Family Time

This past Saturday we loaded up in Karen and Winston's Suburban and headed out. The Petrey Family has a reunion every year about this time and this was the weekend for it this year. Drew has told me that growing up they always went to Jellico, TN (4 hours from Boone) for an afternoon of visiting with family and that it was always wonderful. Jellico, TN is a small town where Grandad's parents retired to and they are now buried there. However, when Grandad's Parkinson's Disease progressed to the point that he could no longer make the trip, his brothers and sisters honored him by moving it to Elizabethton, TN which is much closer and he was able to continue to come. Grandad passed away this past September and Winston told his aunts and uncles to decide where and when the reunion would be now and they decided to move it back to Jellico.
Well, seeing as the trip is so long we decided to drive to Knoxville, spend the night in a hotel, and then go the short distance from there to Jellico Sunday. We had such a wonderful time! There is a park in Jellico that has covered picnic areas, nice playgrounds, and a large pond where many a duck and geese were frequenting. What was even more wonderful was that Drew was able to get a lot of questions answered about the Petrey genealogy. He has been working on his ancestry on that side of the family and it is so interesting! I'm going to get him to brief me on all of it and may even blog on it sometime. :)

Here are the girls riding on the luggage cart at checkout time. They thought it was great as well as staying in a hotel. It's like Drew said, "Don't you remember how much fun it was to stay in a hotel as a kid? These little shampoos, etc were great!" I was thinking, "I still think it's pretty neat." We were hoping to get to swim but got to the hotel too late Saturday night and had a thunderstorm visit Sunday morning. They did great nonetheless and really slept well. We were grateful.This is the headstone for Drew's great-grandparents, Charlie and Ada Petrey. The cemetery is really beautiful.
Here are Evie and her cousin Matthew (Drew's first cousin) feeding the ducks with their cousin Chris (Winston's first cousin). The ducks got really close and Evie even let one of them eat out of her hand! We had fun until the geese waddled over and we decided their "hissing" wasn't a good sign. :)
Mary Fran got in on the duck feeding action as well. Here she is with her Aunt Karen (Matthew's mom).
Evie and her buddy, cousin Ashley, on the slide. Yes, Evie is posed like that on purpose...her idea. ;)

We had a great time at the reunion seeing all of the family and even meeting some who we hadn't met before. Although it was a long trip, it was well worth it to keep up with family. Thanks to all who came and we're looking forward to next year!