Stewart Family Reunion

We had a super fun time at the Stewart Family Reunion this year.  Cathrynn was in charge and a couple of years ago she and my parents booked the coolest place.  We went to the Albion Campus Retreat.  It was a state teaching college in the first part of the 20th century.  They closed it down in the 40's and the buildings have been sitting empty most of the years since then.  It was purchased by a family in 2007 and one building has been renovated into a great space for our big family.  We had so much space.  The building had a big kitchen with a great common room, 15 bedrooms, and a fun game room on the third floor.  Outside there were basketball courts, volleyball, horseshoe pits, a large above ground pool, and a hot tub.

If you've spent any time with the Stewart Family, you know we're all about the food, so to say we ate really well is an understatement.  My sister and I were in charge of the first meal, and we did chicken salad croissants and fruit salad. After lunch we spent most of the first day at a really fun park and swimming in the pool. My brother and sister made an amazing dinner of prime rib, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and cesaer salad.  For dessert we had root beer floats with a keg of rootbeer.  Yum!  The next morning after a delicious breakfast of fruit and yogurt parfaits and this amazing cinnamon toast, and then we went to The City of Rocks.  Several people did some climbing at Bath Rock (it was scary for me to watch).  We had a fun picnic of hoagie sandwiches, chips, and s'more mix.  That afternoon we rented a water bouncy house slide thing.  Everyone loved it and had a blast (except Saya, who I forced to do it once, she hated it)!  We ate ice cream that afternoon and then sausages and burgers for dinner.  Tours of the grounds and buildings were taken that night.  They went in two groups and the first group made plans to scare the second group (in the fall the buildings that haven't been renovated are used as haunted houses).  The screams coming from the final building could be heard across the lawn. The final morning we ate waffles for breakfast and checked out of the resort.  The we drove up Pomerelle canyon and ate pulled pork and chicken sandwiches for lunch.  None of the kids wanted to leave when it was time to go.  We really loved every second of it.

We had so much fun I only took one picture (when we were leaving) of Saya crying because she was so exhausted.  I asked her to calm down and she said, "No, I want to stay crying."

Hopefully my sister will blog about it soon with pictures, then I'll plug a link in here.