Meet the Fam!

This post is a little late in coming but the three weeks since we came home from Colorado have flown by!  I wrote a little about our adventures at Rocky Mountain National Park but saved the best for last.  It was a family reunion, of sorts, dreamed up by yours truly and my niece, Lisa Uhlenkott.  It started out as way for Lisa's family and mine to get together without either of us having the travel the entire 2200 miles.

Eventually, it morphed into a family outing and we tried really hard to get the whole family there.  Missing -- and greatly missed -- were my brothers and my sister's middle child.  In the end, my parents and 17 of their offspring and spouses/significant others got there. Here's the group photo which was no easy shake with 19 people!

Top row (left):  Chanelle (Sunshine) and Gabriel (The Captain) Tischler, Kolby and Mikayla Uhlenkott;
Middle row:  Royce Huntley, TJ and Melissa Schmidt, Ted and Lisa Uhlenkott, David Venters, Benjamin (The Blitz) Tischler with me; Front row: Allison and Maggie Rose (Tinker) Tischler, Anneka, Donna, Les and Darinda Huntley, Paul (Dear Hubby) Tischler.

We woke up slowly with the mom of 5 being first up to steal a couple of kid-free minutes and the rest of the family slowly waking and gathering through the morning.  A couple of days we all got up earlier than we wanted to because of a couple of loudmouth Magpies messing around in camp.  We all brought our own breakfast and lunch to the table and then shared a communal supper.  Mom-o-5 had a bad year with the dutch oven/foreign charcoal/high altitude and burned or undercooked every dessert.  Oopsie.  Nonetheless, we had a great time visiting, eating and playing together.  I'm hoping we can stage a re-run in 2013 in Gospel Hump Wilderness in Idaho. 

Here are some of the family a little closer up.

Lisa (my niece) and Ted Uhlenkott.  Lisa is my sister's oldest and mom to Mikayla and Kolby.

My sister Darinda Huntley with her friend, David Venters, and our three youngest hooligans.

Most or all of these next photos were taken by Melissa and TJ Schmidt.  Turns out Mom-o-5 didn't have much time to take photos!

Here's the darling Melissa with my mom, Donna Huntley and then my dad, Les Huntley - the instigators of this crazy crew!

My niece, Lisa and my nephew TJ Schmidt.

A good example of why you should take time to get your haircut before you go on vacation to the land of no humidty and therefore no hair volume.  That's Pepper -- Alli -- and the Blitz in Paul's arms.

Here is Lisa's sweetheart (and ours!), Ted Uhlenkott.  Looks like he is really enjoying dish duty!

Cute pics of Pepper and The Tink.

 Royce and Anneka Huntley;  these two are the offspring to my brother, Guy.

Cousins:  Melissa and TJ, Anneka, Alli, Royce, Chanelle and Kolby.

I could post pics for hours but based on the number of interruptions I'm getting, I probably should now pay attention to the kids.  Maybe next time we can get Guy, John, Carin and Clan and Jason all there.  WOW -- that would be fantastic!.  John will be in charge of dessert!