THE FAMILY GATHERED!!

The turnout was fabulous. I'll let the group photo by Shellee Morning speak for itself:

50th = 150+ !!!

The day was sunny, despite forecasts of possible thundershowers. But the only thunder was that of horseshoes clunking in the sand pit, of feet pounding the earth in the three-legged and potato sack races, of great food hitting happy bellies, of OOHs at the Memorabilia Table and laughter at the photo slide show; most especially there was thunder in the standing ovation for the committee which organised the 5oth Annual Family Reunion.

Well done team, and Thank You for all that work!

The overall attendance numbers are still being sorted out: not everyone signed the attendance book, some folks came, went away, then came back; we had to add extra seating on top of the 120 originally laid out; the group photo --which is probably missing some folks-- seems to show about 150 people. No matter how you count it, the turnout was fabulous.

Lots of fun was had by all.

Some notable mentions from the day's events:

Alexandra (Morning family) broke her little finger playing football, but not before she impressed everyone with her athletic prowess -- that girl has an ARM!

Olivia (Brooks) and ___ (Moynihan) won the 3-legged race. Their form was great: watch them next year to see if they can challenge the record for the most annually consecutive wins (3 years straight) set in the 70s by the team of Penny (Brooks) and Heather (Morning).

Mackensie (Morning) and Katy Rose (Moynihan) played on the team that won the team ball toss, and came a close 2nd in the 3-legged race.

We just won't mention the adults who flopped, tripped and fell in the races (but the pictures will show who we are talking about).

The eldest descendent in attendance was Mid Watson, aged 80 years (and looking GREAT).

The youngest descendents were Mason Cefai (Moynihan) who is just one year old, and Dan's (Moynihan) & Jenn's beautifully behaved newborn.

The family member who travelled the furthest was Heather (Morning) who flew in from Papua New Guinea.

The family member living closest was Doug (Dennis) who could have walked from his Zephyr farm.

Between 15 and 20 teen/young adults came on their own accord, including some from BC: Ceilidh (Morning) and Jonathon (Watson).

We all sang Happy Birthday to Cassandra (Richards).

The food table groaned with delicious salads, meat balls, spanikopita, cheese, buns, baked beans, pasta, and a whole roasted pig. Pizza was set up on the stage for the littles ones. Desserts included the Nan's famous butter tarts, Blanche's famous carrot cake and Audrey's famous lemon merangue pie; Betty brought a cake frosted with a Moynihan family photo.

The Zephyr town hall never looked more inviting: Rosemary (Brooks) and crew had the tables laid out with flowers and napkins in the family colours. What a joy it was to have to add tables and place-settings to accomodate the extra 20 or so family members who arrived unexpectedly!

The auction fund-raiser went well, with Canadian Champion Auctioneer Gary (Dennis), selling donated family memorabilia including an antique wooden pull-toy for $100, and an historic auction flyer for $250. Proceeds go to the Moynihan Family Reunion Fund.

George (Watson) won the 50-50 draw, and since he's the oldest out-law, that's only fair.

Photos and a copy of the Reunion feedback-evaluation form will follow.

If you have stories, photos or memories about the reunion you want to share, email them to me and I'll put them into a blog posting. The email address is Moynihan.Family(at)gmail.com {replace the (at) with the @ sign}. If you want to leave comments on what's written already, click on the comments link and follow the instructions (you will have to complete some security proceedures, just to protect the blog from spam-bots and other internet hassles, but after the 1st time signing in, you shouldn't have to do it any more).