Family, Family, Family. Wow!

I'm tired. We have had a full weekend of family. They are all wonderful -- everyone of them. Joyce and I are so blessed to have such great families. I'm sure it is because God's hand of blessing has been on our families over the years. Even though not every individual has expressed a personal faith, the family as a whole has believed in God and honored him. He is a good God.

Jana, Korak, Josiah and Lilly arrived at 8:00 Friday morning. After a few hours sleep and a visit by Joyce's brother Don and wife Myrna, we were on our way to Eugene. The first stop was to see part of Joyce's family. Her sister Sharon, two nieces (Audra and Charla) and a cousin (Pat) were down from Washington visiting Joyce's brother Jack and wife Luwayne. A little side-note here to help you put all this family stuff together... Audra is Dean's daughter. Dean is the guy I went salmon fishing with while we were in Alaska. His boat is named after his daughter and she often goes out with him as his deck hand. And Jana got her middle name from Jack's wife, Luwayne. Okay, back to the story. All 13 of us crowded into Jack's house and out onto the patio for a great meal of tacos. Oh... Ginger drove down from Salem to join us.

Here is part of Joyce's family: L to R: Sharon, Pat, Jana, Charla, Josiah, Audra, and Lilly.

So after a short visit we were off to my side of the family. Jana, Korak and the kids stayed with Roy (my nephew) and Ginger, Joyce and I stayed with Beth (my sister). Saturday was the BIG day for first reunion of the descendants of my mom and dad. It was kind of exciting for everyone because this was the first time we had ever all gotten together. Everyone was there except one great grand daughter and her family who live in Florida and one great grand son who lives in Taiwan. We had 48 family members in attendance (including spouses). This gave us a total of 32 people in the direct blood line. There was one set of twins 15 months old and the youngest in attendance was Aiden who is a little over 3 months. He is also the only male to carry on the Mumau name in my dad's linage. He is a great, great grand son of my mom and dad.#

In all the preparation and excitement, one of the things I forgot was my camera so I'm dependant on others for pictures. I'll get some and post them later.#

We used the facilities of the Veneta Alliance Church. This is where Beth attends. So this morning a bunch of us all went to church there. Including Beth and some others, there were 16 family members there -- 7 of us were visitors. And, if that wasn't enough, we drove to Betty's house after church for more family and food. She had her side of the clan there and invited my side to join in. What a day! (Betty is my sister Doris' daughter).#

It has been really great getting to meet some family members that I had never seen. I know that some families get together often but others never get together. We didn't want to be in the latter group and our goal was to set an environment for people to get to know each other. I think we succeeded. More grandkid pictures next time. We'll be at Fir Point Kids Camp next week so the next blog will be late.#

After dinner at Betty's, Jana and family (along with Ginger) headed to Seattle for their family vacation. Next weekend they will drop Korak at the airport and then Jana, Josiah, and Lilly will spend time with us at Fir Point Camp, Family Camp, just plain camping, and who knows what else. Stay tuned. Lots of fun coming up.#

Blessings.