Family Reunion Trip to Branson {Part 2}

On our first day in Branson, all of the kids (my cousins, sister, etc)  and grandkids (our kids) went hiking at the Ruth & Paul Henning Conservation Area.

It was HOT!! Luckily most of the hiking was well shaded.

The terrain was a little rough, but not too bad.

Our group ranged from 1 1/2 years to middle age. (I don't want to get in trouble for revealing anyone's age.) We had to stop for a few breaks along the way which gave us time to take pictures!

Here's Hannah with Beatrix, Levi, August, & Sophia.

A partial group picture.

I think we have all of the kids in this picture.

The hiking was FREE, which is always a good thing! Our hike lasted about an hour and a half.  Afterwards, a few of us went out to lunch while others returned to the condos for nap times.

Family Reunion Trip to Branson {Part 1}

Several months ago (or longer), my sister and I started talking about having a family reunion trip for our Dad's side of the family. Bethany contacted our cousins to get some possible dates and then this spring we actually moved forward with the idea.

Through our Dad's timeshare, we were able to reserve (4) 3 bedroom units in Branson. We tried to get something in Florida or Pigeon Forge, but there was not enough availability. Branson was actually a decent location considering where everyone was driving from. Plus, we were able to use Dad's timeshare points, so there were no costs for our accommodations!


 Each unit could be split into 3 individual units (ABC) if necessary. Here's a floorplan of a full unit:

So for our group, we had 12 bedrooms, 12 kitchens, 20 bathrooms and 12 living rooms. When we had everyone there, we had 32 people I believe. It amazes me when I hear people say that they have over 100 people at their family reunions! I can't even imagine. My father has 1 brother. My siblings and I have 3 cousins.

Everyone except my brother was able to attend. Plus, we included my Dad's cousin John and his wife. Another of my Dad's cousins came and visited for a couple of days during the week, but they arranged for their own unit.

Here's who we had in our group:
Dad & his girlfriend Judy from Indiana
Bethany and her family from Las Vegas
Uncle Ken & Aunt Brenda from Indiana
My cousin, Katherine and her family from Missouri
My cousin Kerry and his family from Houston
My cousin Kevin from Indiana
Dad's cousin John & his wife from Ohio
and my own family from Georgia
Dad's cousin David and his wife from Missouri & Texas

I'll include photos from our week in separate entries.

8th Grade Dance

The 8th grade dance is an end of middle school tradition.


Here are some pictures that our good friend, Eric Washburn took of Hannah & some of her friends before the dance. He takes gorgeous photos. His website is: http://ericwashburn.com/


Hannah

Hannah & Chris. I didn't get to stay around for pictures because I was at the dance doing final preparations.

Hannah & her friends.

Then here is a picture of Hannah arriving on the red carpet at the dance. This picture was taking by Mary Teren who was the photographer for the evening. Her website is: http://maryterenphotography.com/

Hannah had a wonderful time!

Yikes! No Posts in the Last Six Months!

As I sit down to write a new post, I discovered that I have not posted anything since late January, 2015. I can't believe that it has been nearly six months since I've posted anything! In a nutshell.....there just hasn't been much to write about. My blog is a lot like a diary and our life has been pretty routine. I also was going through a point where I just wasn't taking pictures of anything. Plus my hard drive failed several months ago & I still don't have everything back on my computer and organized.

Anyway....I'm back!

My Baby Turns 17!

James had another birthday this month. We need to stop this! He keeps getting bigger and older.

His birthday was on a school day, so he did have to work on his special day. We went out to dinner at a Chinese buffet restaurant in Marietta, then came home for cake & presents.

It looks like someone is in need of a hair cut!!!

Happy 17th birthday, baby boy!

A Holiday Quartet

One of the highlights for Hannah this past holiday season was being selected by her orchestra director to perform in a quartet. The quartet got to play at a local elementary school as background music at one of their events. Here are some pictures from their little performance.


One of the violinists in the group was unable to attend, so their teacher/director stepped in and played with them.

They played an assortment of Christmas and holiday music. It was a cold evening and they were located just next to the front door. So every time the door opened, a cold breeze came in. Their music blew down a couple of times too!

Hannah LOVED being in the quartet!

Reading Bowl 2015

This past weekend was Hannah's last Reading Bowl competition. As of now, she says she doesn't want to continue it in high school. She likes being able to read whatever she wants, even though most of the books she's read for the reading bowl have been extremely good ones! I can totally understand, but it does make me a little sad. It's been a wonderful program.

The parade of schools with our beautiful Tapp banner!

The whole team. 8 of our team members are 8th graders this year, so next year's team will be practically brand new.

Here are the 4 students who have been on the team for all 3 years of middle school. We were trying to recreate a picture from 6th grade.

This is the photo of them from 6th grade. They were all so little!

 





Post-Christmas Trip to Indy

The day after Christmas, we drove up to Indy to share the holidays with our family.
It was a very quick trip. We left at 7am on Friday and arrived at Chris' older brother's house before dinner that evening.

Here are the kids playing a game with Uncle Tim.

The next morning, Chris & met some good friends for brunch.

The same group - except Joan swapped places with Jill this time.

After brunch, we picked up James & Hannah and went to my dad's house for the afternoon. Then for dinner, we went to Holly Hock Hill to have dinner with our Lizton family.

Hannah with my cousin Katherine's daughters Emily & Juliana from Missouri.

My cousin's other kids: AJ, Katelyn, & Levi.

Levi, Katherine and her husband Darrell, and my brother, George.

Uncle Ken & Aunt Brenda from Lizton (with Dad's girlfriend, Judy)

James, Dad & Judy

Chris & me with my cousin, Kevin.

Missing from the group was my cousin Kerry and his family from Texas.

Some more pictures from that evening.

Hannah & Emily

Dad & Judy

Katherine & me

Levi with Uncle Ken (his grandfather) and my dad.

The next morning, we had a lovely breakfast prepared by Chris' mother, then we stopped to visit Chris' stepmother and we were heading back to Georgia by 1pm. It was a fast, but nice visit.

Christmas 2014

It's been nearly a month since Christmas, so I'm a bit behind with my blogging AGAIN!

We had a very nice, low-key Christmas this year. Since the kids are teens, we let them set the schedule. If I recall correctly, they were up sometime after 9 on Christmas morning.


We had a live tree again this year. We got rid of our fake tree when we moved into the new house. We don't have much storage space here, so we've been doing the live tree.

Here's Scout waiting for the kids to wake up so he can open HIS stocking!

See the roaring fire on the TV? One of the local TV stations was running that all Christmas morning. We didn't do a whole lot of presents this year. Neither of the kids had big lists this year. They have lap tops, tablets, video game systems and much more already and didn't really want or need much this year. I'm not going to complain!

Hannah got some new cello music. She was so excited. She actually spent a few hours playing on her cello that afternoon!

The kitties don't really get into the wrappings as much as our previous cats did.

One tradition that my mom started many years ago was the hidden pickle. This is one tradition that we've continued over the years. Here James & Hannah are looking for it.

It was a quiet Christmas. We made some phone calls to out of state family members and watched some TV.