Photo Dump -- June 2025

 Wherein everyone gathered at Elysian Lake in Minnesota -- all under one roof (plus the boathouse, where the Sisters stayed): two great grandparents (Dan's parents); two grandparents (me and Dan); four married couples; four Religious (one Religious priest, one Religious Brother, two Sisters -- all CMRI); one single son, discerning his vocation; nineteen grandchildren + two babies "onboard" due in the next year. (And one little "boat security" pup.)

(L-R, back to front) Sr. Evangeline, Br. Simon, William (the single son),
 Paul (father of three), Dominic (father of four), Kevin (father of three),
 Fr. Philip, Sr. Antonia: Michelle (mother of 6+1); Dan, me,
and Dawsey (boat security pup); Cathy (mother of three +1)

Nine of twelve granddaughters twirling in their dirndls.

Ten  out of twelve granddaughters! Missing Emmi and Anya. (Formal Photos taken by Monica!)

Candyland!
(Margaret and Clara; the best of these photos are the ones Monica took!)

Bouncy House Fun!
(Chloe and Quinn)

Art Fun: Making Paper Dolls
(Sr. Antonia, Lilly, and me)

Some Examples of the masterpieces from
Grandpa's painting lessons.
(Clara and Sophia)

Killian's artwork: simple and elegant.
 (Impressive that he covered every bit of the canvas!)

Jewelry making with Aunt Donna
(clockwise from bottom left: Sophie, Donna, Sr. Evangeline,
Aunt Linda, and Monica) 

Sophie especially enjoyed the jewelry making!

Lots of fun with crayons, colored pencils,
 and coloring books!
(Clockwise from lower left: Evie, Sr. Evangeline, Chloe, 
Auntie Linda, Dawsey-dog, Ella (I think), and Daria)

Chloe -- and a look at a typical moment on the big
coffee table -- coloring books and coffee cups!

More Coloring

Dream Vacation for Dawsey

Hanging out with Gavin

Portrait of his majesty

Trying to take his job as "boat security" seriously...
Dawse was actually scared of boat rides, but this pup
will put up with anything to be in with the crowd.

Love These Faces

Dominic with sleepy Clara
(Daughter #2)

Killian with jam

Beautiful Evie looking so grown up!

One of our gorgeous happy babies,
Emmie, Kevin's #3

Another gorgeous happy baby: Lucy
Dominic's #4

Cousins/Best Pals: Clara and Sophia

Sweet Chloe

In the Bouncy House being silly: Basti and Anya

Lucian -- happy baby,
only temporarily grumpy

Grandpa with Lucy

Boat ride with Br. Simon, who had the foresight to 
bring along some of the wine processed
at the seminary (with seminary grown grapes)!

Br. Simon wishing safe journeys to Aunt
Donna (who only got to stay for the weekend)

And "Buh-bye" to Aunt Nina (Linda), who
drove out with Aunt Donna.

Dandad with Lucia

Silly Chloe, playing Chinese Checkers
with Claudia

Fr. Philip with Chloe

Silly Happy Sophia

Auntie Donna with Margaret Mary

Boats

After years (decades!) of wanting to host a reunion near a body of water so that he could enjoy boating and fishing with the children and grandchildren, Dan, Sr., finally got his wish! He and Grandma rented a very large Air B-n-B on Lake Eleysian for the Reunion, with a dock and a little sand "beach" that was the stuff of dreams! Though many of the grown ups were a little concerned about the safety factor, being right on the water, there was only one incident with a little one falling off the dock (and Fr. Philip saved the day!). For the most part, all the Littles followed the strictly administered rules (regarding the use of life preservers and staying off the pier unless accompanied by a grownup) and there were many adults keeping constant watch. Dan, jr (Aka: Dandad) played water taxi driver through most of the week for constant and varying crowds of children and grownups -- which is how I mostly have pictures of the children onboard; I went on the kid trips mostly! But there were at least 3 very early morning fishing trips on the pontoon and one evening adult-oriented boat ride, teasingly called "The Booze Cruise," along with a few romantic "couple cruises," and a trip across the lake to play at the swim beach and playground. Oddly enough, there was no public dock to leave the boat, so Dandad and I toodled around the lake a few times while the rest of the family played and got ice cream in the little town, then we came and picked them up to take home. Great memories I think we'll all cherish for our lifetimes!

It's a testimony to how well all our grandchildren are being raised
that it really was no problem keeping them all safe and seated 
during these boat rides!

Not a great photo, but an idea, anyway, of the "beach" and the dock.

Looks like we're set up for fishing, but this was a Rosary Tour 

See?
(With Sr. Antonia, Monica, Ina, William, Dandad and me -- and
I'm pretty sure Sr. Evangeline was there, just didn't make it into the pic.

Swimming togs were the uniform of the week!

Typing up the boat -- or untying? (There's 
probably a proper nautical expression for this...)

