And We're Back!

We're back from another wonderful family reunion up in Terra Alta, West Virginia, at the Alpine Lake Resort.  These reunions are from David's mother's clan, on her father's side (David's grandfather).  They hold these every 2 years at different locations throughout the U.S.  Sometimes we can go, sometimes not.  I've been to four.  David's been to 8 of 13.

When I tell *my* family about it, they can't believe it.  It amazes them that people will travel from California, Florida, the Philippeans, Toronto, New York, etc. to be at these reunions.  It also makes some of them roll their eyes when I mention talent shows, singing songs together, hiking, reading, playing board games, etc.

I love it.

I love the togetherness.  It's great, great fun.

At Alpine Lake, some family members stayed at the Lodge itself and others got to stay in villas around the area.  My mother-in-law's immediate branch (she, her husband, 4 kids and grandkids) total 17 in all.  WE got to stay here:



Victoria's Chalet.  Aweeee-some!  All 17 of us fit in perfectly.  The only downside was that the owner of this rental property divided it up to get maximum usage.  So the upstairs does not connect to the downstairs inside.  If I wanted to see my in-laws or Jacob, or get to the main kitchen, I had to use the outside stairs to go down.   We were on the front left on the second floor.  In the rear left were my mil and fil.  On the front right upstairs were my sis-in-law and her husband, and in the right back, in a room with 2 beds, the 4 girl cousins (Isabel included) shared the 2 beds.  In between the rooms upstairs was a large living room with two couches, tables, etc.  My nephew slept in there (once the bat situation was cleared up!)

Downstairs left, we had a room with two beds, for my brother-in-law, his wife and their 2 babies.  On the bottom right we had a room with 2 beds for Jacob and my single brother-in-law.  In the rest of the downstairs, we had couches, a mini bar, fireplace, dining room table, full kitchen with another table and a laundry room.

Every bedroom had its own full bathroom.  Like I said, awesome.



The rear of the chalet.  The stairs on the right are my stairs; they're on the left if you face the house from the front.  The rear rooms are the ones I mentioned were the 4 girls, and my in-laws.

So yea, bat.  The middle top common area had a bat in it.  We closed it off but this made getting to Isabel's room a mess!  I either had to go downstairs, across and back up the stairs (my knee!) or walk through my mother-in-law's room, out a back door, in another back door, and then the keys we had did not work on all the doors.  The first night was a logistical mess, but once the pest guy came the next morning and got the bat out (and patched a crack where he got in), we are ok to walk through the common living area to get to each other's rooms.

Well, that's all for tonight.  I'll post more in a day or two.