Last weekend, over the Memorial Day Holiday, we went to the England Family Reunion (England is Brad's Mother's maiden name). The reunion is held in Haworth, Oklahoma, a small town in southern Oklahoma, near the Texas border. We had a good time seeing all of Brad's relatives who were able to attend. This was the second year for the annual reunion, and it was good to see an even larger turnout than last year.
There was a live country band - and as you will see in a video below - Kyra loved the music. Many people commented that she was too young to have such good rhythm! :) (They asked if it ran in the family - they obviously have not seen either of us dance! Hahaha!)
We stayed in a large cabin with Brad's parents, Non and Tricia, his Uncle Virgil and Aunt Connie, and his Aunt Lorene in Beaver's Bend State Park. Inside the cabin there were beautiful white pine walls, a large, open living/dining/kitchen area and three bedrooms, two bathrooms. The third bedroom was an upstairs loft where Brad, Kyra and I slept. Outdoors was a wrap-around porch and beautiful scenery, with lots of trees. We are not used to mountains and trees like that in Kansas. :) We took home a few large rocks for our garden - we now have rocks from Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Colorado in our flower beds!
While looking for rocks, I lifted one and suddenly shrieked and flailed my arms - running away from the rock. Underneath, I had found a tarantula!! Literally! I admit to being arachnaphobic - and had never seen a spider that large that was not either a pet or in the zoo! Brad and his Aunt Connie laughed hard at the sight of me running away from the spider, shuddering and saying, "Ewww!"
After the reunion we visited Brad's Uncle William and Aunt Bobby. Last year Kyra got to sit on one of Uncle William's horses and we finally got the picture this year. :) We will get it up soon. Kyra was not able to ride the horses this year because it was raining. It is amazing how much Kyra has changed in a year. Kyra loved seeing the horses again, and was also excited to see the dogs! William and Bobby raise Boston and Yorkshire Terriers. There were a lot of tiny puppies to see - including two that were less than an hour old! Aunt Bobby had one small Yorkshire Terrier puppy that she was keeping in the house. It was the runt of the litter and weighed only a pound even though it was almost four months old! Kyra thought the tiny puppy was a kitten at first and said "Meow?" when she first saw it. Kyra was shy at first but eventually let the puppy lick her hand. She liked petting the puppy too - but had to be told to pet "gently". :)
Kyra did really well the entire trip - though the last hour home of the over six-hour drive was a little tough for her. We did not blame her though - after six and a half hours we were ready to get out of the car too!
The reunion was a great time of sharing meals, conversation and fun together with family, and we look forward to the England Family Reunion next year!
