Labor Day pt 2

The family reunion was planned to get all the cousins together and remember/celebrate the life of Andrew's grandfather (Floyd).  He would have turned 100 in September.  I think we should have just called it a family reunion and b/c explaining to people we were going to Iowa to celebrate the life of a man who has been dead for awhile now caused a lot of wrinkled foreheads or raised eyebrows! 

Anyway...Andrew's cousin, Kyle, worked really hard to get Floyd's tractor painted and up and running.  It was so special. Grandma D's smile was genuine, huge and perfect. When the tractor started up and Kyle drove it around the yard it brought me to tears that I wouldn't normally admit.  The kids were excited about the tractor too.  It's possible it's because my kids don't see tractors up close and personal. Either way it was the highlight of my day.  

Kyle drove the tractor and let each of the kids ride on the tractor with him and grandma.  

Cater wouldn't be left out. 

Kyle gave Willie an extra ride at the end of the day when the tractor was headed back to the barn for the night.  

We did family pictures with the tractor.  

And then we did a group picture.  Every single one of us.  I set the picture up. I yelled at a lot of people. It's hard to herd people for pictures. I am good at yelling so I was put in charge.  It's honestly the best picture. Everyone is in. Everyone is looking forward enough to make out faces.  This picture could bring me to tears too but crying once for a day is plenty :)

She loves the big girls.

Fishing in the pond.  It was a crowd favorite. The kids (and adults) fished until dark. I finally had to take the fishing poles away from my kids. I was sure someone was going to get a lure in the eyeball since no one could see what they were doing in the dark. Let's be honest...they don't know what they are doing in the daytime with fishing poles.

There was a canoe that Trenton and Justin took out and let the kids join in. This was also a crowd favorite with the 9 and under crowd.

We sang happy birthday to Cater and she opened her presents.

Grandma D gave us a tour of all the family cemeteries.  The grandkids learned a lot about about people dying.  They appeased grandma with all her history lessons.  I believe the adults have less attention span most of the time than the kids.

These are two adult and two children grave markers from the 1800's.  The children died in the 1870's. The father died in the early 1900's and I don't have the information on hand re: the date of the wife/mother's death. 

The pioneer cemetery is interesting to get to.  We walked through high grass, probably poison ivy, trees, and a small fenced in area. 

We don't have a family event without games. Aunt Cathy LOVES to organize games for everyone to play and then she doesn't play them.  We played Jeopardy with the categories and questions all being related to Floyd. It was interesting as both sides of the family (Granmda D and her sister) had slightly different answers to some of the questions. 

Cate and Cami have become pretty good friends now that they are interested in having a playmate.  They are about six months apart in age which positions them to be great friends for years to come.

There are generally organized sports games the adult children play at family functions.  There was a pretty serious game of baseball then they moved on to volleyball.  They played a lot of volleyball well into the dark.  My general rule is that I don't play games where balls fly at my head which gets me out of just about every game.  I will stand by my rule well into the future.  

We had planned on heading back home around 3pm on Sunday so we could get home and get ready for Cate's friend birthday party Monday.  We left Iowa between 8-9pm that night.  We got home around 12:30am.  It was a long but enjoyable day.