Hall Family Reunion 2009.

My Grandmother Dorothy (Hall) Martelli had 4 other siblings; Maurice, Parker, Jean and Agnes. They started doing family reunions back in 1978 - ( ? give or take a year or two as I'm not 100% sure) and we have been doing them about every other year ever since. This year was a lot different for me because it was the first time I wasn't just one of the kids - I have graduated to being one of the "responsible adults" :) that actually has to take care of a child. Oh my! It was a lot more work but we had a blast!!
Here is Elena cuddling in the pack and play (thank you to the Algya family!) with her monkey!

-- Only after we got to the hotel did we realize they provide cribs free of charge! Oh well, better safe than sorry! Here is Elena ready for breakfast.

My cousin Mike did a great job with the reunion this year! It was in the Bricktown area of Oklahoma City and it was really pretty. He grouped us up and sent us on a scavenger hunt on Saturday morning. We had to find all kinds of random places and items throughout the area. Here are some pictures from it:

This is another team - which just happened to include my Aunt Marge and Uncle Jim in it. They also happened to bring along my Christmas present to Jim last year which was a flexible tripod that can hook to almost anything. We got points for each team member in our pictures so needless to say they ended up winning! No fair - you can't use my present against me!!!

We had 3 little ones on our team, Elena, Sophia and little Will. They were troopers! It was really hot and they did great! This was drink break time.

Which was soon followed by Elena trying to escape from her stroller time!

I finally got her strapped back in and she decided to take a nap.

After we got back Elena got to play with some more of her cousins. It was kid central at the reunion this year! What fun for Elena!

After lunch we decided to check out the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial site. We took a trolley to get there - another first for Elena. She was pretty pumped about not being in a car seat!

We went with cousins, Brent, Tim and Beverly...

and my Mom, Jim and Marge.

This is the entrance into the site - this part really hits you because of all the personal items and pictures. It definitely makes everything much more real.

Here are some more picture from inside. It is so beautiful and so sad at the same time.

Each chair represents a person that died. They have smaller chairs to represent a child that died, there were several from a daycare that was on one of the floors.

This is the main symbol for everything around the site, the Survivor Tree.

After venturing out into the heat twice with Elena we decided it was time to hit the pool. The pool at our hotel was awesome with lots of kid-friendly activities!

Do I sense a little deja vu on this next picture?

This little crab was her favorite!

After another nap, it was time to head down for dinner and family pictures.

I'm not sure what was wrong with my camera and the lighting in this room, but these pictures didn't come out very well. Hopefully soon I will get the ones we had taken with the much better quality camera!

These are all the 1st cousins. (Now considered the "elders'' of our group!) My mom wasn't too happy about that!!

We decided to head to the top of the hotel to take a look at the city at sunset. Hmmm...how many Hall's can we fit in an elevator??? Quite a few! You can't even see me, Elena, my mom and a couple others too!

Pretty neat views!

The sun looks so beautiful behind us!


Back downstairs to do what we do best - hang out and enjoy each other's company!!

Elena started doing this with her head this weekend. Pretty cute!

Is it a big surprise that Elena found a buckle to play with?

This is something that I had never seen before - a handpainted 50th Anniversary plate that my Grandma passed on to Parker and Clara Hall (now they have hit a bigger milestone!) and then to Jean (Hall) and Bill Hurd. Next are Charles and Sue Hall currently at 43, then Jim and Marge Pickett at 40, then Howard and Chris Hall at 39 and then my parents Sam and Teresa who are coming up on 30! What a great tradition that hopefully someday Robert and I will hit!!!

It was a great weekend and I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family!