Family Reunion...Hammitt Style

This past weekend was the bi-annual Hammitt Family Reunion in Pittsfield, Illinois. Every other summer, during the last weekend in July, Bryan's mom's side of the family gets together for a good time of food, fun, and fellowship. We all stay at a church camp ground, complete with girls & boys dorms of bunk beds and community showers, a kitchen/mess hall, and a small lake where we can swim, fish, and play. It was a twelve hour drive, so we left in the middle of the night so half of the trip would be made while Brylee slept. Bryan's grandfather passed away a few years ago, but his grandmother is still living and has a legacy of over 100 people in her immediate family. We took a bunch of pictures, and I included a lot in this post, so will let the pictures do the talking.

Each afternoon, we spent time swimming in the small lake, complete with a blob, zip line, and slide. Since Brylee was not quite big enough to enjoy the lake, we brought our small inflatable pool, and her and her cousin Bryce had a great time.

The best part of the pool was reaching out of it to try and get the grass or dirt

She loved playing in the dirt

And loved trying to eat it!

The water got progressively muddier as the afternoon went on

Look at that muddy mouth

It is a tradition for all the little babies to take their baths in the kitchen sink

Brylee loved it!

I love this expression! She was actually trying to pull herself up out of the sink

I love the country feel of this camp. We are surrounded by bean & corn fields

Every year each family unit gets matching Family Hammitt T-shirts in different colors, and we take some family pictures.

Sweet girl really was into the grass this weekend. Illinois grass is much softer and greener than the yellow Texas grass we have going on right now!

Bryan's sister, Lori, and mom, Jan

Niece, Jillian, Jan, and sister, Lisa

Mother & sonSister Lisa and brother in law, David

Father and son

Bryan's grandmother will turn 90 at the end of the month, so they threw her a party the last day of the reunion

What a pretty lady

Brylee and Bryce had their own little area. Someone made a sign that said "Don't feed the babies." Pretty cute

The party was right during her afternoon nap. Poor girl was tuckered out

We used the flower decorations as a photo op for our family

Bryan's grandmother has 9 children, which made for 24 original grandchildren, most of whom made the reunion this year

There is something like 50 great grandchildren. The number is always changing, but I think Brylee was number 48, and there were two babies there younger than Brylee. The oldest great-grandchild is engaged and will be married next summer. Who knows, maybe there could be a great-great-grandchild before its all said and done.

These were all the kids who were attending reunion for the first time

Four generation of "Hammitts"On Sunday evening, after the reunion was over, we went to visit Bryan's other set of grandparents. The Brokaw grandparents had not met Brylee yet

Four generations of "Brokaws"

Grandma & Grandpa Brokaw

We had originally planned to get back Sunday evening after visiting, head to bed early, then wake up at 2 am to head back home. Well, it was 9:30 and we were no where close to getting to bed, and were pretty sure we would be more miserable waking up at 2 am than if we just left at 10 pm. So we quickly loaded up, and drove through the night. We did pretty good until about 4 am, then we were both miserable and had to switch drivers about every hour in order to stay awake. Thankfully, Brylee slept like a champ and we got home around 9:30 in the morning and had the day to recover.

It was a great time seeing family! Can't wait for the next reunion!