that. Some of the most enjoyable things I ever did were the joint choirs I directed for Christmas musicals and the annual joint worship services we used to hold before we moved up here.
Austin was here Sunday afternoon, and we all took good, long naps.
Yesterday when I was cooking at Anthony and Lori's I peeked into Austin's bedroom and saw his cute new bed. I thought of the lofts Dick used to build for our kids' college dorm rooms. He just never added the tent feature!
Here's a picture from the other weekend that I never posted before. Lori just sent it to me the other day. How sweet is this?
We're still waiting for the arrival of Sammy's baby sister. Poor Jenn. I know how looooong those last weeks and days become.
Our little church at Houserville is taking on a big fundraising event next weekend (August 8 and 9.) We're calling it Benefeast, and the purpose of it is to raise funds for local people dealing with cancer. It will be all about music, art, and food. On Friday evening our praise team from Houserville (On a Wing and a Prayer) will be one of the groups on stage. On Saturday Anthony and some of his musician buddies (Texas Blues Alley) will be among many bands playing. Here 's our poster - in two parts. It is so big I couldn't scan it all at one time.
So as you can see, there will be no lack of excitement around here that weekend!
As the week has progressed, more and more pictures have been posted on FB from last weekend. So many of my pictures are from those shared by other family members, as well as my own.
As I said in my last post, I'm going to show you the individual family groups that were there and introduce them. But first, this whole-group shot.
And this silly sibling shot. Mary Ellen wondered who she was supposed to lean on. Doris told her she's the rock we're all leaning on! In order of height, not age: Mary Ellen, Jean, Doris, Betty, Rose, Barb, Dick. If Janet were still living she would probably be right up there with Barb and Dick, height-wise.
The above picture had been taken on Saturday after we'd been at the pool, so the next day we convinced photographer Nancy that we looked much better and needed a second chance!
Our only brother Dick and his wife Nancy. Their two sons and families were not able to be there this year. They would have added 9 more people.
This was our gang - Ray, Lori, Mike, Jeremy, and Bjorn in back; Austin, Destiny, Sammy and I, and Dick in front. Anthony was at a NAMM convention in Nashville, Thyda on duty in VA Beach. If all of Miki's family, all of Sam's family, all of Frank's family, and Lisa's family had been there, 14 more would have been added to the gathering!
This is my sister Doris's family. To the far right are Doris and her husband Dale. Down in front, sitting, are their daughter Marcy, her husband Scott, and their two little girls, Brinley and Paityn. Behind Marcy is Doris's youngest daughter Ellen. The pregnant one is Doris's daughter Greta standing in front of her husband Lynn. Behind Lynn is Greta's twin sister Gina. Behind Gina is Doris's oldest daughter Kim. Her son Andrew is the tall, handsome one beside his grandpa. And up in the top left is Doris's only son Corey with his wife Christy and their children Zoe and Aiden. If all of Kim's family had been there, 3 more would have been added to the gathering.
This is my sister Barb from Idaho and her oldest daughter Andrea from Arizona. Don't they look like twins? If Barb's husband John, their other three children and families had been there, 13 more would have been at our gathering!
This is my sister Betty's family from New Hampshire - her husband Scott, son Isaiah, Betty, and daughter Merida.
This is part of my sister Rose's family from Georgia - her daughter Julia, husband Bob, daughter Olivia, Rose, daughter Christy with baby Eli and her husband Nathan. If the rest of Rose's family had been there, 5 more would have been at our gathering.
Last and shortest, but by no means least! My sister Mary Ellen and Grandma Mary.
Mary Ellen put hours and hours into contacting the camp, contacting us, filling out paper work, informing us, trying to get responses from us over the past year. I can't imagine how much relief she must feel to have that finished. Thank you, Mary Ellen! But guess what? We're already looking ahead to July 2016 when we plan to gather at Refreshing Mountain Camp again. We LOVED not needing to do all the work of cooking our own meals, even though the food was not as tasty as we would have made it. (-: And we struggled a bit with following the tight schedule required at such a big camp. But the pluses far outweighed the minuses.
Of course, also missing were the Peifers - my late sister Janet's family. They had their annual gathering at their Lake Meade, PA house in June, coming from California and Michigan, so obviously, a trip to PA for this was not happening. Their family would have added 12 more to our gathering.
