Walter Family Reunion

This last week I helped host Michael's family reunion. The Walters are a prolific bunch and extremely close. Every two years they have a reunion and everyone attends. I mean everyone! It's not like most families where you go if you can, it's a really big deal. It's a three day gathering and people really look forward to it.
It used to be Michael's parents' generation that hosted, but starting this year, our generation has taken the reins and accepted responsibility of the tradition. Since Michael's father is the eldest of the siblings, his children were first to take it on. Michael and his brother and brother's wife and I all worked together (with a LOT of help from my in-laws) and held the reunion at my parents house this past weekend.
Immediate family came in on Wednesday and the rest came in on Friday. We had 12 family units with a total of 41 people, 12 of whom were under six. Crazy!
We spent Wednesday and Thursday getting to spend some special time with Michael's immediate family and getting ready. It was really special to have that time with his brother and sister-in-law and their boys since they live in California and we don't get to see them very often.
We served Friday night dinner and just hung out. Saturday morning my mom took family photos for us and then we had family meeting where we handed out family updates and went over agendas and announced a fun photo contest and created teams. Each team had to run around the ranch and take silly pictures and videos in order to gain points. Then we served a big lunch and then we ran around the ranch and played and swam until dinner. We served a Mexican buffet down by the pool and then went up to the big room for a kid talent show. Sam sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and broke my heart with his sweetness. He told me before hand, "I can't sing wewy well, because it makes me sneeze, but I will twy, and then you will clap." Davis sang the theme song to Cars and then ran around pretending he was Lightning McQueen. I thought it was cute. Sunday morning we had our traditional family sing along where we sing both really funny songs and more beautiful songs. This is probably my favorite part of the reunion because the Walters can sing! I just love it. And finally Michael showed some really funny slide shows of the contest and announced the winners and also showed an hilarious video where everyone danced for fifteen seconds to a pop song. Cracked me up.
We had private rooms set up for babies to sleep, a medical/emergency station set-up and a bazillion riding toys outside for the kids. People played horseshoes, tubed in the river, looked at each others scrapbooks, swam in the pool and played and played and played.
It was an insane weekend. I'm exhausted. While I was in the thick of it, I was totally stressed out. I was trying to stay calm and focused and I think I succeeded some of the time, but I feel like I failed at maintaining a fun, relaxed exterior a lot of the time as well. Thank goodness the Walters are the kind of people who just step in and help. I was never alone in the kitchen and I always had help cleaning up. At one point I went upstairs to deal with my kids and when I got back all the supper dishes were clean and put away! It was awesome.
I worked a lot, but I had fun too. I got to zoom around the ranch with my team and spend some quality time with Michael's cousins. I drank fabulous wine while lounging in the pool. And I made good food.
I couldn't always keep all the balls in the air. I was so grateful for my parents letting us use their house, but I was constantly on edge worrying that something would get destroyed- not likely of course, everyone was really respectful of the space-I just couldn't let go of the worry. We ran out of certain foods a couple of times. I was mortified. This was my first time to cater such a big party, and while I got the main courses right, I didn't guess how many extras I needed.
At one point, Sam snuck upstairs with his cousin Dylan who is also two. They had a great time jumping off my parents' bed until Sam bit all the way through his tongue. I ran up there and heard Dylan saying, "uh, oh" over and over again and then saw Sam screaming with blood pouring out of his mouth. I didn't even realize how stressed I was until someone asked me later if I had stopped shaking. Michael sort of lost it also and we were both pretty embarrassed about our outbursts once we calmed down and realized Sam was fine. It's funny, it seems like it's harder to watch kids the more family there is, because everyone assumes that someone else is watching them.
I feel really proud that we pulled it off. We made a point of doing it ourselves and sometimes regretted it, but I think we really put our own stamp on it. We had great, healthy, mostly organic food (me), awesome slide shows and videos (Michael), a really fun, competitive game (Steve) and the whole thing was green and recycled (Melissa).
Overall, I'm pleased. I'm personally disappointed with myself for not staying more in the moment and rolling with the punches better, but I learned so much and next time I'll do better. I really do love Michael's family. They are so genuine and warm and real. They are caring and helpful and fun. I'm lucky.
I want to thank my parents extra here for letting us use their home. They are so generous and we really appreciated it. I want to thank my parents-in-law for helping because we could not have pulled it off without them. And the Walters for letting me be part of this awesome family and awesome tradition. Now I need to go put my feet up. XO! Amber