Bates Sibling Family Reunion-1st One!

A lot of photos - credit to Ericka who took them. Hopefully everyone will get their pictures posted and we'll have more to look at! :o)

This was a first ever Bates sibling reunion. We had 58 out of 71 family attend. It was grrreattt!

The group family pictures at the end of the above photos do not show all the wonderful little children - grandchildren, cousins, nieces, nephews, etc. All the adults were downstairs watching a slide show Julie put together. All the kids were outside playing and Bob, Julie’s husband, was the brave soul who stayed outside to watch them!

For those who did not attend I will put in a timeline. If you think it’s too long to read, skip through it. This was from Diana’s perspective. Hope you enjoy the reading! :o)

Day 1– July 5th – Friday evening – BBQ at Kyle & Janette Reeves. Family in charge-Diana’s family.

We had BBQ hamburgers and Hot Dogs. Kyle and Chris manned the BBQ grills and did a fantastic job! Chris also BBQ’d pineapple spears glazed with brown sugar and butter, ohhhh so yummy! :o) We also had chips and dill pickle spears, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, potato salad, Famous Amos Chocolate Chip cookies and good old Oreos! We had soft drinks, Capri Sun and water.

After dinner we walked down the street to a nearby park and played a volleyball water balloon game, over-sized horseshoes for the little ones and talked and had a great time. The only down side-the sun goes down too early! It’s dark by 7:30pm! It was too dark to play the other games we had planned.

(I should mention here that July 5th was Doug and Jan’s 41st Anniversary and we FORGOT to wish them and recognize them on this special day. Oh drats! :o/ )

Day 2 – July 6th – Saturday – Double event. Family in charge - Doug’s family.
9am to 11am we played games at Skyline Park. The weather was gorgeous! I have to say the whole 3 days the weather was 92 degrees and a light breeze, just awesome! :o)

Doug did a great job organizing this and participated! Doug had a water balloon toss and the kids and adults loved it! He had a tug-o-war with kids and adults mixed and that was fun! For kick ball we had to hold onto a rope and we divided into two teams and kick the ball over a line for a goal.(Kind of like soccer.) If a team member had the ball kicked toward them the whole team had to hang on to the rope and run to kick the ball away from the opposite team. It was mixed adults and kids. That was so much fun! We did a bucket relay where we had to soak a washrag in a bucket of water and run 30 feet to another bucket and ring it out and run back to our line and pass the rag to the next team mate. That was fun! I got my cardio exercise with that one! The kids had a play structure, swings, slides to play on and the biggest hit was squirt water bottles that the kids chased each other around and had fun. Then then stepped it up to ‘buckets’ of water thrown at each other. One of Doug’ s granddaughters threw half a bucket of water on his back, he wasn’t aware, and he turned around to face her and she threw the other half bucket of water on his front side. He laughed. All was done in fun! Everyone had a great time.

We all went to Myk & Raylene’s for lunch. They had a yummy lunch! They had spinach salad, slaw, yummy BBQ shredded beef sandwiches, a fruit platter, lemonade, chips, etc. That BBQ beef was really good! Raylene had hung 3 Mylar fish balloons on her deck to add to the festivities. They had a salt water pool where the kids had a blast! Then it was FREE TIME. Everyone went off to do their own agenda for 5 hours.

We met at 7pm and caravanned out to Myk’s property where he is building a huge 2,000 sq ft. shop for his kiln and to do his glass work. Myk and Doug set up a big bonfire. While that was burning, Myk, with his able assistant and nephew Derrick, had a slide show of the festivities of the reunion playing inside his shop. Then we roasted marshmallows and had S’mores. I’ve never used chocolate stripped shortbread cookies with marshmallows. That was pretty good! Nathan had a big bag of Life Saver candies he passed out to everyone. He said that whenever his dad would come and visit them he always brought a bag of Life Savers. Nathan was carrying on the ‘tradition’. Yea Nathan! The moon was FULL and gorgeous! It was a beautiful night! The older grandkids (the girls)put on a cute skit. They were up on a flatbed truck and did a great job! We have very talented youngsters! The kids had fun exploring and running around and just being kids! The adults gabbed and had a great a time too!

Day 3 – Final event – July 7th – Sunday – Family in charge – Gayle’s family.
A Farewell Breakfast at Kyle & Janette’s. It was from 7am to 9am. She did such an awesome job! She started early for those who had to hit the road and travel back to their homes far away. Janette had a menu on the counter as you entered the kitchen area. A touch of class! She had scrumptious home-made scones with sliced almonds, cranberries and white chocolate chips. She had nutra-grain bars, assorted cereals, apples, bananas, juice,milk, water. Her sister Charlotte made yummy gravy with sausage and home-made biscuits. Wow! We sure ate good!

Everyone sat and talked and had a great time. Julie brought out the pictures she used in her family slide show plus ‘old’ pictures from my parents side that were vintage from the early 1900’s. We talked about those pictures, went over some family history, took more pictures. Then it was time for goodbye hugs and off to our separate journeys. The reunion ended.

Everyone agreed we would do this again! I would like to thank Julie for putting this together. I’d like to thank Kyle & Janette and Myk & Raylene for the use of their beautiful homes and warm and wonderful hospitality! Thank you to Doug and his family, Diana’s family and Gayle’s family for all their awesome contributions!!! Everyone did an awesome job! So maybe in 2011 we’ll do this in Utah or New Mexico for the second reunion! It’s great belonging to Doug and Jane Bates’ family! They are deceased and in heaven. I’m sure they were looking down and smiling at their wonderful family! :o)

Reflections: It was a wonderful time for getting reacquainted and cousins meeting cousins and catching up on life and families. The time was too short. At least we all know each other a little better and where we all live! Until 2011 – keep happy, healthy and cherish one another!

Love you everyone!
Neil and Diana and Kirsten