Reunion Recap and Quilt Pics

Last night, after a 12 hour road trip, my mother, my girls and I made it back to Inkom safe and sound after a 3 day long Holmes family reunion. Here's a condensed recap of the reunion:

Unexpected highlights:

• Talking about child support and step-children with Aunt Kim
• Discussing wildlife management with cousin Phil
• Meeting cousin Kyle's really sweet girlfriend (I will welcome her to the family with open arms if she and Kyle choose to tie the knot)
• Winning 1st place in the women's division of the Holmes 5K (first race I have ever won)
  
• Winning second place in the Holmes family Biggest Loser competition (and just missing 1st place by a fraction of a pound! Way to go Barbara for winning 1st!)
  

Expected highlights:

• Meeting new cousin Chelle
• Meeting all my cousins' babies
• Visiting with Rick and Pam and family
• Watching my dad try to figure out how exactly to be a grandpa
• Seeing LOTS of family that I haven't seen in 10+ years

And a few let downs:

• Not having enough time to visit with everyone (but if you think about it, in order to have enough time to hold a decent conversation with every Holmes family member, the reunion would have had to lasted about 2 months)
• Low interest in the silent auction, which meant my quilt only went for $30. However, my cousin Chelsey got the quilt, so I'm happy about that (see finished quilt pictures at end of post)
• No medal or certificate for winning 1st in the women's 5K (now everyone just has to take my word for it)
• My inability to attend the water park function because the park reminded me a little too much of this:

I really have to thank my mom for attending the reunion with me. She was pretty much my babysitter so that I could spend a little more time visiting with family without the distraction of the kids, which was really nice. It was fun to learn new things about my family and finally see people I haven't seen in years and years. Hopefully it won't be over 10 years before I attend another reunion.

As mentioned earlier, I made a quilt for the reunion silent auction. I finished some of the hand stitching once at the reunion. You can't see it very well, but I did all the stitching in gold thread, which actually looks really nice. I think it might be my nicest quilt yet. But I still need to work on making nice corners. My corners are lame. So here are a few pictures of the finished product...

And Chelsey, if you're reading this, I'd like you to let me know how the colors hold up in the wash. I think they should be just fine, but I don't really know.