We drove to Lincolnshire, IL on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. It was a long drive, but the kids did great! We stopped at a playground in Mauston, WI about 2/3 of the way into the the drive so the kids could run around for a bit. It was quite the exciting stop for all of us! Not only did we get to play at the park and walk along the river, but we got to see a digger in action (up close) working on a sidewalk, we got to see an 18 inch water snake swimming in the water (and we saw him swim up to a dock where two girls sat with their feet in the water and watch their reaction lol!), we got to hear the local church alarm system go off to call the local firefighters to action along with see multiple firetrucks. Pretty exciting for a 2 and 3.5 year old!
After arriving at the hotel, my parents took us out to eat to celebrate Paul's birthday that day. We realized that Summer and Grandma Kirkwood randomly matched, and I love this picture of the two of them at the restaurant!
The next morning the reunion officially started and we met up for breakfast. It was so much fun to see my cousins and their kids! We grew up together in IL and share so many memories. It is fun to make more and watch our kids make memories together too.
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| The Gang (Minus Uncle Gary, Aunt Karol, and Kendall who couldn't make the trek from FL this year) |
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| The great-grandchildren: Colton (2), Cora (20 months), Summer (3.5), Rowan (5.5), Cruz (4), Jade (2) |
It was so cute to watch the kids play together, and they often paired up in "twos" throughout the weekend. Summer and Rowan (very similar personalities!) were almost inseparable, Jade and Cruz seemed to share a special bond, and Colton and Cora parallel played by default :).
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| In a few months two more great grandchildren will join group! Baby Tommerdahl is due in July and Amanda's baby is due in September - both girls! Amanda's daughter Jade and my son Colton are only 3 days apart, so it is fun that their younger sisters will be close in age as well. |
After breakfast on Saturday, we cousins took our kids to a park and had fun playing and catching up.
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| Colton asked Summer if she would go down "the big slide" with him :) |
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| Summer and Rowan played together almost the entire time. |
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| The boys in their stripes! |
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| Summer and Jade on the little train |
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| All the kiddos on the train |
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| The "littles" chillin' in the hotel lobby before naps | |
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| The "bigs" |
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| After naps my cousins and our kiddos had a blast swimming in the hotel pool and ordered pizza while our parents' generation had a kid-free dinner out to catch up. After we got our kids to bed, they babysat while my cousins and our hubbies got to go out for ice-cream - kid free :). |
On Sunday we went to my Grandma's church, and then headed to Culver's for lunch. Sunday afternoon was "Grandparent and Grandkiddo" time while my cousins and our hubbies had a quadruple date to see
The Blue Man Group. We had so much fun taking the train downtown, going to the show (it was awesome!), eating at a Mexican restaurant, and spending quality time together.
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| Our "Blue Men" en route to the show: Roger, Eric, Nate, and Paul |
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| After the show: Me, Kristin, Amanda, and Alison |
While we had our quadruple date, the grandparents spoiled all of our kids by taking them to Chuckee Cheese for games and McDonalds for dinner and icecream!
On Monday morning, we swam again in the pool.
We also took some updated pics of the kids with Gee-Gee Obermayer:
We had some excitement when one of family members locked their keys inside the car. Amanda's husband Nate is a police officer and called in a local officer to come help. It was quite interesting to see how they successfully got the car open!
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| Watching Uncle Nate |
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| Go Nate! |
After a final lunch together, we headed home.
On the way back I shared a shake with my favorite little guy...
| A huge thank you to all the people I stole pictures from, to my mom for organizing all the pics everyone took, to my parents for their generosity and care of our kiddos letting us have kid-free date time, and to my Uncle Paul for planning/organizing the weekend. It was such a perfect long weekend, and I am so thankful for great extended family. I love you all!
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| My Uncle Paul (the planner and organizer of Obermayer Family Weekend) with Summer and Cruz |
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