We have been back home in Anacortes, WA, since the first of July. I am taking advantage of our non-traveling days to catch up the blog of our travels. Eventually I'll write about the last year and a half.
When I finished last week's writing, I promised some pictures and stories about the sixth annual Woodall reunion, held in west central Illinois the third weekend in June this year. Fair warning: if you're not family, you may find these photos and stories a little tedious. But, if you're related to all these good-looking people, you may find yourself lingering over each page!
Our daughter Joy, who lives in Portland, and our daughter Jill, son-in-law Bob and granddaughter Lauren, who live in San Jose, all arrived on Thursday. We had a small gathering at Aunt Dorothy's to celebrate patriarch Jim Woodall's 92nd birthday. (If you will recall, we had just settled Mom and Dad in the Quincy VA Home. They returned to their house in Fairview to attend the reunion).
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Jim looks pretty good for 92, don't you think?
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Friday morning our little family gathered in Fairview to look at things Mom had set aside to be given to her family. Lauren was particularly taken with all the jewelry...particularly all the clip-on earrings. Ouch!
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Our daughters loved playing with this jewelry when they were little. Granddaughter Lauren is "cut from the same cloth!"
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Lauren is 6 1/2 and is busy losing teeth. You can see in this photo that she's got an upper front tooth that is very loose. Her mom calls it her "snaggletooth." Lauren taunted us with that tooth all weekend and entertained us with many goofy faces.
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Photo bombed!
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In the background you can see the remnants of lunch. We ate at the lovely Fairview Cafe and had one more "fix" of tenderloin sandwiches. Yum! (Sidebar: this restaurant was in existence when Jerry and I were in high school. In fact we had our after Prom parties here!)
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This little girl warms my heart!
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Friday night the herd potlucked dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's home in Farmington. Charlie and Suzanne's kids and grandkids had all arrived so we were all together. To accommodate us all, the garage had been cleaned out and tables put up.
 Left to right: Niece-in-law Danielle, nephew Mark, Jerry, sis-in-law Suzanne, and brother Charlie
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Left to right: Mom (aka Maxine), Ron, Joy, Dad (aka Jim), and Aunt Dorothy
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It was great fun watching all the little first and second cousins play together. I was reminded of a basketful of puppies. We had a multi-generational game of baseball in the backyard between rain showers.
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Waiting to bat. L to R Levi, Lauren, Micah, Lauren
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Of course only the kids batted and the dads and granddads chased those fly balls. I think we have some budding baseball stars!
We had more birthdays to celebrate, too.
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Levi is 9 and Lilly is 7. Where does the time go? Grandma Suzanne decorated a beautiful cake!
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Between innings the popular game was "Pile on Bob."
Saturday morning Jan, Dorothy, Joy, Jill and Lauren went on the Canton garden tour. Lauren led the charge in identifying all the fairy gardens. We even found farmer fairies!
Some of the families with little kids went swimming Saturday afternoon at the Canton pool. Others went to the Children's Museum in Galesburg. Jerry, Jerry's brother Don, and I went to the farm to get ready for the famous wiener roast and hayrack ride on Saturday night.
The first challenge was to get the tractors started. If you are our age, you might have used this technique to start your car if you had a standard transmission...get it rolling and pop the clutch. It worked with the old John Deere 50, too, as Jerry towed it with the John Deere 70.
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It had rained off and on for days and we were worried we would get rained out.
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No worries! By wiener roast time, the skies had cleared and we had a beautiful evening to enjoy. First the hot dogs and then the s'mores.
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Bon appétit!
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Charlie, Suzanne and their kids, Mark and Kelly.
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Jerry and Joy posed so nicely for me!
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Mom and Dad wouldn't miss this for the world!
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If this crowd gets any larger we will need a larger hayrack. We all squeezed together for a trip to the back pasture. Apparently we've collectively gained a little weight...must be all those s'mores!...the old John Deere wouldn't pull us up the last hill. Everyone off!
Grandpa Jerry turned the tractor and hayrack around as the rest of us ran ahead, back up the hill. You can see the tracks where those worn out tires spun in the mud.
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Cousin Lauren and Uncle Mark running up the hill. Hurry, the tractor is coming!
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Charlie gave Jerry some moral support as he drove the tractor up the hill.
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| And maybe a little extra weight to the rear wheels! |
One of the advantages to gathering in June are the long days. We still had lots of daylight for more fun.
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Two Laurens. Our granddaughter Lauren is a snaggle-toothed leopard and cousin Lauren wonders why she looks like that!
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Sharla, Bob and Jill chatting...and posing.
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Grandma Becky walking her grandson Liam...the family's latest addition.
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Pretty great niece Shyla. The oldest "great" at 12 years old.
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Bob brought his drone to fly around the farm. Big and little kids alike got into it!
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Uncle Don gave Levi a side-by-side driving lesson. Don said later that Levi did quite well, given he couldn't quite reach the pedals! Pretty soon everyone had to have a ride. Yep, another tradition in the making.
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Jill, Bob, and leopard child take a spin, too.
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Photo bombed again!
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The obligatory Woodall family photo. The only one missing is Don's wife Sally.
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Jim and Maxine with their great grandchildren.
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The Rask family. We're missing my sister and her family. We gained Sheldon, Jerry's sister's grandson! I guess he thought he'd see where the grass was greener!
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Sunday morning most of us congregated at Canton's Lakeland Park to feed the ducks...
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and spend more time together.
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Sunday evening our family caught up with my sister Carol's family at a park in Fairview. Her son James, on the right, was home on leave from the army.
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Lauren and my great niece Zelda quickly reacquainted.
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Little Zelda is such a cutie...four years old.
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Some of my favorite people! Daughters Jill and Joy and sister Carol.
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Monday morning we had one more gathering at Mom and Dad's before everyone went home. Looking at old family photos is always great entertainment.
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Superdooper time!
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