Family Reunion 2009 - Celebrating our Nation's Birthday in our Nation's Capitol

4th of July! We started the celebration of our nation's independence by attempting family pictures in our matching patriotic shirts. Matt rated taking pictures together in matching T-Shirts and the Fireworks in D.C. as his favorite activities of the whole reunion.

After the family couldn't stand any more picture taking we got ready for our day in D.C.. We drove down to Forest Glen Metro Station near the D.C. Temple, left the cars and hopped on the Metro.

Joel and Cassandra checking out the Metro Map

Waiting for the Metro

(I was surprised we had the whole station to ourselves -

I thought it would be packed.)

Matt and Jeff were just a little excited about their Metro tickets=)

Joel, Shawnie, Jeff, Tom, Cassandra and Lief on the Metro

Mom and Dad on the Metro

We camped at the base of the Washington Monument with a great view of the Capitol Building. Our first order of business was our picnic lunch brought in the now infamous "Blue Cooler."

After lunch Tom held down the fort while the rest of us split up to explore D.C.

Matt, Cassandra, Tanner, Leif and Jeffrey went to explore the Air and Space Museum

Grammy, Laurelle, Shawnie, Heather and I went and checked out the monuments. Look at all the people!

Once we were done exploring we all returned to our "camp" to hang out and relax before the fireworks. Here are some pictures of our hanging out time:

At 9pm it was finally time for the fireworks! We had front row seats to the most specatular show! Here are some pictures and a video:

(Finale starts at about 1:50)

Overall it was a fantastic day and a fun way to celebrate the 4th with my family. Thanks go to Shawnie and Joel for starting the tradition of the 4th of July Family Reunion. Here's to a great reunion and looking forward to the reunions to come!

Dad said: Aside from spending time with the family which absolutely rates highest. The other highlight for me was after 25 years of endless trips to DC and never being there on the 4th of July, finally seeing the national fireworks display, which was certainly 'over-the-top!'

Mom: The fireworks at the Washington D.C. Mall framed by the George Washington Memorial were just spectacular! I've watched a lot of firework displays over the years but experiencing this one at the capital gave me pause to think of all the sacrifices, blood and ingenuity that our founding fathers made and gave to make this great country what it is, and giving us the freedoms we enjoy. Standing in that place, I felt a spiritual bond, especially knowing that God was the author of it all.

If you can believe it .... we aren't done yet! Stay tuned for more Stewart Family Fun!

Family Reunion 2009 - Crossing the Mason-Dixon Line

After another lazy morning we headed up to Codorus State Park, near Hanover, PA.

Interesting tid-bit of useless knowledge coming: I can't remember if we talked about this at the reunion but Maryland is the northernmost state of "The South". (As in North and South of the Civil War) So by going to PA (pronounced pee-aye for the non-locals) we crossed from "The South" to "The North."

At Codorus we BBQ'd and ate til we dropped. Luckily the beautiful (and not so humid) weather continued so there was plenty of time to hang out, catch up, get some frisbee golf in, as well as hang out at the lake. Here are some pics of the day:

The Lake

Joel and Jeff BBQin'

Brandon, Mom, Andrea, Cassandra

Joel, Shawnie, Tom and Jeff

Tanner attacking Brandon after re-energizing with lunch

Post lunch power nap - Heather, Laurelle, and Brandon

Leif was successful in wrestling his blocks back from Jeff and Brandon

Heather

Heather "taking care" of me while Laurelle uses me as a pillow

Brandon couldn't resist Leif's blocks for long...

Shawnie and Laurelle so desperate for a book they had to share

Matt "Mr. Cool" Stewart

Grammy and Leif

Tanner so excited he got first dibs on the bike for the ride home!

Mom said: "The lake park in Hanover, PA was beautiful and the food was great. It was a beautiful drive to and from the park and I especially enjoyed the wild flowers along the way."

Matt said: Since there was no waterfall to push Andrea under I guess "the best part of the daywas spending time together at the park and talking." (I may have embellished Matt's comments just a bit=)

Don't worry...still more to come!

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...

Family Reunion 2009 - Taking a Bite Out of the Big Apple

Matt, Cassandra, Tanner, Leif, Tom and I all went up to NYC before the reunion started. We went to Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, and spent a lot of time riding the subway and eating really good food. Here are some of our favorite NYC things...

Carnegie Deli -

Like Father, Like Son

(A Pickle Fetish with a HUGE Reuben on the side)

After eating all the Carnegie Deli homemade pickles and a few bites of that Reuben we headed over to Central Park. We went to one of the biggest playgrounds in the park with everything you could imagine (even a water park!) With so much to choose from the first and only thing that Tanner "The Climber" Stewart wanted to play on was the huge rock behind the playground=) Matt couldn't help himself either...

Our play time was rudely interrupted by rain. We ran for cover and found ourselves in the subway and decided to take a trip and explore Grand Central Station. Since it had been at least an hour since we last ate we decided we needed a snack to top up our tummies. Good thing our favorite cheesecake restaurant Junior's is there! Matt was on a strawberry kick all day so we tried the Strawberry Shortcake and got Devil's Food Cake for the Chocoholics.

Even with cheesecake the size of his head, Tanner didn't start out too happy but by the end we couldn't get the cheesecake away from him. Here is Tanner's first attempt at Brain Surgery.

After Tanner scarfed down all the cheesecake and the rest of us were able to get a few scraps we all headed uptown to the Manhattan Temple by the Lincoln Center. We took advantage of the bathrooms in the Stake Center (on the upper floors above the temple) and couldn't help but notice how quiet it was inside. After being on the loud and busy streets of NYC all day it was a complete contrast to be in deafening quiet and peaceful feeling of the church. This temple is definitely not the biggest or most interesting building on the outside - but the feeling on the inside is unmatchable and makes you feel right at home no matter where in the world you are.

From the temple we went back to Central Park and explored the Sheep Meadow, the Dairy, the Mall, Bethesda Fountain, and caught part of a benefit concert.

Andrea went back to the hotel with Tanner and Leif for some shut eye - while Matt, Cassandra and Tom went to check out the night life at Times Square.

The next morning we headed for the Statue of Liberty. Tanner was excited to take the boat to Liberty Island. It was pretty hot so we didn't stay long - especially with Frozen Hot Chocolate calling our name from Serendipity!=)

There was a little bit of a wait at Serendipity so we decided to check out Dylan's Candy Store in the mean time - 3 floors of sugary fun! Our food was good as usual, but nothing beat the Frozen Hot Chocolate on such a hot day. On our way out the door who did we run into but Shawnie, Laurelle, Brandon, Heather and Jeff! The whole time we had been in New York we had been trying to meet up - but could never get on the same schedule until we met up serendipitously at Serendipity! It was fun to see familiar unexpected faces that we hadn't seen in so long!

Since we didn't eat until later in the day our batteries were running low until Matt spotted Bloomingdale's. Matt and Tom got their second wind just by seeing the famous store and spent over an hour exploring the 8 story mega store while Cassandra, I and the kids enjoyed testing out the couches.

With the day winding down we headed home. Our guests were greeted to Maryland by one of our infamous torrential summer downpours - followed by an impressive thunder and lightening show.

Matt thought the best part about our NYC trip was taking in the atmosphere. "You can see all of the landmarks in photos but you can’t really understand it until you have been there and heard the noise, breathed the air and turned around to see sky scrapers in every direction. Of course the cheese-cake was good too."

More to come on the rest of the reunion soon...