Extended family

When of the greatest joys and blessings of my life is having a very large extended family. Growing up, every Friday night was spent at my maternal grandmother's house with aunts, uncles, and many cousins. We were often at my paternal grandparent's house as well, being entertained by an aunt and uncle just a dozen or so years older as well as the usual assortment of aunts, uncles, and cousins.

As an adult, this means an on-going number of weddings, babies, and other life-event celebrations.

This long Labor Day weekend brought my mom's family together for a wedding of one of my cousins and the annual Labor Day camp-out with my dad's family. And now it's not just aunts, uncles, and cousins, but also the children of all of those cousins. I think that my children often don't know the difference between their first cousins and second cousins. Sometimes they see their second cousins more often than their first!

I think that the highlight of Friday night's wedding was that my 96 year old great-grandmother could be there, front and center.

Cara's country, casual, and cowboy boot themed wedding was the perfect place

to wear the dress the Good Doctor deemed "loud". It was originally intended 

for Andrew's graduation but that day was too cold for sleeveless and sandals.

And onto Labor Day with all of its Bauman traditions and new memories. We missed some members, and enjoyed a surprise visit from Lalan and Daya, first time Labor Day campout attendees, and Uncle Leon introduced us to Char for the first time. 

We bridged the ASL/voice gap and played games together and figured out how to put up the tents. And I can vouch for their work as it did not fall down on us in the middle of the night. Of course, once I sent Aunt Ellen in to supervise, I knew we'd be fine.

Teaching Farkle to the next generation, always played

better with a few good bottles of homemade Root Beer.

Nostalgic singing around the campfire by Uncle Leon.

We helped Kirsten find the bottom of her ground cherry pile and answered the weekend's most popular questions, "What are those?" and "What are you going to do with them?"

Coloring for those who needed some therapy.

And of course, the weekend wouldn't be complete without transforming Uncle Carl's man cave into a quilting bee. Another comforter ready to be bound and sent to Mennonite Central Committee.