PA Reunion

We traveled to Pennsylvania this past week for the annual McAllister family reunion. What fun!!! I had the chance to catch up with aunts, uncles, and cousins that I hadn't seen in a great while. Our first stop after the long air plane ride (three pit stops/slight motion sickness for Victoria and I) was Aunt Mary Anne and Uncle Mike's house. We spent the night there. Victoria and Bella were enamored with their second cousin Taylor (a tween). They played dolls and stuffed animals and had a slumber party- although Bella kept them up for a while singing and the next day everyone needed some sleep.

PA is really beautiful in the summertime- lots of greenery and cool tempatures. We left the 100 degree heat of Texas for the 80 degree awesomeness of Ebensburg. Things that struck us as cultural differences- besides not having air conditioning (in many houses), most people in PA also don't have fences. The girls ran every where outside with Maggie (Mary Anne's dog). Both Victoria and Bella are now pleading with me to get a dog- maybe next summer.
From Ebensburg, we went to Portage PA, half an hour away for our 3 day reunion. The McAllister side is made up of MANY people. My grandparents, Renny and Bibby, had 9 children, and most of them had 2 kids, and some of them had kids too, basically almost 50 people. The picture above is of McKayla blowing bubbles, Uncle Mark putting his hand on grandson Hunter's shoulder, and Victoria talking to her second cousin Stevie (5 seconds after this picture was taken, Victoria and Stevie played chase- it was hard to tell who won- they were both out of breath.)

Bella meets her second cousin Riley that Aunt Colleen is holding. Taylor blows bubbles and Cristina watches the fun.

Christina holds up Riley. Darlene and Aunt Susie gossip. Ashley and Taylor watch the fun.

One of my favorite parts of the reunion was the nightly campfires. This night, the boys set up a fire first at another pit. They apparently bragged that the girls couldn't get one started... he he he- they don't know the power of ambitious girls. Taylor, Ashley, Christina, Victoria, and I got the fire started after a couple of attempts. It roared! Everyone set up their chairs around the girls' fire! :) (In this picture, Micheal, Bella, Christina,Ashley, Taylor, Uncle Jim, Stevie.)

We took many nature hikes at the Majestic Lodge. The trees were gigantic and green. Victoria and Bella loved being the older cousins to their younger ones, especially McKayla.

Victoria gives McKayla a picked flower. Notice the walking sticks- they kept getting bigger the longer the walk progressed. Finally when McKayla could barely hold up a stick (it was at least 5 feet long) the Moms made a rule that they could only be as tall as you were.

It was so beautiful out there.

Dana and Aunt Barb threw Melanie and Scott a cute baby shower. I learned some interesting facts (for instance, it only takes on average a man to change an infant diaper 1 minute 30 seconds, the mother takes longer- go figure.) I also got a severe case of babyitis after seeing all the cute outfits and little booties.

There were two ponds at the lodge that were stocked with fish. The girls and I had a blast with fishing (not so much with taking the hook out of the fish.)

I caught about 4 fish in literally 4 minutes! Insane!

We all stood in fascination when the Canadian geese took off on the lake.

Everyone loved playing the Wii game Air Band. Christina taught Victoria how to play the drums while Bella sang.

Aunt Colleen and Bella get Riley to smile.

Aunt Collen taught Bella how to make "the monkey face", so she was entertaining Hunter and Riley with it.

An all kids Air Band. They lasted all of one song, but they were precious!

Victoria really bonded with Taylor. She's going to miss her.

We took a hike to the neighboring ski town to explore a couple of trails. The trail just kept going on and on and we weren't sure when to stop, until our leader in the front Victoria started screaming. We ran up to see what was wrong... a toad in the road:) We turned around and headed for the car.

The hikers- Darlene, Mary Anne, me, Bella, Mark Kay, Victoria and Jer (behind the camera.)

After the hike, we drove to the top of the mountain. Victoria spent her time picking wild flowers.

Posing on the vacant ski lift.

Darlene found a lady bug and gave it to Bella. Two seconds after this picture was taken she did a "oh-my-!-get-it-off-my-finger dance."

This is the Majestic Lodge from the bottom of the hill at the campfire. The little house in front will be torn down next year (we stayed there last reunion.) The lodge in the background is where we stayed this time. A very neat place and great vacation!