Gatlinburg Family Reunion

I meant to blog about our trip as we were there, but that just never happened so you get a ginormous post here about the whole thing in one.  A little preface.  A year ago, my family decided to plan a big reunion for this summer at a cabin in Gatlinburg.  After much looking, we decided on this cabin:  River Adventure Lodge we made all our plans.  Including choosing who would get what room, etc.  We were sacrificing rooms for amenities which meant that Nate & Geri and Tish & Roger and all 7 of their kids would be sharing the room with 3 queen bunk beds.  But we really felt like the kids would enjoy this house and the river and playground.  We were set to go on Monday, August 6th.  The Saturday before (the 4th), the lady called Nate and said that there was a septic back-up and we could not stay at that cabin.  WHAT?  The good thing was that we got an upgrade to a MUCH bigger cabin that despite not being on the river was much more accommodating for our family, including 8 bedrooms instead of 6.  There was a still a game room and it also included a 10-seat movie theater which turned out to be a great place to put all the kids when we wanted some adult visiting time.  So here was our cabin: Mountain Mist. We also decided that having two refrigerators and two dishwashers ended up being a lifesaver and it would have been very tricky in the other cabin.  

MONDAY

Drive up...

Random pictures of the cabin and our room.  This was before I'd actually finished unpacking, so our room was still kind of messy. 

We were excited about the jacuzzi in our room, but of course it wasn't working. : (

We arrived on Emily's birthday, so we did some celebrating the first evening there.  Nate and Geri brought cake and I made Wendy's Frosty's for everyone. (Mom's birthday was the day we left, so we celebrated her birthday, too).  Oh, and I'm using pictures from a plethora of cameras; we all shared each other's pictures with each other on the last day).  

(I love all the pictures Nate took of people eating.  Kind of funny.)

TUESDAY

Plum tuckered out from all the excitement the night before. Couldn't even finish her breakfast without falling asleep.  Of course, as soon as I got her up to put her to bed for a nap she was wide a wake.  Just needed a little power nap, I guess. 

Tuesday morning was set aside for family pictures.  Nate was our photographer and took a lot of pictures! 

Mom & Dad

Derek (16), Latisha, Roger, Kaylee (11), Brandon (9), Dustin (14)

Justin (15), Brian (11), Nathan, Geri, Kate (7)

Abby (8), Holley, Adam, Megan (6), Emma (2), Sophie (4)

Dan, Eric (1), Emily, Jeffrey (7), Andrew (3), Caitlyn (5)

 Crystal, Rylee (9 mos), Jonathan

Sara & Jared

I only have individual pictures of Rylee & Emily's kids.  I don't think any of the others had individuals taken of their kids. 

Jeffrey 

Caitlyn

Andrew

Eric

Rylee

   

 Sisters - Emily, Crystal, Latisha, Sara

Brothers - Nathan & Adam

Jared, Jonathan, Adam, Dan, Nathan, Roger

Holley, Emily, Crystal, Latisha, Sara, Geri

 

Siblings - Nathan, Emily, Crystal, Latisha, Sara, Adam

 

All the adult "kids":  Geri & Nate, Sara & Jared, Roger & Latisha, Holley & Adam, Crystal & Jonathan, Emily & Dan

The "original" Leckie family: 

ALL the adults

We took a group picture, but it was kind of washed out in the background.  Here is a before Nate-doctored -the-picture and an after.  Still slightly washed out, but at least the sun is shining and you can see the mountains (Nate put us in front of a picture he'd taken a different day when it wasn't raining).

The movie theater was great for large groups! 

Or for a date if you happen to have some girls...which they didn't. 

Rylee will have to do.

Rylee could not get enough of playing with Emily's youngest Eric.  He is just about 8 months older and on the clingy shy side generally  speaking, although Rylee could usually get him to open up. 

Dan's lovely lunch. 

Having fun in one of the hot tubs.  Aka warm tub...the temp was set at 98.

Eric cried when I tried to watch him for Emily until I got him to help me feed Rylee.   He liked that.

Getting ready for the Variety Show.  It included things like:

Eric walking across the stage 

Kaylee making animal noises

Roger and Derek juggling

Shields family pickpocketing skit

Jeffrey doing a cartwheel

Brandon doing magic tricks

Brian doing a disappearing act
Geri clogging.

Caitlyn reciting "Ooey Gooey"

Andrew doing "The Three Faces of Andrew"

Sara & Jared singing and playing the guitar to "I Found You" (think Pete's Dragon)

Justin playing the guitar

Kate telling jokes

Dad playing the harmonica

Abby, Megan, Sophie, & Emma dancing

Jonathan showing priceless artwork

Nate whistling like a cricket

I think that was everybody.  It was pretty funny. 

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday was the "free day" and the Jonathan, Rylee, and I rode the trolley downtown.  I've only ever been to Gatlinburg in the winter/fall before and I think this will be my last summer trip there.  It was so stinkin' hot that we didn't stay downtown for long.  Rylee slept most of the time in my carrier which was nice.  The only picture I took was us waiting in the hot sun for the trolley to come...

Enjoying the view with Grandpa

The majority of the people spent their day on a little hike.  Here are some pictures from their hike:

Later that evening Dad of course felt it necessary to make some type of swing off the very high decks...

 

THURSDAY

Thursday morning we had games.  First up was Heads Up, Seven Up.  Then a taped up candy ball game and then a water bucket and sponge relay game.  The candy ball game got a little long, but it was still a fun morning. 

Woah, woah, woah...this is a family game! 

casualty

Swimming in the hot tub with cousins a little later that day.

One of Eric's favorite things to do was empty the chip cabinet one bag at a time and take them to anyone, although usually Sara since she lived with them for a year so he's not afraid of her. lol

Mom about to open up her presents for her birthday (a day early since everyone was going separate ways the next morning).

All in all we had a great time.  Chaotic, but great! : )