Vacation part 6...extended family

This trip was the first time DH and I have made it to his family's neck of the woods since LO was born (that means it has been over four years people!).    This for a man who is a homebody and used to make it up there two to three times a year at a minimum.  Having kiddos does that for you.  When we first talked about this trip almost a year ago, we thought we'd a) spend about two weeks so LO and NB would have time to acclimate and maybe we'd have some fun after that and 2) mainly be seeing Toona, Gido, Uncle Joe, Aunt Kate and the cousins.  I also thought LO would possibly no longer be napping and NB would be down to one nap a day.  That would make for more flexible beach/family time.  I figured the trip up and back would be hard, but we'd have fun while we were there and it would be worth it.  That was my hope anyway.  The closer we got to the trip two things happened.  We thought more and more that we were crazy for trying to do this trip with kids this age, and more and more extended family started to join the vacation roster.  When we booked our flights in April everything looked like it was going according to plan.  By the time we left, five adults and two babies were coming in addition to the four adults and four children we already expected.  That made us a group of eleven adults and eight children.  That felt like a family reunion to me!  Of course these were all DH's extended family, most of whom I had met two years earlier on a trip to Nashville.  We were still missing at least three of DH's cousins and three aunts/uncles, but we hope they'll make it next time.  Yep, we had so much fun we are planning to do this again, probably in two more years.  There's promise that the next spot won't require a plane trip for us.  Even better!  So, without further ado, here are the pics from our brief time with the extended family....

Tanta Nana (Toona's sister), Cousins W,G (second),E, and DH's cousin R

Cousin W, Toona

Second cousin C (cousin P's baby)

Aunt Kate, Toona, Tanta Tayseer, Gido Uncle Joe, the top of the heads of Cousin E, R, C, and P

DH's cousin N and her son G

Baby G

Me, NB, DH's cousin N and baby G.  NB is just 15 days older than G

Our handsome Da

Rough-housing.  NB trying to bite LO, LO standing on Doobie's back

LO and Da wrestling

Doobie and NB wrestling

Gido

This and many other of this pics in this post were taken by cousin E.  She is 6.  We were all impressed.  Cousin R's nice camera helped a bit too.

Uncle Joe and cousin W

W throwing up a peace sign like she's tough.

Doobie

E, photographer extraordinaire

Some of the crew had gone home, but the rest of us gathered for one meal out on the boardwalk.  L-R  (back) are Joe, Toona, Gido, (middle) Cousin N, G, W, E Tanta Nana, Doobie (front) DH, LO, me, NB

I love large family gatherings even if I'm relatively new to the family.  We're looking forward to the next one already.