it’s summertime and the living is easy

A few weeks ago, we traveled up to Missouri for a family reunion of giant proportions. The family just keeps getting bigger and bigger. This family reunion, which happens every three years, is Drew’s grandma’s side of the family – so it’s her’s, her brothers’ and her sister’s families (kids, grandkids, great-grandkids). So that means lots of people.

We started the weekend out at Drew’s uncle’s house with most of the family gathering for a cookout. This year there just seems to be more young kids. And they’re all running around all over the place. It must be tiring to run after them! I wouldn’t know…I just sat back and snapped a few photos.

Before it got too dark, we attempted to assemble the whole gang together for a picture.

The next day was a full day of family fun at the local park. The guys played some wiffle ball like they’ve done every reunion since they were all kids.

They take it quite seriously.

The younger generation looked on, picking up pointers.

The girls opted not to sweat it out. We’d rather pose for pictures.

And play with the kiddos.

Later in the evening, we ate (again) and had a local guy come sing us some tunes.

The little kids danced. (Or twirled.)

And the big kids danced too.

Drew hung out with his bro-in-law.

Some little kids played duck-duck-goose.

Others dragged chairs around the floor. You know, just for fun.

And a few kids even sang for the crowd.

The evening wrapped up and we all said our goodbyes.

Drew and I stayed for another day and spent time at his grandparents house, where we looked forward to Grandma’s fried chicken and watched a nice thunderstorm blow in.

It was actually bad enough that we hid out in the basement for a while. A lot of trees in the neighborhood blew down, shingles flew off roofs, and the power went out for six hours. After the storm blew over, we sat outside until dark, and then went inside and lit some candles while we waited for the power to come back on.

So plans for fried chicken were scrapped. Instead, dinner was Pizza Hut and a nice bottle of wine by candlelight. And that made for a memorable end to our family reunion trip! (Thankfully, Grandma made her fried chicken for lunch the next day, so we didn’t miss out before our flight home!)

See the rest of my pictures from the family reunion on Flickr.

*Blog post title is a lyric from the song “Summertime” by Sam Cooke

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i’ve seen the bridge and the bridge is long

A couple weeks ago, we decided to hike up to the Austin 360 loop bridge, also known as the Pennybacker bridge. Probably not the best idea given we were wearing the wrong shoes and it was over 100 degrees. But we made it up to the top and got a great view of the bridge and Lake Austin. We were quite jealous of all the boaters on the lake that day. That’s how people get by in such hot summers – they stay out on the water all day.

*Blog post title is a lyric from the song “The Bridge” by Elton John

community owned beer

Beer samplers at Black Star Co-op.

drafts with our bud

Our friend Aaron is visiting for the weekend.

are the voices in your head calling, gloria?

A couple weekends ago, on another hot afternoon, we decided to hit up the Austin Museum of Art Laguna Gloria. We had visited the downtown AMOA back in June where they have a Herman Miller exhibit. This museum, situated in the west hills right on the lake, has more of an outdoor appeal. The museum itself has very few pieces of art – it’s more about the 1916 Italian-style villa on the property and the nature walk along the water. It was stunning. Naturally, they host a lot of weddings.

We walked along the path until we couldn’t stand the heat anymore.

This will be a great place to bring visitors, but I think we’ll do it in the fall or spring. Summer is just too brutal.

*Blog post title is a lyric from the song “Gloria” by Laura Branigan