Leake Family Reunion-2019-Part II

Tuesday morning we took at a bit of a slower pace, but we were out the door around 10:00 and made a 30 minute drive to St. Mary's.  St. Mary's was the fourth permanent settlement in America and we actually have a family connection there!  Bob's 12th great-grandfather, John Jarboe, was the second man to own land in St. Mary's, and he married a woman there named Mary.  We all found this fascinating, Marshall and I especially.  Now, St. Mary's is essentially the same as This is the Place State Park here in Utah, or Old World Wisconsin.  It has been restored so well and was very hands on and interactive for the kids-we all loved it.  We rotated through different areas, the kids were able to try different activities, including helping to carve out a tree trunk using clam shells!  They also had a reconstruction of a ship, The Dove, that we were able to tour.  It was just a real fun and educational outing, and also thrilling to know that we are related to colonists. 

Mackall Barn-1785.  One of the oldest standing barns in Maryland.

That evening, we had family pictures done, which turned out absolutely wonderfully.  Of course, Richard and I snapped a few of our own pictures, which we also love. 

We got back to our cottages right as the sun was starting to set over the Patuxent River.  Richard, knowing that I had been looking forward to sunsets over the water, told me to get out of the van and run down to the beach to finish watching the sun set.  I stayed on the beach for about 15 minutes and it was stunning.  Stunning.  I watched the sun set two more nights later in the week, but this sunset was by far the most beautiful.  There is something about water that is incredibly calming to me, and the peace of a sunset or sunrise over water cannot be matched.  It was just gorgeous. 

On Wednesday we did split up.  Two vans drove to the National Zoo, and one van (ours, along with Bob) drove to the Air and Space Annex by the Dulles Airport.  Once again, the kids were troopers with such a long drive.  We got to the museum about 11:00 am and there was hardly anyone there.  Right off the bat, Marshall and Bridget were able to have a mini-flying lesson in a Cessna.  They learned about the three main parts of a plane and how they are controlled and they actually got to sit in the plane and try everything out.  The rest of the time there we just roamed and took in the sites of all these massive and amazing planes.  It really is so impressive.  This place is much more open than the Smithsonians in D.C. and had way less people, which we all really appreciated!  The highlight, as it always is for us, was seeing the space shuttle, Discovery.  You really are in awe when you are right up close to that amazing creation.  It was also very special to have Bob with us on this outing.  His father helped to work on the very first cruise missile, which is housed in this museum.  It was another great outing and we only hit some D.C. rush hour traffic on our way back to Solomon's Island.  Once everyone returned, we had a relaxing dinner, put the kids to bed at a normal hour, and then some of us adults enjoyed a peaceful and fun evening out on the deck. 

Thursday brought us a trip to Annapolis to visit the Amish Market.  We all feasted on freshly baked pretzels, and they were divine.  We also walked around the market and admired the beautiful Amish furniture, especially the kitchen tables.  After that, we had a short girls outing and let the men take all the kids 11 and younger back to the cottages.  It was a much more peaceful drive, I will say that!  We stopped at a cupcake bakery to pick up birthday cupcakes for the next day, but of course we all ordered a cupcake to eat right there and then.  I got key lime.  Delicious.  Thursday night we went out to dinner with Richard's brothers and their wives.  Bob and Becky were kind enough to stay behind and host a grandparent's night.  It was a win all around for everyone.  The kids broke a pinata with Grandma and Grandpa, played outside, played games, watched a movie, popped popcorn, and played in the fresh rain puddles after a brief downpour of rain.  A perfect summer evening for the grandchildren.  The adults also had a wonderful time-my favorite night of the trip!  We got reservations at a restaurant just a few minutes away, right on the water.  I really wanted us to sit outside, you know me and water, but because our group was larger than four they had to seat us inside.  We were still right next to the windows though, which I appreciated.  And then I really appreciated it when that torrential downpour arrived!  It was actually really neat to watch that storm roll in.  It happened so fast and reminded me of a Midwest rainstorm with the blue sky quickly changing to dark gray and then dropping buckets of rain in just a few minutes.  Weather aside, we had a delightful time with Nathan, Nina, Joe, and Aubri.  It is so rare for the six of us to be together and we really just had great conversation and laughed a lot; it was wonderful.  In true adult fashion, we ended the night by stopping at the local grocery store.  :)  Another great day in the books!

Leake Family Reunion-2019-Part I

We recently returned from an eight day Leake Family Reunion in Maryland.  It was so wonderful, and before many details escape me; I want to document it.

 On the evening of June 7th, we had 13 people sleeping in our house.  Our Vernal family had come out earlier that day, because we had to leave for the airport early the next morning.  Richard and I actually had to attend the residency graduation dinner on June 7th, so we got to leave the chaos of the house and everyone else took care of our kids.  Bless them.  

