Family: the best heavenmade invention!

Our family reunion was held at Prince William National Forest. We had our own campground with a lodge, meeting house, infirmary, staff house, bath house, playground, and about 6 cabins. They were pretty rustic. Built in 1936, you could see the light through the wood slats in the morning and they smelled like you were walking into a cabin museum at some historic site. Stephanie and I agreed that if we had been about 10 we would have been exploring them all day long and playing all kinds of make-believe fun.

The Lodge with the kitchen and meeting room

Bathouse on the right, cabin on the left with more behind going down the road

I shared a room with Stephanie and Lindsey. Unfortunately, a mouse decided to eat his lunch right behind my head all night long which made for a hard time sleeping. It was in the 40's but my trusty sleeping bag handled it superbly (better than the 29 degrees at night last weekend!). I must say I will be glad for a full weekend of sleep in someplace semi-warm now that I'm back home!

Friday evening the family started to gather. None of these pictures shows the magnitude of how many of us there are because people who lived in the DC area were coming and going, but mom says there are about 65 of us total. As mom says, to give you some perspective, Jacob's family had about 75 in it when they went to Egypt and think about how many left for the Promised Land 200 years later! It's amazing to think that all of these people are connected to one couple.

The siblings: (back row) Ronnie #2, Cathy #3, Jimmy #1
(front row) Renee #6, Kit #4, Sharon #5

11/17 cousins. Over the course of the weekend 14 of us were there. The four girls in the front middle are the youngest cousins and probably the closest. Stephanie and Lindsey are a year apart and Keri (beside me) is a month older than me.

Me with Sydney, one of my cousin Janet's twins who used us as their big play toys all weekend.

Enjoying the France tradition of yellow cake with special hard chocolate icing that is so hard to make only Uncle Ronnie makes it now. My grandma made this cake for birthdays and other special occasions. Guess some of us cousins better learn how to make it before the secret is lost forever...

Uncle Ronnie was in charge of the games on Saturday night. Here some of the 2nd cousins enjoy the candy after Nick whacked Dora's head off.

My cousin Brian and I try to figure out how to get ourselves untangled. The "adults" had fun trying to give us suggestions that only made it worse. I knew I'd done this before but I could not remember how to get undone!

Mummifying Brent

Most of the brave campers who stayed in the ancient see-thru cabins.

I really learned how amazing and diverse my family is this weekend. I could have spent many more hours listening to them talk and getting to know them better. I also found out that we are related somehow to John Wayne and our direct ancestor is a Pvt. James France who was in the Revolutionary army at the Battle of Yorktown. Above all, I've realized what an amazing woman my grandmother was as the matriarch of this entire family. It's too bad it took her death to make all of us realize how important family is and how much we needed to get together for this family reunion. I'm glad we got to spend a weekend doing exactly what she would have wanted: spending time together.

See you in heaven, Grandma...