The First Zinn Family Reunion

"We are excited to announce the first ever reunion of the Zinn Family. The purpose of this reunion is to:

Build family unity

Create family memories

Increase family interaction

We will do our best to achieve these purposes from Saturday, July 17, 2010 to Friday, July 23, 2010 at the Jackson Lake House estate in Amicalola Falls, Georgia."

This was put on the Zinn family web page months ago and as I sit here watching the sun rise on our last FULL day of vacation I reflect upon this week!

YES, family unity has been built

YES, family memories have been made by all and

YES we have increased family interaction

We have spent this week together and we still LOVE each other! It has been a week with love, unity and compassion for each other. We definitely had family interaction. This house is huge BUT we have still been under ONE roof and we have done great! Going into this reunion I did not know what to expect and I must say it is a “dream come true”!

I hope and pray this can continue to be a tradition with our family. To involve so many people and each has very different but always BUSY lives come together was not without some miracles. When we began the discussion of this event a year ago we knew TWO of the spouses would not be able to attend. This is a busy time for Ryan in his profession. Ben was busy with schooling. But through lots of prayers they were able to be here! When you start involving so many people and the variables of their lives and work it out to all be together, it is not short of a modern day miracle! We did it! I think each of us, including children, are better people because of this week and we have been strengthened as a family. Everyone had experiences that will NOT be forgotten. It took lots of time, effort and work to make this week happen and it did and blessings have already come from it!

Today was Meghan, Grant & Cameron's day for cooking but we realized we had so many left overs so their job was to utilize the food we already had and they did a fantastic job with it. Take a little flour, sugar, milk, butter and baking soda (several bottles of syrup) and MAGIC....you come up with pancakes. Grant has been on his own so he needed NO HELP but the other two needed just a "little" coaching! Grant did German pancakes and Cameron/Meghan did american!

Today we went swimming

we went back to the waterfalls (Cameron was NOT willing to take a chance so he stayed home)

We went swimming

we played games

we went swimming

and we had to say good bye to the Lough family Thursday evening.

It was back to work for Melissa tonight and Ryan has a wedding rehearsal dinner tonight and a wedding to perform Saturday!

Good Bye's are always difficult!

Kayla called me a few hours after they had left and I heard her say: "Grandma Barb" and her voice was filled with tears! I talked with her for a few minutes then I said: "Is Trevor sleeping" and she said "YES"! I asked her why she was not sleeping and she said: "I was almost asleep and they I started thinking about YOU and I could not go to sleep"! We talked about it and I teased with her for a few minutes and we discussed putting a book together about this week that she could look at and always remember the FUN week..............

BUT

all the things I said to Kayla I had to REMIND myself of.........As a mother I feel sad, even thought I KNOW that this is the way it is meant to be......there is a sadness in my heart that we have to say good bye to each family and go on our separate ways. We will grow, learn and develop within our own families. We will reunite at times to bring the things WE learn in life into the family circle but then we have to return to our corner of the world to continue to develop and grow.

That is how families are meant to be!

I have spent hours trying to get this blog posted as the service here has been "weak" today so I am not going to post any more pictures. Many of my pictures have a purpose a thought or a story and I will continue to blog in the coming days about the experiences of these memory lasting pictures. My heart is FULL......

There will be ONE more sun rise of this beautiful view. (I took pictures of sunrises and sunsets everyday trying to capture the beauty of this sight because it was so beautiful)......I shall miss watching the sun rise and sunsets but the beauty is locked within me. Heavenly Father has CREATED a beautiful world for us to live in. Heavenly Father has helped to create a wonderful Zinn family for me to "love" and be proud of. My blog name is The Zinn Family: The Second Generation and I will tell you that the rising generation of Zinn's is fantastic. We took a few family pictures before the Lough family departed and every one thought we needed "a funny one" so that is how this picture came to be.....but it is a tribute to the second generation of Zinn children rising up!

Meghan, Braden, Aidan, Clara, Jack, Kayla, Trevor and Owen......go forth and lead with faith as this family goes into the next generation. I am so proud of their parents and what they are teaching to their children. I am a small ripple in a large pond and I am so touched to be a part of this.

Eight Plus IS ENOUGH to FILL my HEART with LOVE!!

Posted by Barb Zinn