Galloway Reunion Part 1

My brother Joel and his family came to visit the first week of July. They live in the Washington DC area. We've seen Joel every now and then, but the last time I saw his kids was in Cincinnati right after the twins were born (7 years ago). It had been 8 years since my entire family had been together. We decided to make it a week to remember and rented a cabin in Island Park so we could all hang out without work distractions, feeling like we were missing out on something by being in different houses, etc.

We took some family pictures on Tuesday, July 2nd. This was the thing my Mom wanted the most, to have a nice family picture with all of us in it. Even Goldie the dog made the picture :)

We squeezed in some individual family groupings.

My Mom and Dad

 Scott & Codi's family

 Joel & Yazmin's family

 Jason & Jen's family

 Us

We left for Island Park the next day, July 3rd. I managed to load the car up, with much help from the kids! We picked up Marc about 2:00 from work and drove from there up to the cabin. Even though we were the last to leave Boise, we were the 2nd to arrive at the cabin (thanks to my husband's lead foot). We got there just as the sun was setting, and it was gorgeous right over the lake:

The kids all went a little crazy that night. We let them stay up pretty late just playing with cousins and exploring the huge cabin we were in. The cabin had a lot of kid friendly things like a hidden playroom under the stairs, pool table, games, fus ball table, etc. None of the kids could keep their hands off the piano. It was one of the biggest attractions of the whole place! Each family got their own room, and there was even some extras for some of the bigger cousins to share. Lexi was invited to sleep in the "big girls" room with 4 other cousins. She was thrilled!

We stayed up late chatting. Eventually, we made it to our rooms and discovered the air conditioning didn't work. Neither did the ceiling fan in our room. Oh boy. I can't sleep in new places anyway, but I especially can't sleep when it's hot in my room and I'm pregnant. It was a long, miserable night. I tried going out to sleep on the couch downstairs, but it was occupied by teenage nephews. My dad and I met up in the kitchen about 3 in the morning and enjoyed some cereal together. He, Joel, and a few of the older kids left to go fishing a little while later. I think I finally started sleeping about then.