Barnes Family Reunion 2010

Well, it may have taken almost 5 years (or more, I lost count), but ALL 5 siblings were finally able to get together!! This year at the Barnes Family Reunion in Florence, Oregon we all made it! Adam and his crew were able to get here from Florida, such a treat! And we managed to get all 6 of our tents into one site! All together that's 11 adults and 14 children ages 7months to 11 years. (We missed Maggie's husband Levi and step-son Sloan!)

My camera, which is older that I care to admit, chose this weekend to call it quits on me...so as you can see a bit in this photo the edges are black, most of my other pictures did not turn out at all with 80% of it being black...so here is the few I did manage to get.

From left to right (youngest to oldest), Daniel, Mandy, Seth, Adam, and Maggie.
We were able to get a pretty great day on the beach as far as weather goes. It may not look like it here but it was warm enough to get a little wet (or a lot depending on who you are), with almost no wind at all! Graham and I stuck to the sandy beach while the rest of the crew were able to go through the tide pools. Graham LOVED getting wet, I left the coat on him to keep at least the top of him warm, the wetter he got the more and more red his toes turned, that ocean water is soooo cold!

Lucy found a little cave that she was pretending was her home. This year I made up a "Barnes Boys" trivia game that was a hit. It was a fun way to learn some stories and fun things about our Dad and his 3 brothers and their dad, Grandpa Archie. This picture is Uncle Pat...who got stumped on one of the questions, haha!

Another new thing that we did this year was an auction. Our cousin Jenna volunteers for a great organization in CA called "Outdoor Outreach," which helps give inner city kids some outdoor adventures. She brought along some great stuff to auction off to raise money for them. There were some items that were fought over (all in fun) and she managed to raise $160- one hundred percent going to the kids, how cool is that! With Uncle John as the "auctioneer", we LOVED it and had a blast! Maybe we can make these things a tradition :)




Every year Uncle Pat takes us all out clam digging. We get incredibly muddy, and dig WAY too many limits (each one is 36 clams- we dug 7 limits this year). We then take them back to camp, "clean" them (which includes getting rid of the guts and slime- a job I avoid), pound them (which certainly makes all the others in the campground really happy), then fry half and put the other half into one enormous pot of the best clam chowder you've ever tasted!!

Some of the kids getting ready and waiting for their turn on the boat to ride out to our digging area. Top L-R: Hannah, Kaitlynn, Larissa. Bottom: Lucy, Carson. Then Posh is there tying a rope around Matthew's pants that were a tad big in the waist.Posh with Hyrum and Lucy and Uncle Pat, on our way out to dig. Lucy stepping in one of the holes after we dug out 3 clams!

Carson dug with Uncle Daniel and Uncle Seth- here he is showing off one of the big ones they got, proud as can be!

This year we all went up to the cemetery to visit Grandpa Archie's grave site with his new headstone. What a great man he was, I like to think he smiles down while watching us all diggin' our clams, getting muddy and annoying the rest of the campground with our pounding, laughing, and story telling (something he was a pro at!). He may not be here in person but he definitely lives on in his sons- to see them tell stories is almost like watching him tell stories of his adventures, and if you close your eyes they definitely sound like him! Love you Grandpa Archie, and I miss your "smiling" eyes!

It was a fabulous 5 days and we all can't wait until next year!!