A Reunion...20 Years in the Making!

This weekend is so special to me, and it's all thanks to Aunt Vivian who brought all her nieces together for an annual reunion several years ago, and that tradition continues today, with her looking down on us from Heaven!

Fourteen of us nieces, great, and great-great nieces were able to come this weekend, to our 20th Nieces Reunion! And through the years, the weekends have even become "themed!" So this weekend, with all the love in the air, our theme was very appropriately..."Valentines in July!"

Aunt Nancy played hostess, and decorated our lake house from head to toe in pink and red! Carrying with tradition, we play tons of games....all "Niece Reunion" trivia, questions drilling us on past reunions and family history! And of course all the games come with prizes! Just look at all this loot!

And in case you forgot all our names, we plaster them all over the walls! HA! (Way to represent, Aunt Sandi!)

The weekend is hosted by a different niece each year, at a destination of her choice, and this year Aunt Nancy chose her Valentines Reunion to be at Lake Martin, at the lake house of a dear friend (remember Melissa Carter, Jess?). We took lots of sunset cruises on my old stomping grounds, and I instantly fell back in love with these waters.

Dad dropped off his pontoon boat for us to enjoy (affectionately called the "love boat" for the weekend, of course) so I hauled all my crazy, er, lovely cousins/aunts around the lake as Cap'n Jenn with love in my heart....but deep down, I was a nervous wreck! I've driven that boat a hundred times, but Daddy was always there to turn to when I was ready to turn over the reigns....now he just abandons me with a boat full of these women...on the biggest lake in Alabama....with a cell phone and a map?!!?!? OOC!!!

This is what I looked like the whole time!

Somehow I got the nerve up to pull my cousin, Amy, along with everyone else in the tube!

We enjoyed Niffer's by the Lake for lunch on Saturday....not pictured: Mama flirting with the waiter, the five baskets of corn nuggets, or the 47 glasses of diet cokes the 14 of us went through.

As always, there's reunion craft time, when teacher Debbie's in the hizzy....we made the cutest clipboards!

When we weren't crafting or eating, we were swimming and exploring for sure! Third generation Aubree and Ellie hunted for shells for hours!

Another tradition: we must pile as many bodies as possible in a single bed....just 'cause we can!

Now after Mama Debbie french braids hair, suits are on, and more pics are taken, its back in the water some more! Second generation pic before floating and gossiping about our mamas no doubt!

And here they are, our mamas! The first generation! The daughters of Aunt Vivian's siblings, and the ladies who grew up picking butterbeans, and listening to her stories, and spending summers with her, and were asked, as her NIECES, to please begin an annual weekend with her.

And so it began!

I love you....Andrea, Marcie, Connie, MAMA, Sandi, Betty Carol, Nancy! I know Aunt "Vuda" is so proud of yall!

And generation #2....Amy, me, Jessie, Rachael, Lauren.....love you girls! And love this weekend!

I'm so thankful to be a part of such a crazy wonderful family!!! I'm already looking forward to next year!