Wilson Family Reunion

(Scroll down to the end for more pictures) We traveled this weekend to the big, thriving metropolis of Eastland, TX. (Don't worry if you haven't heard of it but it is a small town about 40 miles east of Abilene - and a very long way from Sugar Land!!!). Eastland is Craig's birthplace and home of one of his aunt & uncle - Joan & Larry Gerhardt who hosted this year's reunion. Craig's dad Billy is one of 13 siblings!!! This year all of the siblings attended the reunion (hasn't happened in several years) add to that their children, grandchildren and in some cases great grandchildren and there were close to 75 Wilson's at this year's event. Someone said that the remaining siblings span over 26 years between them! That is a BIG family. Of course with all of this children comes lots and lots of little children!! My boys had the best time playing in the sand, playing baseball, kickball and just generally "playing" from 8:00 am - 9:30 pm on Saturday.

We started the morning fishing. Now when we left Sugar Land on Friday it was 88 degrees with 87% humidity. When we got up in Eastland on Saturday morning it was 44 degrees and the wind was gusting upwards off 20 miles an hour!! Joan graciously handout sweatshirts, jackets and anything else she could find out of her own closet to help warm us all up while Michael (another uncle) traveled to the local Wal-Mart and bought out their school sweatshirt supplies. Did I mention it was cold and the wind was GUSTING not perfect conditions to be fishing. Craig, Joel and I quickly went back and sat in Grandpa Billy's truck. (Caleb just ran around and played) But Christian and Grandpa Billy stuck it out and Christian caught 2 fish. This is a picture of this largest one!!!

We then traveled back to Joan's for the remainder of the day just to visit and enjoy each other. Craig has quite a few cousins that are all around the same age. Not only did they have a great time growing up together but that also provides our kids with plenty of cousins to play with around their age at the reunion!

We had a fabulous fajitas lunch and for dinner Grandpa Billy fried up catfish and striper. Our resident food critic - Joel says no one can cook fish like Grandpa Billy!! (He also says that no one can make mashed potatoes like Me Maw and don't get me started on his critique of the continental breakfast that morning at the hotel - not favorable at all).

The kids were so tired this morning that I woke them up at 9:00 am (never happened before)!! Here is a picture of all 3 of them in the bed at the hotel. Grandpa Billy & Jo offered for one of them to come sleep in their extra bed so that they didn't all 3 have to sleep in the 1 double bed but for some strange reason they declined!

We had a very LONG but uneventful ride home - very glad that we got to go and equally glad to be home!

Here are some pictures of the day! Kids playing in the sand. A picture of the surviving siblings (Billy is the last one on the right), picture of the grandkids (Craig has his UT shirt on), and just some fun shots!!