Family Ties

Last Sunday, the day after Lily's party was a family reunion for Cameron's Dad's side of the family. Cameron comes from a very large family.

I must admit, it is something I wasn't looking forward to. We had moved house the weekend before, I had worked all week and prepared for Lily's party, I was very sick and we had had Lily's party on the Saturday.
To be honest, I was just looking forward to having a day at home to relax and enjoy our new property, and to try to get better!

Anyhow, I awoke early on the Sunday morning, showered and prepared the dish I was taking for the shared lunch.
We all begrudginly got in the car and set off for the reunion.

Surprising I had a wonderful day and thoroughly enjoyed meeting members of Cameron's family.
Family is very important to me and there was just such a warm, inviting atmosphere that day. Everyone was very lovely and welcoming, it was a very enjoyable experience.
Lily without surprise was very much doted on and adored, everyone thought she was just beautiful.

Lily is very blessed to be born into a large family and I really do hope that as she grows she can have contact and forge strong bonds with her family.

The community/area that we have just moved into is a farming area vastly populated by members of Cameron's family. Everyone was very excited that we had moved into the area and were able to provide us with lots of information about the community and even our property itself.

I seen some people at the reunion that I know from my childhood, well it turns out if Cameron and I marry, I will be related to them by marraige.

Coming from such a large family though we will have to be very careful that Lily doesn't accidentally marry a cousin!

When Lily was 3 months old Cameron's Mum requested a family photo from us to be published in a family history book that was to be launched on the day of the reunion.

It is a wonderful book that I have had great pleasure in reading thorough and looking at many old pictures of the area and Cameron's ancestors.
It is also nice to have a picture and our names in this book, I look forward to showing this to Lily when she is a little older.

Throughout the day there were many people speaking about their ancestors and family history, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing of peoples life stories.
There was one lady in particular that spoke of her families ancestors, in particular 2 ladies who did not marry.
As she spoke she said that if you did not marry and have children sadly your story wasn't told to anyone and in a sense you could be lost from history.
This lovely lady had done extensive research on these 2 ladies in hope of giving them 'a voice, albeit a faint one, however a voice none the less'

I thought this was such a lovely thing to do and honestly nearly brought a tear to my eye.

So all in all we all had a lovely day with family, met some beautiful people and drove home with a smile on our face and a warm heart.

Cameron's sister took this photo of the 3 of us, I really like it. My beautiful little family.

In the background, you can see a screen with a photo on it. Throughout the day photo's new and old were shown on this screen, it was such a lovely touch.

Here is Lily in her pretty dress. I couldn't resist taking a photo of her matching shoes, they are so gorgeous.
When we got home from the reunion Lily experienced her first chicken chippy, to say she loved it doesn't begin to cover how she felt!

I am very protective, often told to protective about what Lily eats. To me she doesn't know what chips, chocolate etc are so I don't think she needs those foods. However as an occasional treat I don't mind.

We then went outside to feed the horses, I can now have my horses at home which is great. Anyhow Lily just loves the horses and on our way out Lily had a play on her new swing set that her Nana and Papa brought for her for her 1st birthday, she really enjoys that swingset.

Where we are living we are unable to get normal broadband, we have to wait a few weeks before they can install satellite internet. For the time being we only have dial up and it is painfully slow! This entry and photo's alone has taken me over 2 hours to complete!