Dawsey supervising the safety of this mission.

One of the water lilies -- plucked out by our "Water Lilly"

Another inferior photo, but a look at the older
kids kayaking with the younger kids close in to the dock. 

Sister helping Evie to get going.
(A lot of what Sisters do!)

Evie with Claudia

Gavin with Lilly: Daria shoving them off. Lol!

One of the parties on the way out.

More Indoor Fun

Everyone enjoyed playing billiards!

Cooking and Eating!

Chess!

Shuffleboard was really popular!

The back porch had a fire pit that became a popular hangout spot!

Br. Simon in the back hallway telling all his little neice-princesses
the "True Story of Rapunzel."

Did I mention there was a lot of good cooking
and happy eating? This was walking taco night.
Every meal was "assigned" ahead so that
no one would go hungry -- and everyone, 
as always, outdid themselves!

I'm not sure how I managed to miss it, but I didn't
get any proper pictures of the basement playrooms,
especially designed for children -- with everything 
you can think of to play with and on -- 
including a slide, a ball-room, and dress-up clothes!

Just a general shot of what things looked like -- in between events.

This shot is just one representative of the annual "Family Olympics," wherein
each family group (or Religious Pairing) makes up some kind of game (indoor
or outdoor). Points are gained for each win or place and added up at the end of the 
week. Then the winners' names are engraved on a trophy that the family (or Religious)
gets to display until the next year. This year Fr. Philip and William went home with the trophy!
(In this game, the winner was the team that managed to scoop up the most marshmallows while blindfolded. I think this one was the Sisters' game!)

Basement sleepover of all the Girl Cousins

Lots of Poker and Pinnochle

...and Pool.

More on that lovely back porch
(I want one of these now!)

Dawsey making himself comfortable on one of the
princess dresses. (He didn't like the feel of the
leather couch, and would sit on anything haphazardly placed
on there -- best of all a human lap!)

Sister "making friends" with Basti (Kevin's #2)

No idea what they were playing here...

A nice shot of the size of the main living room space.

Through the window of the living room,
looking into the glassed-in area where the 
shuffleboard -- and the fishing poles could be found.

Shelly reading to a handful of the children. You can see a couple of the family reunion tee
shirts in this picture.

Choir practice. ❤️

Claudia, showing off some of the jewelry she made
with Aunt Donna.

Back Porch Crowd. Always changing -- but
Grandma and Grandpa especially enjoyed this
gathering place.

Never let it be said that guys don't do dishes.
Everyone was pitching in all week long, taking
care of all the cleaning. There was a basic chore list,
but it wasn't really needed!

N

I love this one of Sr. Antonia and Lucia. ❤️

Outdoor Fun

Fishing, fishing, and more fishing. Br. Simon, one of the most persistent
fishermen. Imagine that. 😉

No idea. Something between Dandad, Quinn, and a ball. 🙂

Lots of Volleyball, of course!

And "beer pong," without the beer. 😂

Where the babies hung out while the Mommas played games.

Mommies playing games. (With Sr. and Father)
Spikeball, of course.

And the family pitched in on our own bouncy house this past spring,
 which, of course, we brought to the lake!

A couple random shots of Br. Simon and Gavin's
Olympic sport, which was a kind of athletic
relay -- which Paul and Nicole won easily!
(Dan and i were just glad to complete the course
without having a stroke!)

Lots of little gatherings like this amongst differing groups of children
and adults. Just bonding and enjoying one another. ❤️❤️❤️

This was a new game brought by Paul that was a really big hit! It was a form
of golf -- with bigger balls that you hit into little red "buckets" with flags
that you see in the photo. Dandad enjoyed it so much, that the children went
in on a set for Dad to get to play at home! 🙂 

Michelle fishing on the dock with Claudia

Another couple shots of the lawn golf game.

High Mass on the Feast of Corpus Christi

Dan(dad) just before Holy Mass.

Before Holy Mass. The family choir was stationed with the keyboard upstairs
on the balcony -- which left the grandparents and aunties -- and only one or two
Mommas downstairs on the folding chairs assisting. Br. Simon, with help
from the Sisters, did an amazing job setting up the altar -- using what we could find,
added to Father Philip's Mass kit. 

Having troubles rearranging photos in blogger, so this is out of order, but you see
here the earliest stages of setting up for Mass...

The only video --as we all had our hands and

hearts too full to record (though I'm a little sorry

now! It was beyond beautiful -- and such a blessing

to be able to have a family Mass in this way!)

Taken from the "choir loft" in the balcony.

And He is here. The most Important Presence at our Family Reunion, the 
Binding Force behind everything. We do not take the blessing and honor 
for granted! God is so good to us.

Stay Tuned

TTFN! 

I may run into some more photos to share.... (Talking to Future self! LOL! I know full well that there's nobody hanging around here any more! But this is a good place to record these things. Some day someone in the family might have a good time going through all of this stuff!)