Anyway, on June 8th, we all woke up between 4:30 am and 5:30 am, and we were in our cars on our way to the airport at 6:15.  We flew on Southwest, all 13 of us, and we were able to finagle all of us sitting together.  On that flight, I just had Gretchen to worry about, and we lucked out with an empty seat next to us, which was extremely helpful! 

Last 20 minutes of the flight...I had been trying to make this happen for 3 hours!

We all survived the long flight and were met at the airport by Nathan, Nina, and their girls.  Our little family actually rented a van, so we didn't all officially meet up until we all gathered at a Golden Corral for dinner.  We were just outside of Baltimore, and based on the crowd, it looked like we were there with a bunch of graduating high school seniors and their families.  I really think we were the only white people in the restaurant, and for two hours I prayed that Rachel would not make a comment.  She did not make a comment and prayers were answered!  After dinner, we drove about an hour to Nathan and Nina's house and for the first time that day, the kids were able to run and play, which is exactly what they did.  The cousins all had fun together, and Marshall, Bridget, Rachel, Becca, and Katelin spent almost the entire evening on the trampoline.  We left their house after dark and drove to our hotel, and I am pleased to say, there was only minimal chaos in getting children to bed.  Once everyone was asleep, we all slept soundly, and all the kids slept through the night and had to be woken up in the morning! 

On Sunday, Nathan and Nina had stake conference, so we went to that in the morning, and then spent the afternoon at their house.  Nina was kind enough to feed all of us.  Kids continued to play and Richard and I conked out on the couch.  Once again, bless everyone else for taking care of our kids!  After all of that, we loaded up three vans with people and luggage and drove about 45 minutes to our cottages in Solomon's Island, Maryland at a naval recreation center.  We rented two four-bedroom cottages and they were right next to each other.  We stayed in a cottage with Bob and Becky and Joe and Nathan's family shared the other cottages.  They were good little cottages with big decks and worked perfectly for us.  Once we all got settled and had dinner, some adults went grocery shopping, and other stayed behind with all the kids.  We walked down to the beach, threw rocks into the water, played in the sand, and then made our way up to the park.  The kids played and played on the playground, some people played catch with a football we had found lying around, and we had a great time!  We ended the evening with some of us playing Telestrations-always a good end to the evening! 

By 9:30 am on Monday morning, we were on the road and D.C. bound.  By the time we got parked, and met up it was close to lunch time and we ate lunch at a food court before setting out on our adventures.  It was a rainy morning/early afternoon in D.C., so after lunch we all donned our rain jackets to walk to the Museum of Natural History.  The museum was crowded and it took us a bit to figure out how to navigate a busy museum with our group of 18.  We eventually just decided to break into smaller groups and have a meeting spot and time.  All together, we did the fossil section, and then we broke off into groups.  Our little family, minus Rachel, went to the gem section.  We beheld the beautiful Hope  Diamond, as well as all the other gorgeous gems in that area.  After that, Bridget was done, so Richard was going to take her out of the museum, but he ran into some other people in his family.  He swapped Rachel for Bridget and Bridget went to ride on the carousel that is on the mall.  She loved it, might have been the highlight of her day.  :)  I believe Richard and Marshall went to the ocean exhibit, and I took the little girls to the bathroom and then we sat down and had a snack.  After we all met up again, we decided to do the American History Museum.  We again broke into groups there.  The group I was in saw the First Lady's Dress exhibit-always a highlight for me!  We also found Dorothy's ruby slippers and they also had the 1989 Batmobile on display-Richard's highlight.  After those museums, we walked past the Washington Monument, glimpsed the White House from a distance, and ended up at the World War II Memorial.  We spent quite a bit of time there with our tired feet in the cool water and the kids had a ball.  It was a much needed break for all of us!  After that, we had quite a walking trek to get to Shake Shack for dinner.  We passed by the Jefferson Memorial, from a distance, and eventually wound our to this picturesque wharf right on the Potomoc River.  I am a sucker for any restaurant by the water, so I was in heaven.  There were a bunch of restaurants, a little fountain in the square, white lights strung across the street, and hello, the Potomac River.  We ordered our food and ate outside and it was perfect.  After a leisurely dinner, we had a short walk back to the cars, thankfully!  It had been a huge day, walking about eight miles! 

Our little D.C. tourist.  Didn't mind the rain at all!

Our kids really were troopers.  At some point during the day, our girls each had their own little melt downs, but they were short lived.  I am really glad we went into the city for one day.  Richard and I love, love, love Washington D.C.  I did tell Richard though that I don't really want to take our kids back until Gretchen is seven and we don't need a stroller anymore!