The official end of the school year happened without Callie this year because snow days galore pushed the last day past Memorial Day and past the day we had already booked our California flight. That's right, the time had come again for us to make our way to Coalinga and the craziness that is the Lucas family reunion. We were all very excited to see cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers, great-grandmothers, and everyone in between.
After a long day of travel we made it to Harris Ranch in time for a great family dinner and family photos. As folks were milling about we managed to snag some extra photos of smaller groups, including the one to the right. None of the kids were as cooperative as we would have liked, but we were able to get Styler, Harper, Brady, Callie, Reese, Haley, and Sarah all in one shot. Haley and Sarah soon realized that their weekend would be consumed with tending to their kids and not catching up as much as they had hoped.
Here is one of the generational group pictures, and this captures the two oldest generations of the five that make up the reunion attendees. The three matriarchs of the crew are front and center, with Rose Lucas, Hazel Lucas, and Sharon Armstrong. The rest of the crew includes the descendants of the original Lucas 7, and some of the most fun people you will ever meet. They are the driving force of this gathering and keep hoping that our generation will finally step up and take over this undertaking.
Of course much of the activity during the weekend centers around the pool. One of many reasons why we were excited to attend this year's family reunion was to meet Zac's girlfriend Brandi. While we didn't get as much time together during the reunion as we had hoped, it was obvious that she fit in with the family and didn't have a problem holding her own and enjoying some pool time.
The reunion also gave us the chance to meet Keith's wife Catelyn for the first time. Needless to say this was a pretty momentous weekend and we would not have missed it for the world. Callie and Reese had no problems latching onto Catelyn and Brandi. In their eyes, more girls equaled more fun.
That doesn't mean that Keith has lost his special place in their hearts, however. They still can't get enough of his attention. What also stands out in this picture are the fantastic pool accessories that came to the reunion courtesy of Grammy Gayle. Callie and Reese took full advantage of the swimmies and goggles every minute they were in the pool.
Few people can match the joy and spirit with which Great-Grandma Lucas tackles life. It certainly helps that her granddaughter Sarah is always ready to egg her on. They are quite a duo and this picture says it all.
Any time we get together with Great-Grandma Lucas we try and get a good picture with the girls. We were definitely pleased with this one. The reunion always flies by, and this one was no different. Before we knew it, the weekend was over, everyone was packing their cars, and the time had come for the next part of our trip. We got in the car and headed to Yosemite National Park.
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