Family Reunion 2011

Every 2nd weekend in October for the last 12 years, the Clyde & Peggy Quincey (my grandparents) family has gotten together for a weekend-long family reunion.

It’s crazy to think that if we were all to get together, there would be over 100 of us. That’s just my grandparents’ children (my aunts & uncles), their kids (my first cousins) and our families! It’s a crew for sure…

This year was probably the slimmest year ever at the reunion, but it was still a fun time. We sure missed seeing everyone who wasn’t able to be there.

We always kick off the weekend with a big fish fry on Friday night. Fried mullet, shrimp, swamp cabbage, grits and hush-puppies are the main attraction.

Some of the men fry the fish while the others stand close by to help “supervise” and sample…

and the kids all run around the yard and play…

This was one the most precious things about the weekend… Annabelle & her cousin Anna. They are the same age difference as their mommas who grew up so very close, too! I loved seeing mine & Amy’s girls loving each other and playing so well together. AB would say, “’dats mine’s cousin, Anna” all weekend. So sweet…

Saturday we all meet back up at Granny’s for a day of visiting and catching up, along with some friendly competition mixed in.

My mom’s siblings are scattered between Florida, Georgia & Alabama, so we always have a “War between the States” to see which state will take home the beloved turtle-shell trophy at the end of the weekend. The first few years, the big volleyball tournament between the states was the determining factor on who won the turtle, but for the past several years, we’ve had different competitions to see who wins. We also have a theme every year and the games and contests are planned to match that. We’ve done almost every theme you can think of. This year’s theme was “Swamp People…” 

We planned the games around the lingo of Troy and the rest of the gang on The History Channel’s show, “Swamp People.” 

 

setting up for the events…

We had 10 gator tags that the 3 states would be battling for over the weekend. The first 5 were hidden in different spots around my Granny’s yard. Clues were given and the family had to be on the lookout to find them… One clue was “Granny & the Buzzard.” Anyone in our family should remember Granny telling her hilariously funny story about the time she hit a buzzard with her car. It got stuck and she had to drive with that big bird’s legs hung under her car’s hood with it’s wings spread open for 5 miles until she could get to the county road department and find some men to help her get it off. Obviously that gator tag was hidden on her car.

The other 5 tags were timed events that were planned around the lingo of “Swamp People.”

“He a tree shaker” was the first event. Each team had to have a Troy and a Willie (who would push/pull the “boat”) over to the tree where the “Tree Shaker” was hanging. The teams also had to have a ‘Lizbeth riding in the boat. When the team got the gator untied, they had to get it in the boat with ‘Lizbeth and race back to the finish line.

Georgia’s Team going first…

Alabama was up next…

then Florida. We ended up tying with Alabama, but in a re-do for a tie-breaker they beat the Florida team.

“How ‘dem snakes get in ‘dat jar” was the next event. For this one, each team had to have one of their kids (under 6 years old) reach in a big jar of plastic snakes and in one handful see how many they could pull out.

Anna trying for the Georgia team.

Reid representing Alabama

& Florida’s snake grabber, AB! :)

 

“ dos gator eggs good to eat” was the third event. One member from each team had to see how many gator eggs (ping pong balls) they could toss in a bucket in 60 seconds.

watching the gator egg toss

“ ‘Choot ‘em” was the next event. We made a gator out of cardboard, attached a bunch of balloons and then each team had to see which one could “shoot” the gator the most times with the 6 darts they were given.

“ ‘use ‘dat ‘dere snare” was the last event. For this one, each team had to have 3 swamp people--- one to ride in the “boat” and the other two to push it to the “swamp”…

Once in the swamp, the person in the boat (who was also blind-folded had to use the gator “snare” to pull the gator out. His two partners had to tell him which way to move, when to pull, etc… and once the gator was loaded up, they raced back to the finish.

The Florida team which was my Dad, DW & my Uncle Jerry…

In the end, it was Alabama who won the prized turtle. They found 4 of the 5 hidden tags and won ALL 5 events. I also feel it fitting to say they had the most attendance for the states, too.

Team captain, Uncle Clifford showed off the lanyard with all the gator tags their team won…

Georgia was missing my Aunt Cindy and her whole family, and Florida was missing all of my Uncle Bert’s family and two of my Aunt ZoAnn’s kids and their families… excuses, excuses, what can I say. :)   We were such losers, we couldn’t even all look in the same direction for a picture! Ha…

Granny & AB look the most disappointed about loosing. ha…

Everyone spent the rest of the afternoon visiting.

Saturday night, we all came back together for a big BBQ. Again, some of the men do the cooking, while the others “supervise, visit & sample”… :)

It’s a full weekend, for sure!

It’s always nice to see everyone and to remember that while family is what we’re born into---we may not always see eye to eye on everything, or share all of the same interests, but they’re still really good to have. :)

~amw~