Meeting our New Jersey Family

I have known Dave for almost 12 years and never once have I met his cousins from New Jersey.  But, this weekend in the mountains of Virginia, that all changed.  We had the pleasure of going to Massanutten for a long weekend with Dave's family . . .  all 30 of us met in Virginia and I have to say that it was a complete blast!

We made it to the Virginia welcome center!

We were the first to arrive on Friday and the first to leave on Monday, but in between the families slowly arrived.  In the meantime these two quickly started enjoying some screen time! ;)

On Friday we enjoyed a nice play in the pool closest to our condo.  After hours in the car, it was certainly nice to get out and let the kids play!  We woke up on Saturday and decided to burn off some energy (and calories) by going for a hike while we waited for the first group from NJ to arrive.

Taking a rest from the rocky hike

After hiking we had a picnic lunch and let the kids play on the playground.  We then went back to the condo and waited for the first group from NJ to arrive.  We met a few cousins and then all hit the resort pool while we waited for others to arrive.  I have to say that I wasn't the one that planned on meeting family for the first time in my swimsuit, but it all worked out. :)  After some pool time we all showered and everyone came to our condo to grill out hamburgers and hotdogs.  What a spread of food we had!  Whew!

Playing a game after dinner

Sunday we all hit the indoor/outdoor water park.  It was amazing and every single person had a blast riding the slides, playing in the wave pool, and of course going in the hot tub!  We stayed for over 6 hours before a storm came that actually knocked the power out in the entire place.  At that point we figured we had been there long enough and packed it up to go back for dinner.

Preston was scared of the slides at first, but after a little bit he was going up and down constantly.  

This picture just makes me laugh!  They only enjoyed the baby pool for about 3 minutes. :)

We had dinner at the Sweeney condo Sunday night and enjoyed the famous Bachmann homemade macaroni.  WOW, it was amazing!

This is how I found Preston at 7:45 Monday morning . . half on the bed . . . so worn out!

The last part of the family arrived late Sunday so we met them Monday morning when we all ventured to the chair lift up the mountain.  Everyone loved the ride, even Grammy, who is super afraid of heights.

Papa & Grammy with Aunt Dee . . and all of their children, making them first cousins

And then the cousins' children . . making all of these kiddos second cousins

Thanks Jimmy for help figuring all of this out . . . it was sort of the joke of the weekend trying to decide who were first cousins, second cousins, or that crazy once removed thing. :)

Preston with his buddy Riley (they were inseparable) and Aunt Dee

 It was sad to have to leave so soon . . and Preston sobbed when he had to say goodbye to Riley, but hopefully we'll see everyone again before another 12 years pass!  We surely enjoyed our time in "Not for Nuttin!"