Sunday, August 2, 2009

FIRST TIME IN FOUR YEARS !

it has been a total of four years that our entire family has been together all in one location. we spent the entire weekend together getting family photos done, eating, playing and catching up with everyone.
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saturday started with watching the muscatine great river days parade. (pictures of that later maybe). from there we all got ourselves cleaned up and headed out to wild cat den state park for our family photo session. when i get those pictures back from our photographer i'll be sure to share them!
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after picture time we spent the rest of the late afternoon and evening playing and eating in back yard.
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the girls hung blankets on the clothes-line and made it their stage. they did little snippet performances for us. jillian was the announcer and carson the producer, director, costume coordinator, boss.
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the kids ate on a big blanket on the ground. perfect spot for them to bond and be to themselves!

here brian and chuck take a breather. dinner was a seafood boil with iowa home-grown corn, potatos and onions. shrimp, crawfish and sausage topped it off our feast.



the boys did most of the work. chuck is here supervising brian and dad as they cut potatos in half.

the girls spend their time at the blanket eating hotdogs and corn on the cob. notice my daughter doesn't have an ear of corn on her plate. this is where her great-grandma hilbrant would be rolling over in her grave because she isn't acting like a proper little hilbrant!

brian and shannon digging in to a hearty meal.

chuck, theresa and kevin eating their share. mom and dad are in the backround.

dad is manning the gas grill while chuck is taking care of the seafood boil. chicken for mom, hotdogs for the little kids and more corn that wouldn't fit in the boil pot.

and one of the last pictures for today. a sweet moment between my youngest two nieces. hadley and ava share a toy. don't blink because this moment won't last long. that was a VERY popular toy this weekend!
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as the weekend came to an end i thought back on the highlights and what i enjoyed the most. it was the time that we just spent together. kids running around playing and enjoying being with their cousins, the adults just sitting around talking and catching up on plans for the future and chatting about old times.
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here's hoping it doesn't take so long to do this again.

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