A few days with the fam

David and I headed up to Toccoa this past weekend to visit with my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Doug (that's my dad's sister).
I was so excited when my mom called two weeks ago to tell me they're coming into town AND we're having a big Dunn family reunion in Hartwell.
David had LOTS of school work to do, as usual, but he was wonderful enough to set it aside for a day to come visit with the fam. We had so much fun seeing my aunt and uncle. The last time we saw them was almost four years ago at our wedding. I love being reminded of how funny and fun they are and how much I love and miss them.
They brought a bag full of Dunn family photos with them and let me go through them and choose which ones I wanted to take with me. The bag was full of photos of my grandmother. There are photos of her as a baby all the way through photos of her as I remember her, as an older lady. Also, there are some pretty amazing photos of my dad from his college days. He had a full head of curly, long hair - I hardly recognized him! I'm so excited to start scanning them into our computer. I'm sure I will be posting some of the photos on here!
Saturday night, David had to head back to Atlanta to get started on his work, so I kissed him good bye and started missing him as soon as he drove away.
Before he left, we snapped a couple of shots with my aunt and uncle.



Sunday was reunion day! Well, first Aron and I got up at 7:30am and went for a 4 mile run in the rain. It was one of the best runs ever, and I'm so grateful to my big brother for getting up with me. After our run, we got ready and headed to Hartwell in the torrential rain, praying that it would let up, as the festivities were to happen in an outdoor pavilion. Luckily it did let up, and turned into a drizzle - great for outdoor gatherings, also great for inducing new heights of frizz in my hair!
The food was awesome, and seeing aunts, uncles, and cousins was even better!

my mom and my great aunt Marie

me and my little brother

all of the Dunn cousins

Daddy and Aunt Brenda with their uncle Louie

my great uncle Stuart (on the left) with his farmer friend
I have so many great memories of visiting him when I was little.
I never got to meet my grandfather, Stuart's brother, so I always
imagine that my grandfather must have been exactly like Stuart is.

The reunion was wonderful. Family is such an interesting concept. I have lived within 40 miles of pretty much all of the Dunn family members for my entire life, yet I only see them once every 4 to 5 years or so. I have so much fun when we all get together, yet it so rarely happens. I don't know why extended families aren't as tightly knit as the primary family. Or maybe some are and mine just isn't. I do however, plan to stay better connected with some of my favorite cousins. And the internet is such a great tool for keeping in touch with people you don't see that often. Thank goodness for Facebook and email!

Since I'm only working part-time right now, and my schedule is really flexible, I decided that I would spend a few days in Toccoa helping my mom get all of the closets purged and organized. Boy, was it a job. I worked for at least 7 hours a day, Monday through Wednesday, but the closets look great! In between cleaning, I got to spend time having fun with my family.
We played games and talked. On Tuesday, after a very long day of work at the hospital, we surprised my mom with a birthday celebration complete with a delicious strawberry cake.


On Wednesday afternoon, Dawson and I had a brother-sister outing together. I took him to Seneca to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which was actually pretty good. Then we went to dinner together and spent the night talking and having fun. I miss my little brother. It was nice to spend some time together, just me and him.

Thursday morning, I headed back to Atlanta via Amtrak. Aron took me to the train station at 6:00am and I took the two hour trip back to Atlanta to find David waiting on me with a big hug and a kiss.

It was a good trip.