Marchelewski Family Reunion

As most of you know my family and I spent Mother's Day weekend in Virginia. I wanted to run right home and tell everyone about what an awesome time we had BUT while I was there a sinus infection or something to that nature took over and I was miserable by the time I got home. So, after several days in bed and on the couch I am finally feeling better :) Thank God!

Now on to the good stuff!
We arrived at my brother-in-law's, Brian, house around 6pm on Friday May 6th. He and his family were there (His wife, Cheryl, daughter, Rebecca (who lives in England with husband Dan), and son, Brian Jr.(who lives in West Virginia while attending WVU) and Christian's oldest brother Joe and his wife Kathy. Joe and Kathy live in Long Island, NY. We were just waiting for the other half of the family to get there which happen to be all Joe and Kathy's kids. Ben, his girlfriend Denise, Dan, and his girlfriend Jen were all driving in from Long Island together.  Joey and his wife Liz were driving in from Washington D.C., however, they live in Los Angeles, CA. There was crazy traffic so it was quite a while after we arrived, but eventually (I think it was around midnight) we all made it SAFELY!

On the first night together we all just sat around and chatted getting reconnected since we hadn't been together since Rebecca and Dan were married in January of 2008. We got awesome news that Joey and Liz are having a baby! They brought ultrasound pictures and brought a dvd of the ultrasound, too! We are all super excited for baby news since the last baby Marchelewski was born in 2003 and the last 4 baby Marchelewski's came from us...it's about time some one else took a turn!

Here we are all waiting to see the dvd of Baby Marchelewski :)

Brian and Cheryl were kind enough to let the entire family stay at their house and what a blessing that was! Saturday morning we had breakfast cooked by Joey and Liz. Since they came to the "south" they made gravy biscuits! Also on the breakfast menu was grilled pineapple, bacon, and scrambled eggs MMM MMM GOOD! We had a good time of fellowship over breakfast and just getting to know each other. There were new faces to meet, Jen & Denise, and it was just a good time of conversation. The kids went down to the basement to play Ping Pong and as always it was nice, friendly competition. :)

  

This is the beautiful house we had the pleasure of staying in for our family reunion.

Brian & Cheryl are blessed! 

 This is Ben & Gage's game of Ping Pong...

looks pretty intense huh!? :)

Gage WINS! And they finish the game with a hand shake...

We Marchelewski's show great sportsmanship! ;)

Kathy came up with a great idea for the girls (a couple of the guys even decided to tag along) to visit Old Town and maybe do a little shopping so we all were happy to do that! Sadly I didn't take my camera and the only picture I took was from my cell phone for Christian and it was a picture of a Corvette which I really have no interest...I did look up a picture of the place where we decided to stop off and get a snack while walking through Old Town, Snow White Grill. We tried the mini burgers they sell there, an all beef patty and grilled onions, topped with lettuce, tomato, and mayo on a fresh roll. Washed it down with a coke...mmm mmm good :)

I borrowed this picture of Snow White Grill 

http://dinerman.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/snow-white-grill-winchester-virginia/ 

Evening was quickly approaching and we had some birthdays to celebrate, Gabrielle, Cheryl, & Denise's. After dinner and a few more games of Ping Pong, Frisbee, and Horseshoes we decided to celebrate with some cake and ice cream cake! Gabrielle knew she was having her cake because we had planned it at her request. Denise and Cheryl did not know they would be getting cake, too!

 Cheryl and Denise blowing out their candles!

  Gabby with her favorite cake! (DQ ice cream cake)

The entire weekend was wonderful and we enjoyed getting reconnected and sharing family time! We don't do it often enough but when we do get together it couldn't be better. We had plenty of good food and great laughs. Our last day together we spent hanging out and just enjoying the time we had left. Since I knew that I wanted a picture of our entire family I brought my tripod and we went out into the back yard for a nice family photo...finally one with ALL of us in it!

We are truly BLESSED!! Looking forward to our next reunion with all the new additions!!

(Yes, I am posting this 8 months later...this is one of my posts that I wasn't sure I wanted to share but have decided that I would LOVE to have my blog printed and I want this to be included)