Midwest – Indiana, Part 1

We had two family reunions to attend in the Midwest this summer.  One in Indiana with my dad’s side of the family, and another in Missouri with mom’s side.  The Indiana trip was especially significant because nearly all my cousins and their families were able to attend; some whom I had not seen in probably 10+ years.  

My uncle has a beautiful home in Brown County on a giant piece of land that includes a couple “lakes”, two guest houses, camping facilities, farm-type facilities, and various other “man-type” facilities. Between the large main house and the two guest homes on the property, most everyone was able to stay right there together.  My immediate family (mom, dad, two sisters, Ian and I) were in another rental home just a couple miles away.  

Backside of Uncle Bill's house, looking up from the lake below.

Side of the house

Bad ass front door.  It's so cool because it has the small door "peep hole" that you can open and stick your face out of.  Totally old world awesomeness.

So even though it was a million degrees and humid as hell, we still ventured out for some fun in the sun.  In short spouts anyway.  Mama could only handle so much sweating at a time.

The first evening, we went out on a “nature tour” of the property.  This involved a leisurely ride on a mule (the vehicle type, not ass type) at dusk when most of the deer come out of hiding. We did see a few, along with a fun little nest of Bluebird Eggs.  Or Robin’s Eggs. I can’t remember.  Just that they were blue….

Can you see a deer head?  It's right in the middle. 

It was tough to get a clear pic of the next in the tiny bird house.  The first day, it was 4 eggs.  This photo was taken the following day and one egg had literally JUST hatched.  And then by the thrid day, all the eggs had hatched and the little babies were chirping away.  So need to see that progression!

The next day was the main family event day.  Each sibling of my dad’s generation (there are 6 of them) coordinated tops with their respective families for photos.   Here we are in our cool American flag red shirts.  My mom got them for us at Wal-Mart for $2 apiece.  Rock on.

It was 100% my dad's idea for us to pose like this...



The whole gang

 That day was pretty relaxed. We just hung around together, ate, played cards, ate, played other games, ate, did a little fishing, explored the property some more, ate, and yeah.. that’s about it.