Club Chaos Agents - All Things Hollish, Wacked, and Jacked

 

This past August, I embarked in a cross country trip for 11 days with both my parents, my sister, brother-in-law, and their 6 kids. Destination? Two Rivers, WI for a family reunion. We had set sail on August 12th around 9 pm... for those of you that missed this adventure, here it is....

Family is important - The Belonger Family Reunion of 2010 - August 14th - Part 1 of 2

We had left the Two Rivers area around noon on the 20th of August. Next destination?  The Milwaukee Zoo, and then staying over night and leaving the next morning for Wind Lake, WI, 20 SW of Milwaukee.

 

 

If you are ever in the area, I would highly advise going to the Milwaukee Zoo. We didn't get to see the whole zoo, but I was impressed. It was large, clean, and seemed to have many animals from all over.

We were moving quickly, that I only really got one picture all day. I did get someone from the zoo to take a picture of myself, my brother-in-law, with 2 of the kids. But when approaching the vendor on our way out, would you believe that they had an issue with 4 of the pictures from all day. And you guessed it, one of those was our picture... but I did come across someone from Active Rain, but I forgot his name, so we will call him Sam the Orangutan... just hanging out.

 

 

The whole irony of this story was perfect timing, because my Aunt Linda had won some radio contest and the prize was a small catered party. This happened about 1 month before our trip. So she got an idea to hold a small family reunion on my mom's side of the family at their lake house who they share with their good friend, Father Ted. Hence why our last stop was at Wind Lake, WI. This area is known for it's historical tornado activity. It is 81% greater than the overall U.S. average. In 1984, there was a category 4 tornado reported with winds of 205-260 mph 15 miles from Wind Lake.

In any case, my Aunt was able to put together this gathering last minute amongst my mom's immediate family. She is one of 5 girls. My grandmother, my mom's mother, passed away on May 16th, 2010 and my grandfather has passed away in 2003.  So it was good to see many that we hadn't seen for many years. (lake in the back ground)

 

 

We had about 25 to 40 people and yes, we ate and ate again. It was good food again. But most of all, even though we had to leave around 8 pm or so, it was a good time to see everyone and we all had a good time.

 

 

Some of the kids on the paddle boat.  We also played some volleyball in the backyard.

 

 

 

 

 

My Uncle Bob (red cap) and my brother-in-law Joe playing bean bag toss.

 

 

 

 

Myself in the hat with my cousin Andy.

 

Thanks Aunt Linda for putting this together last minute....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture of the kids... cousins, nieces, & nephews....

 

 

 

• Family is important - The Belonger Family Reunion of 2010 - August 14th - Part 1 of 2

• Family is Important - Next up, the Quinn reunion Part 2 of 2
  

 

Every 5 years, my dad's side of the family has a family reunion. My dad came from a family of 8, 6 boys and 2 girls. They were all born and raised in a small town of Two Rivers, WI, population of about 12,500.

Well, this was the year and it was planned around the 1 year anniversary of the death of my Uncle Allen, my dad's brother, who was killed in a bicycle accident on July 13th, 2009 at the age of 62.

In any case, we decided to travel by road, since my sister and brother-in-law has 6 kids, 2 of which are twins and were a little over 2 years old at the time. And they thought a plane trip would be overwhelming. So we rented a small van. Imagine 5 adults and 6 kids in that van, including luggage. So we set sail, aka the highway, around 9 pm on 8-12-10. We did this hoping that the kids would sleep most of the way. We made it in about 18 hours, a normal trip of about 16 hours.

 

 

Here were are, driving by the city of Chicago, at around 11:15 am EST. I didn't set my clock back as of yet. I actually posted this on facebook and people were telling me to blow our horn as we drove by. lol  Even found out that some people that I knew back east actually were born or lived in Wisconsin, after I had posted this picture or a few others. The power of the internet. Instant information.

 

We had rented a lovely beach house right on Lake Michigan. Here is my first morning, 8-13-10, looking out my bedroom porch. It just kind of makes you want to get lost in nothing, peaceful, forgetting about your worries.

 

 

The Belonger Reunion - 8-14-10

 

 (I forgot to take a picture of the tents in front of the log cabin-home. Some people slept outside, since this is only a 2 bedroom)

A few of my dad's brothers had helped build this home. They actually had a small saw mill to the left.

 

It's eating time...

As you can see, we had a good spread. Hot dogs, hamburgers, beans, salads, potato salad, and much more. But no brats.. and we were in the Midwest. If you have never had a brat, they are awesome.

 

 

We had a bout 45 to 50 people eating at one point. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, nieces, nephews, siblings.. it was a good time had by all...

 

It's fun time

 

As you can see, there is one of the tents in the background. But some just enjoying themselves while playing croquet.

 

It's time for the family picture

 

 

 

 

 

There were a few missing here and there. Kind of hard to be 100% organized. My one cousin didn't even know that we were taking a picture and was inside watching t.v. (can you find me?)

 

 

 

 

The immediate Belonger family. My grandfather had passed away in 1990. And filling in for my Uncle Allen, was his son and my cousin, Philip Belonger.

(Back - Chris, Brian, Warren, my dad, Ann, Paul... 3 in front - Linda, Grandma, Philip)

 

 

 

Back to the Beach House & activities

 

My nephew Johnny heading to the beach. The little one in red, my nephew Joey. For most of the week, we had great weather. This was the only day that there were clouds.

 

Shooting their Uncle Jeff with squirt guns.

(Ava & Joey)

 

 

 

(Andrew, Johnny, Alisha, & Katerina)

We spent a whole week there. Here we were roasting marshmallows and making smores. Ever have one?  Yummy...

 

 

 

 

 

Took the kids fishing 1 day. 5 minutes into fishing, "hey, are there fish in here?  We haven't caught anything.. how much longer."  LOL   My dad actually grew up right off this waterway. The old house was just torn down to build a boat museum.

 

 

 

My grandfather painted and did carvings on the side as both a hobby and for side income. It's hard to see, but that is one of his carvings at the fishing village in Two River's, WI.

 

 

Grandpa (my dad) and my nephew Joey... just hanging by the fire pit one night.

 

 

 

 

The day before we left, Uncle Jeff was asked to put together a treasure hunt. I actually worked on maps for each kid. I broke it up into 2 different parts, making sure that all the kids would not cross paths, so it took some thinking in the beginning. Each kid had an actual treasure... some candy and a coupon for ice cream. There was fun had by all..

 

 

 

 

Part 2 - We still had another stop, my mom's side of the family. A small quick family reunion with her sisters & families.