Family Reunion 2009 - Adventures in Crab Cake Land

Our Stewart Family Reunion officially started on a lazy Thursday morning. Most of us had a late night or extremely early morning start so we enjoyed some time to hang out and catch up with one another while everyone slowly arrived. While we waited for the late arrivals we gorged ourselves on French Toast Casserole while Shawnie "The Card Shark" Cannon kicked our butts in Go Fish.

One of the funniest things that morning was watching Brandon and Jeff find the blocks that Tanner and Leif had left behind. Brandon and Jeff played with them for hours and were reluctant to give them up once Tanner and Leif arrived.=)

Later in the morning we headed to Adventure Park USA near Frederick, MD. Tom and Dad rode their motorcycles out there and enjoyed the scenery and the gorgeous unseasonably cool weather.

We started the annual family competitions with Go-Karting again this year. Shawnie "Speed Racer" Cannon was the obvious victor in the races (or so she wanted us to believe=)). The cars weren't that great so we quickly moved on to Laser Tag. It was a new element to our family competition we started last year. We had a lot of fun - Tom "The Athlete" Heiser as he likes to be called, Joel, Brandon and Jeff were the winners.

After Laser Tag we slowly split up into smaller groups. Mom, Cassandra, Tanner and Leif checked out the teacups, helicopter rides, and the bounce playground.

Tom, Brandon and Jeff all rode the ONE roller coaster there. Joel, Matt and I played bumper boats. Matt said "The best part of the whole day was taking Tanner on the race cars and pushing Andrea under the waterfall on the boat ride." I'm glad I could make Matt's day...he better watch his back next year!=)

Cassandra, Shawn, Heather and Laurelle started mini-golf. Joel, Matt and I followed a little while later after we dried off a little bit, and Tom and Brandon followed not too long after that. Tanner and Jeff checked out all the games in the Arcade while Matt, Brandon, and Jeff mastered the rope walk.

After we wrangled up everyone from Adventure Park we headed over to Olive Grove to let everyone try out a local favorite - Maryland Crab Cakes.

Mom summed the day up by saying "The Adventure Park was a really good choice as it was laid back, not crowded and just right for the little ones as well as the rest of us. The crab cakes at the Olive Grove topped off a great day with the family."

Hold on there's still more to come...