One Halluva Weekend

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The games began early Saturday with golf and basketball events. I must admit, Bill and Johanna attacked the competition with a vengeance, or at least, great outfits and attitudes!! They picked up so many spirit points they were hard to catch!!

Golfing events started the morning off.... The closest to the fountain event produced an unexpected winner with a most unusual technique...Greg, who had never played golf, copied Sonia's (Johanna's sister), who had also never played, ball skipping technique. In the long drive, David's golfing expertise showed through, even with his pirate eye patch handicap!(Note the judge hiding behind a tree!!) Another surprising winner came in the chipping (tossing) event..Aliah, Sonia and Aladeen's daughter, used excellent form to take the medal!

The group moved to the basketball court for the next session, along with their cheering section. One of the most amazing things to me was how many competitors there were in all events..from golf to scrapbooking. The basketball event was shooting to 29 (92 reversed, for Daddy's birthday). It was a close competition with Greg winning, and David and Bill placing and showing!

Then, it was up to the house for lunch and cooling off, plus the start of the indoor events. These included scrapbooking pages, orange slice sculpting, and WII target shooting. Greg came in strong for WII shooting, Diana won the scrapbook page, and Sonia, Aladeen and Ameer won the Diana Miller honorary orange slice medal!!    

Daddy also had a book "signing" while we were up at the house. For those of you who have spent time around our Daddy, you know that he is a virtual king of limericks and jokes..for instance, Daddy once promised Mama that he would make her famous...she wasn't exactly thinking of her caricature on a sack of fertilizer!! The book is full of all the stories and limericks that made his grandchildren laugh until they cried!!

Then, it was off to the pool, where we had an underwater swim, diving for smurfs...a cousin favorite, treading water, and a dress and pose competition ( inspired by Adam's famous gymnastics dismount pose). Though we had to postpone the last couple due to lightning...Bill, Johanna, and David finished up the events strong!!

Finally, the cooks went to work. There was so much food, I haven't had to eat again, yet!! From a Peruvian potato dish, by Sonia...to an okra dish cooked by our resident "Yankee", Ted...to Mim's Banana Pudding (a real Hall Reunion favorite)...to Susan's bean casserole (her mother's recipe)... to Bill's special ribs..to Margaret's grape salad...to my Potato sald..to Karen's veggie platter..to Johanna's carrot cake( her friend's)..to...well, I could go on and on, but it is making me full again..

After a wonderful dinner, we presented the grand prizes for the events. As you can tell from the pictures, we had a great opportunity to recycle some trophies, and one toilet seat for this occasion! Though rain had taken away the other outside events, we went back to our first family gathering at Bill and Johanna's...Karen definitely had the participation, wins, and attitudes for that trophy. Though the competition for the overall was fierce, David Miller walked away with the "trophy"!

So, our celebration and reunion ended with exhaustion from so much FUN!!! We hope we will be able to meet again, soon....Thank you Bill and Johanna for putting into action, a plan to get this family together  more often!! We do have so much fun. AND Happy Birthday, Daddy...a magnificent 92!!