If you ever find yourself planning a family reunion around the Mid-Atlantic I would highly recommend looking into Oglebay. It's where we've had our last 4 family reunions (on Andrew's side), and where we plan on having the next one in 2 years.Located in Wheeling, West Virginia, Oglebay is an all-inclusive family resort which has just about everything you need to keep everyone in the family happy. This year we opted for one of the "premium cottages" with 8 bedrooms, 6 1/2 baths, 2 common areas, 2 refrigerators, and a washer and dryer, which more than comfortably accommodated our 12 adults and 16 children. Some of the on-site activities include a zoo (complete with a train), nature center, miniature golf, large playground, horseback riding, lake with paddle boats, indoor and outdoor pool and plenty of hiking trails. And that's just for the kids. Oglebay is comprised of 3 golf courses, as well as an 18 hole par 3. Remember, this is West Virginia we are talking about here...so the golf is CHEAP. And if we are being honest, golf really is the main allure for the 30-40 year old males in our family.
And of course, what reunion would be complete without a family picture? This typically painful process was particularly painful this year due to our color scheme choice (who would have thought it would be so hard to dress everyone in pink and green?) and the insane amount of time it took our photographer to pose the family. By the time we were situated for the picture various 4 letter words were on the tip of each adult's tongue (and possibly some of the children's). Most of the pain from this experience has since been forgotten and we are now left with beautiful family pictures. All worth it in my book.
It really was a wonderful reunion, made memorable by everyone's planning and contributions. Grandma, Grandpa and Peter had special outings with the grandchildren based on their age groups. Andra planned nightly activities which included the unveiling of the "wall of shame"- a wall covered with 8x10 pictures of everyone making their goofiest faces. Sunday, which usually is a lost day since we don't do any outdoor activities, was perhaps my favorite day this year. After attending the Wheeling Ward for church (which was a branch when we first attended meetings there 4 reunions ago), indoor activities were planned to occupy our time. Crystal and Tim had everyone make homemade pretzels, Jen had the children make tie blankets to donate to charity, and Andra put on a pretty cool shadow puppet show.
It was a great reunion (even if Afton refused to sleep at night) and we look forward to returning in a couple of years.
The boy cousins rocking out their pink family pic shirts
The boys making pretzels
Uncle Matt leaping in front of "The Wall of Shame"
Shadow puppet show
Waiting for the train at the zoo
6 comments:
Hey that is a rainbow lorakeet--they are ALL OVER here--that is a cool pix, I have never tried to feed one!
Looks like everyone had a great time! I don't even recognize your boys, they've grown so much. Your family is beautiful!
Wow that looks like such a cool place, something for everyone!
Love the family pic and Sams birds!
What a creative crew you all are...you left out though who the winner of the wall of shame was!
I won by making the crossed eyed "Stones face". Andrew was a close second and if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see it for yourself!
okayyy hahaha so that pic of andews bro, matt i think? anyway jess tell me u dont die laughing, @ andrews pic in the backround hahah ewwwww dude he deff needs to win stones face, his is straight up nasty dude!
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