Watts Happenin' 2009

Every Memorial Day Weekend for the past 24 years my family has a tradition of a family reuinon. It is on my dad's side and it is a wonderful tradition that I remember growing up and am excited for my girls to learn to love as well!! It is in south AR so it is usually so hot, humid and muggy that I don't "do" outside well there. However, when we got there at 1:00ish on Sat., there was a cool breeze! First time for everything! It was, dare I say, pleasant outside at Mustin! Some cousins were fishing, so of course our girls wanted to join right in!

Not sure what is going on with Lindsey's "pose" but you will see it in a lot of these pics! Not sure where that came from. She obviously wasn't "posing" for this picture because I'm behind her. I guess that is her "super girly" side coming out without realizing it! Ha!

This is Evan. His mom is my, Katherine, is my cousin! He is only 5 months younger than L so they had a BLAST together! I literally hardly saw L because she was so busy running around with Evan!

Here they are "petting" as Lindsey would say, one of the fish they caught. They actually caught quite a few!

This is our new "tradition" of balloon toss! Last year our theme was the "Watts Olympics" so Katherine and I came up with some traditional games for everyone to compete in. Everyone enjoyed it so we did it again. I see this becoming a tradition! Here are some cousins and of course Lindsey was just as involved! She and Evan were partners. Believe it or not, they lasted a while, but only because the water balloons happen to be good at rolling on the ground!

Here is Courtney throwing her balloon. She and Granddad were partners! They went through several balloons. Courtney would throw it, hard, right into the ground! So funny! Then she would just run and get another one! You can do that when you are 2!

Another new tradition is a badminton tournament. Ryan and my cousin (probably like 3rd cousin twice removed or however you say that) Jordan--his mom and my dad are cousins--are the 2 time champs! Woo Hoo!! There is also a horseshoes tournament too, but I didn't make it over there to get any pics. Ryan and my dad were partners in that one...but didn't fare so well.

One of these days I'm going to video L hula hooping. She's got some skills for sure!!!

Popsicles of course....

I don't know why I didn't include Uncle Mike (my dad's sister's husband) in this picture! He was the best "babysitter" for L and E! Katherine and I told him we needed to pay him! ha! He would just take them fishing whenever they wanted. They were digging for worms (finished before I could get a pic) and everything! So cute! This was a "big one" they brought to show us! So proud!

Courtney and Jordan! He is so sweet and so good with our girls! He plays and plays with them. All of our cousins do. Courtney kept calling them "my friends" so I had to keep saying cousins! We don't have "cousins" per say since Kyle and Taylor don't have kiddos. So, that is a new word and concept for her!

This is Uncle Tommy (my great uncle). He is the patriarch of this reunion. He is my grandmother's brother. He part of the oldest generation here. He was sharing his memories of coming to Mustin Lake when he was a little boy! He had a picture of our past family out there in the 1930's!

This is Chris (Katherine's husband), Evan and Lindsey swinging on the swing at "The Smithsonian." Lindsey was sharing her list of songs she was going to sing at church. All I'm going to say about that is that she didn't sing her songs. She wanted to SOOOO bad, but her shyness took over and couldn't do it. Yet, she still wanted to. Maybe next year!

Here she is NOT singing her list of songs she had ready. Courtney was just standing there! We do our own "church service" with songs and a short "sermon" somehow related to our theme. When we first started doing this reunion, my generation which is about 10 of us, would do a "performance" of songs of some sort. Then we got too old and we didn't have kiddos to do that for a while. NOW...we are starting it again! Just slowly!

Here is Jordan preaching on Noah's Ark. He did a great job!

Behind him is my cousin Daniel, Dad's sister Aunt JoAnne's youngest son! If you know about Taylor and his bands/job...Daniel plays in a band and works at a pizza place! Must be in the blood! Not to mention...look at him. Looks like Taylor with his long hair and beard!

Here is our lovely family picture. Lindsey was still pouting from not singing, even though it was HER choice not to! Cute of the rest of us I thought! Behind us is Aunt Kay--Uncle Tommy's sister.

Some of the cousin's playing dominoes and Lindsey wanting to be right in the middle of it!

Here is Honey and Courtney! Check out those curls in that humidity! (it did get humid late Sat)
Here are the cousins (minus Brooke who is 15 months old) she was running around!

This is our WHOLE group! There were 41 or so of us this year. We always take a group picture. I love this! We all wear our "Watts Happenin" shirts from any year and take a picture!

Watts is our family name. It is my dad's mom's maiden name. So years ago someone came up with that title of "Watts Happenin" and it stuck! Super cute I think!! As I get older and have my own family, I learn to appreciate things like this so much! I'm so thankful for my family! By the grace of God, I have an amazing Christian heritage that I will pass on to my family. This is just a small part. However, as I look at this group and see them living for Jesus, it is a reminder of who I am and who I am supposed to be. This group is amazing. Even though they might be my 3rd cousin 4 times removed, I have known them what feels like my entire life. I can't wait to see what God does as we continue this great tradition of WATTS HAPPENIN!