72 hour reunion

Last weekend we had the blessing of having the entire Merkle family together for nearly 72 hours.

My brother Adam (who lives in Alabama with his wife and 4 kids) came back for a long weekend with us before he took the family to Illinois for a few weeks to spend time with Jill's family

The weekend flew by and I barely got any pictures...but I did manage to capture these few!

We went to the state park where all 8 of the 10 grandkids climbed this:

(Including Miss Mylin!)

And we enjoyed eating lots of meals full of lots of food together

We made sure to plan some games of Catan and Qwirkle and stay up way too late!

We pushed each other's kids on swings and chased them around the yard

I had to paint Maddie's finger and toenails (she was looking forward to getting to use Aunt Rachel's polish..)

We read lots of stories and played with legos, read ridiculous children's books and laid around watching our kids figure it all out with each other

God has been so good granting our family with 10 kids in 8 years to grow up together!

Here's a couple shots of the 8 older grandkids

And a couple of the 2 brand new ones

(w/ Uncle Stephen)

It was a blessed time together - we hadn't all been together since last December - and likely will not for another year or more!

We had some family pictures taken too (try getting 20 people, 10 of them children to all look at the camera at the same time...) which I will be posting later!

Thanks for continuing to read even though my posts are few and far between these days

I think I have 5 drafts ready to write...on gardening, obedience (parenting, to God, and more), and Mylin's birth story - can you believe I never wrote that out?!

What are the most recent family reunion activities you have done together?!