Ohio.... So hot. So Muggy. So Lovely.

Last weekend in Ohio, it was reunion time again... and my mother, the amazing one, once again organized the whole shebang with aplomb and creativity and cooking and silly party games (she's like that). This year's Theme (oh, yes, there's ALWAYS a Theme).... Pinwheels. More specifically, pinwheels "Spinning Memories", to be exact.

See? My mom is adorable.

SUCH a good time was had by all, and as every single member of the family is a prolific photo-taker, we end up with literally thousands of photos from such events. These are from my camera.  Note that I say "my camera" and not "my photos", because it's highly likely that someone else picked up my camera and shot off a few pics if something fun was happening (which it usually was) and my camera was the closest one (which also happens).

So, I've made a few collages of the events so as not to bore you all to death. But some of the shots were so durn cute that I had to share.

Enjoy Ohio, everyone. I know I did, even while sweating through multiple changes of clothing each day (hot. muggy. humid. oh, MY).

Oh Yes.... Click any of the images for a better/bigger view. 

(clockwise-ish, from top left) Me and Mr. Man mugging for ourselves; My E and his love of Fireflies (which we have none of in California... boo.hiss); Daddy and the divine Miss M; My amazing Uncle (more on him next post, I hope) and but one of his EIGHT dogs, Laowai; My cousin KVL's youngest being adorable; My brother the grill-master; Three kids in a pool, a very common sight during this weekend; Me, laughing about who knows what and completely unaware of the camera, oh, geez; Aunt C with her butterfly friend.

"No pictures, please". Huh. Are we SURE she's my child?

Ah. That's more like it. She DOES love a photo shoot. Which is really awesome, because she's so much fun to photograph.

The Penny-Hunt. Really... is there anything more fun than many handfuls of pennies tossed into a pile of sawdust? I STILL love doing this. I just left out the pics of me. I was most certainly there. In the middle of it. Loving it. Oh, Joy!

My mother likes silly party games. In fact, it's one of the things I love most about her. She LOVES to have fun. And if this is her idea of fun, then we'll all do it. We love to please her. This time around, she was inspired by "Minute to Win It", and all cousins were tasked with bringing a different game MTWI game. Here we are playing "Elephant Walk" (knock down the bottles with the weight-filled sock tied to your head) and a game in which a pedometer is tied to your head, and you must bob it up and down 125 times in one minute (MUCH harder than it sounds, and I'm pretty sure we all had whiplash afterward). And of course, the star of the show... my dear, dear mother. She's lovely, isn't she?

And now, it's PICTURE TIME!

The small cousins, Before (Hee Hee!) and After....

(Above) The Entire Clan.... wow.

(Below) Cousins. I loves youse guys. And I miss you crazy.

You might note that we all look alike.  The genes in this crazy Italian family are so strong that even those who MARRIED INTO the madness start to look like us as well.  Save for my husband (who is just simply too blond to ever really meld with the rest of us, sorry darling), it's really hard to tell who has our blood and who doesn't.  I think that's hilarious.  My Mother and Aunt B (mom's sister-in-law) look and act so much alike, it's kinda like they're twins.  But not.  It's hilarious, I tells ya'.  Oh, and Mom and Aunt B are sitting right next to each other in the middle of the top picture... one in orange-y pink and the other in white.  Not related.  But exactly the same. HA!!!

Pinwheels and More Pinwheels line the driveway.

Me, poking my head out of my father's new barn.

More Ohio Fun tomorrow. Promise.

/Julianna