So we had 43 present last weekend and 56 missing. That means our family totals 99. Sam and Jenn's baby girl, due to be born any day now, will make 100! She should get some kind of prize for that, don't you think?? And of course, Greta and Lynn will be having a baby too in August, so in case I counted wrong, we'll still reach 100!
It was so special to have Barb's Andrea there. She was 11 when the family moved to Idaho. The last she had been to PA was right after her high school grad in 1998! She and Jeremy are the same age. When they were 5 years old they were flower girl and ring bearer at Rose and Bob's wedding. So cute!
I think they're still pretty cute!
And now, more fun and random pics from the weekend for your enjoyment. (Mostly for mine!)
Yes, he ate the whole thing!
Cousins.
Never too much frisbee!
There's that puzzled grandma again!
My little boys.
Destiny and her side kick, Olivia.
My big boys.
Dutch Blitz! These girls play this game every year. I need to relearn the game and teach it to Destiny so she can join in next time.
Eli with his Grandma Rose and Grandma Mary.
Some of Doris's grands being silly.
Our techie little ones.
Ok, that's all folks, I promise!
Okay. Time to finish up this story about the Witmer weekend! I know I post way more detail and pictures than most readers have the interest and time for, but as I say many times, I do this primarily for myself. I love to write, and I love to reminisce. So my method of blogging serves both purposes. I was listening to Chuck Swindoll on the drive home Monday morning. He was talking about the stones that God told the Israelites to pile up as a remembrance before crossing the Jordan River. Chuck said, "If you don't take time to make a memorial, you WILL forget." This blog is my memorial.
On Saturday afternoon we left the pool earlier than we might have, because we had an important date at the zipline and high ropes course. Some of us did it and the rest of us watched. Trust me, I was on the ground watching! Ones like Ray and Jeremy acted like walking on ropes and logs high up in the air is something they do every day. Others were outrageously scared and wished they had never decided to do it. But the people working it were so very helpful. At one point when Destiny absolutely froze and started to cry, he went to the log where she stood and had her look straight ahead at him as he walked BACKWARD and she followed him across!
I overheard Aiden (in orange) and Austin, each of whom had a mommy up on those high ropes, having a discussion that often included, "Well, MY mommy……" Hahaha!
The rest of the day was much less thrilling, but very relaxing.
On Sunday after breakfast we gathered in our big room for our worship service. We started out with Uncle Scott singing with the kids, then did quite a bit of a cappella group singing, a few Witmer Trio songs with guitar, a lot of sharing, complete with laughter and tears, and prayer.
I just love that the teens, including Destiny, who probably never sing choral a cappella music anywhere else, get a chance to do it in this setting. We've been doing this every year as long as they can remember, and it's what we do!
After that we had lunch, took more pictures, hung around, some went to the pool again, and gradually we all left. But some of us were not finished yet. We had some girl time planned!
Ray took Bjorn back to Fred and Deb Stauffer's near Manheim where he lives. Dick took Destiny home to Reading. I took Sammy home. Of course I told them how he had charmed everyone all weekend long and had been completely cooperative and pleasant the whole time. Later I found out that he turned into a little holy terror for them after he got home. Oh dear. Isn't that just the way kids are? They put on such a good show for everyone else, and then they come home and let all that pent up badness come out!
We sisters, minus Rose who was already on her way back home to Georgia with her family, plus my brother's wife Nancy, plus my sister Barb's daughter Andrea from Arizona, all got together Sunday evening at Doris's lovely screened-in porch. We had such a wonderful, relaxing, fun time together.
Here's one with niece Andrea in the picture.
We went our separate ways for the night - Betty and her family slept at Dick and Nancy's, Barb and Andrea slept at Mary Ellen's, I slept at Sam and Jenn's.
I slept SO good that night. It was the first night since Tuesday that I was not responsible for any little people overnight! I drove home Monday morning and hit the ground RUNNING!! I had so much to do at all my jobs this week, thus these very delayed posts.
And I'm not finished yet. I'm going to do one more post with individual family pictures and introductions, and many more random, fun shots from the weekend.
