Family Reunion: Friday Night

I mentioned last Thursday that we were heading to northeast Louisiana for a family reunion with my mother's side of the family.  The extended family were invited to join us on Saturday morning, but on Friday night we were meeting up with 'our family'...the direct descendants of Corbett and Lorene Fulton.

These three ladies are their daughters.  My mother (June, the baby), Aunt Fran (the middle child) and Aunt Sylvia (the eldest).  From these three issued forth this crew.

Doing what all families do best...eat, fellowship, and eat some more!

L to R: Talan, Derek, Ryan & Blake Cisco and Sylvia Roesler

My Aunt Sylvia has five children, most of them still living in Michigan.  They were not able to make it, but her granddaughter, Ryan and her family made the trip.

L to R: Tiffany, Joey, Brandi & Sarah Linder, Paige Jowers, Fran Tomerlin, Ryker Jowers, Christopher Tomerlin, and Rita & Allen Smith

Aunt Fran had the closest to perfect attendance for the Friday night gathering.  She was only missing one granddaughter who had to work...but who made it on Saturday.  (Yes, I am talking about you, Brittany!)  Aunt Fran has three children: Rita, Brandi and Christopher.  Rita and I grew up together, while Brandi and Christopher grew up with our oldest two, Meagan and Kelli.  Kelli will tell you to this day about Brandi and Meagan not letting her play with them, so she was forced to be a tomboy and play with Chris.

L to R: Brianne Allen, Meagan & Derrick Rodgers, Fonda Goode, Josh Allen, Jim Goode, June Graves, Steve, Rosa & Stevi Bolin, Brian Goode and Davin Rodgers

And finally, my mother's family.  About a third of us were missing.  Delayne was asleep when we took this picture...and, as we were the last large group, the lighting had about disappeared altogether.  (We missed you; Naiz, Jana, Kelli, Matt, Brooke, Maddux, Elliot and Will!)

These three boys became fast friends over the weekend.  It was the first time they had ever met...being separated by about 1,300 miles.  It was also the first time they ever got to chase 'lightening bugs'!  Pawpaw caught them one...

...you would have thought they had discovered a whole new species, they were so mesmerized.

Talan and Blake with their 'baby duck' calls from Duck Commander.

Around 10:30, the younger crew decided to load up and head back to southeast Arkansas where they were staying at my sister's house.  It was time to put the kids to bed and for the adults to gather at the pool.

Brian is loaded up and ready to go!  He had enough of his mom and dad on the drive up.

I don't think they got much sleep that night...but there are 'inside jokes' galore going around Facebook since then.  We wanted to do this get together so that our kids would know where they came from.  I would say it was a success!