Gruber Family Reunion

Well, I'm behind as usual. But, about 2 weeks ago we went to our Gruber Family Reunion in Chicago. We had a wonderful time. There are seven great-grandchildren, 3 sets of twins and Jack. It was so entertaining and fun to watch them play together. We arrived on Thursday and met Aunt Jane and the Grandparents for dinner.

On Friday we did some shopping at the mall and then headed over to Aunt Jackie's and Uncle Rod's. We played basketball and bean-bag toss and had a great dinner. It was so fun to watch all of the kids interact. They are all at such fun ages. They played T-ball and Lego's. David even made us a train with all of the chairs and we all went for a ride. Gabriel and Jack were mostly interested in playing with either the dog, hiking through the "woods" or playing in the ice chest.
Jack was so tired that he was asleep before we even left and slept the entire night.

Saturday morning we got up early and went to a children's amusement park called 'Pirate's Cove'. The kids loved it!! Jonathan says that he can remember going there when he visited Chicago as a child. First stop was the carousel. We all know how much Jack loves the carousel. This was a smaller one than he is used to, but went really fast. Problem number one....parents couldn't ride. Problem number two.....Jack wasn't taking no for an answer and wasn't riding in the little seat. So, horse it was. I was a nervous wreck. But, worries for no reason. He just sat atop that horse and held on tight. Every time he passed I was saying, "hold on tight Jack". And he was. I could see that his little fingertips were white because he was holding on so tight. He rode the carousel about 6-7 times and cried every time that he had to get off. He also did other rides that I really wasn't so sure about. He rode a big slide, a train, paddle boats and more. He loved every minute of it and then took a really long nap. After nap-time we headed over to Aunt Kathy's and Uncle Richard's and had dinner and played on all of the huge playground equipment that is practically in her backyard. The kids also played in the sandbox and rolled down the hill. They all love the miniature picnic table. Again, Jack slept like a rock that night too.

Sunday some of us headed downtown to Wrigley Field for a Cubs game. It's always fun to go to a game and we had a great time even though they lost. : ( Meanwhile, all the Grandmothers and the Aunts and a few cousins were having fun at Aunt Kathy's where they played on the slip-n-slide, went "fishing", dressed up in Uncle Joey's fireman stuff and had lots of yummy treats. I heard that even Aunt Jane took her turn with the slip-n-slide. Uncle Richard and Uncle Rod were there for moral support.

Monday, we had to make our long way back to Alabama after breakfast at Panera Bread. Jack did really good in the car considering it is an eleven-hour trip. However, I think that all of us know every word to 'Shrek' and that we saw all of his other videos at least once. I wish that we got to see everyone more often. I know that all of the children will change so much before we see them again. Cousin Christian made everyone a DVD with pictures and videos which we received yesterday and it was awesome. It will be so nice to show that to Jack in the future. Can't wait til the next reunion!!