Johson reunion happens

This is an unofficial informal photo while we tried to get everyone to get in place and stand still. There are many more photos on my flickr. Also, I'll try to add the ones from our reunion website as soon as I figure out how to upload them to my kodak pictures or my computer. Or is it download from the website. Either way, I have to figure out how to get them.

Where do I begin...We had an absolutely wonderful time! The weather was warm both day and night, the mosquitoes weren't too bad. Some got wood ticks, but none that hurt anyone. The lake had some leeches, but no one was bothered about that either! This family is rough and ready. Very easy to be with and most didn't get too excited about the various and sundry inconveniences afore mentioned. The children ran hither and yon...and there were a lot of them. We had a little game or activity to try to figure out whose child was whose. There were 48 third generation Johnson family children on Saturday night, four more showed up on Sunday. By the way, there are 85 total...for now. So I put the name tag with only a number on the child's back. We numbered our paper 1-48 and then tried to figure out who their daddy or mommy was. Some, like the older kids, were easy, but some of those little cousins whose parents are siblings of the other parents (brother from one family married sister from the other family on each side) were very tricky! All those blondes and all those blue eyes. Joel walked in and since he hadn't been around for 18 years, some were trying to figure out if he got into the wrong camp...!! Was really funny to hear that Uncle Paul who officiated their wedding, introduced himself and asked Joel's name!! Yes, we've aged a bit in 30 years.
We hiked along the St. Croix River on Friday morning. Friday afternoon we went to the cemetery where Aunt Grace did a marvelous job introducing us to relatives and neighbors who helped raise them. It takes a village, you know. Then we went to the homestead that will always be "Gramma's house" and visited and ate ice cream and cookies. This was less than 24 hours of reunion, so far, and one of my cousins quipped, "Sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening, sugar and suppertime...." Friday evening the family introductions began with singing time, after running off any sugar energy in a wild game of "Strip the Turkey "which is "Sharks and Minnows" with flag football belts. Participants' ages ranged from 70+ to 3! Then we sat out around the bonfire until late and listened or told stories. We have some great story tellers in this family.
Saturday morning was the canoe trip, which was a highlight for me. I didn't take any photos since I was afraid I'd tip my canoe over and lose my camera. We had 9 canoes and spent four hours on the St. Croix River. At this point it is a slow, meandering river. There was one spot with rapids, if you can call them that. Much of it was shallow and lovely sand. I got out and walked in it for a little way. We ate lunch on a sandy beach. It started out partly cloudy, but cleared after lunch. The lily white people got sunburned. Saturday evening was talent show, introductions continued and skits. The family is so large that it takes too long to introduce everyone in one evening! More bonfire. More stories...
Sunday we had our church service after gathering everyone for this family photo. Just as we finished the group photo, another cousin drove up with her husband and children. So they are not in the big group, but did get in their family group. Uncle Paul preached, The three Calhoun girls who were left (Jenny had to leave after the photo) sang The King of Love. (We really need to work on another easy one!!) Melinda sang; we sang congregational songs. Dinner was fabulous! Ham, baked potato, mixed vegetables, salad and two kinds of cake. The whole weekend there was abundant coffee, although not strong enough for some folks.
Sunday afternoon some of us relaxed in big tire inner tubes on the lake. One last bonfire, with a little singing this time.
We are so grateful for God's faithfulness to our family. Covenant blessings. One of my cousins was talking about the encouragement this get together is in thinking about raising our own children. Our grandparents weren't sinless. There were some major problems in the relationship. But our grandmother prayed for her children and grandchildren. Aunt Grace spoke one evening about the importance of prayer and praying for each other. We take great encouragement in the fact that GOD is faithful. I follow Him; I won't be or haven'd been a perfect parent, but God is faithful to HIS covenant. The promise to be a God to us and to our children. And we saw in this reunion that faithfulness. May the next generation rise up and bless the Lord with us! Now I feel like it need to say, "Amen, you betcha!"