Moline, IL

Here's the rest of our 10 day trip out west! This is from July 29th-31st in Moline, IL.

I had a great time meeting a lot of family on Susie's side (Tom's Mom) that I hadn't met before!

This is the Friday night before the big Reunion night. We went to a welcome dinner at Gary's house after driving for over 7 hours from Ft. Wayne, IN.

Alex and Emily-Uncle Jerry's daughter.

Summer with her Grandma Susie!

Summer got to spend the night with me in the big bed. This was a first so I snapped a picture the next morning. Tom was still on his bike ride.

This is where Summer and I ended up at 10am on Saturday morning. She had been up since 6 and I reasoned that since we are used to Eastern Standard Time that is was really 11 am-a perfectly reasonable time to have ice cream!

We were the first customers of the day! Summer enjoyed her chocolate chip ice cream and I enjoyed my peanut butter brownie cup with marshmellow fluff on top!

Summer had no problems finishing her cone!

Here I am waiting for Tom's team to ride in at the finish line of his ride. It was exciting and I couldn't wait to see him!

Cousin Ruth and her dad Bill were waiting with me. Ruth's brother Curtis also did the ride.

Uncle Bob, Cal and Brooks joined in to see the guys ride in!

Here comes Team Skunk! That's the team that Tom, Uncle Jerry and Cousin Curtis were a part of!

Tom's the one standing up on his bike to the right!

So proud of you Tom!!!! (and Curtis-behind him and Uncle Jerry--to his right).

A tradition at the end of the ride is to dip your bike into the Mississippi River. Before they did that the 3 of them lifted their bikes up!

The actual dipping of the bikes!

The Anderson Family Reunion!

Tom was very happy to see his sweet Summer. He missed us so much and we missed him. It was good to be together again and hear all of his stories!

Summer is spending time with Aunt/Grandma Tinka! She is the sweetest lady. She lent and then gave me her hat (seen earlier) and had books for all the kids. She has made Summer a quilt with a cat on it and is just so kind.

Here are lots of family group pictures. I actually think I could do pretty good listing everyone but with my pregnant tired brain I am going to pass! There were about 60 of us at the Reunion and everyone had a great time!

At this point, you , my faithful readers, should be able to name everyone in this picture! :)

Those not blood related. "outsiders" :)

Cousins

Grandkids

Summer with Gary

Summer with her pal, Timmy

Susan and Paul celebrate 25 years together!

Ready to go back to GA. Allie in one arm (her baby that she named) and Lena the Lion from the Zoo. Love the crazy hair. She did not want her Mama to fix it that morning. The trip home took close to 16 hours....stops and traffic but we made it!

More Indiana!

Here's the rest of our Indiana Trip! After this we will head to Moline, IL and rejoin Tom after he finished biking across the state of Iowa.

These are some from July 19th-21st.

Summer loved Brooks hat and it was even more amusing when she added her sunglasses!

Grandma Susie and Aunt Beth were great at finding jobs for Summer to help with. Here she is setting the table!

Always busy...building a fort with Brooks!

Playing outside with Cal!

Ice Cream time!

Cal and Summer sitting together on a rock enjoying their ice cream.

On Thursday, July 21st we took a trip to Marion, IN about an hour away. We had lunch at the "Hostess House" and what a neat place it was.

It is about to celebrate it's 100 year anniversary and each room is decorated differently. A really neat place.

Susie, Brooks and Cal

The reason we went to Marion to have lunch was to meet up with Garl and Harriet. Garl is Beth, Susie, and Bob's uncle (their Mom was his sister). I have met Garl and Harriet before and they are just the sweetest. They always send Daisy a return letter from their grand-dogs at Christmas time.

This is Uncle Bob, Garl and Aunt Beth at lunch.

Here is Harriet and Cousin Cathy Jo.

Summer was a very good girl at lunch but did have a little fun with Aunt Beth's glasses!

All of us together and yes now you can see I was on this trip! I am preferring to take the pictures then be in them right now!

Looking at family heritage pictures.

Sweet Hadley! The girls had the best time together. I wanted to put Hadley in my suitcase and bring her home with me so Summer and Hadley could be together more. I really do wish we lived closer to each other.

One last Indiana picture. Up next...Moline, Il.