Mary Ellen and Dick's clan

Thanks to Paul for this picture he took of Mary Ellen and Dick's brood. Only Amy and Sonja are missing. They'd better show up next time!

Roger and Gloria's clan

Here's our family's photo at the 2006 Gordon reunion in Crawfords-ville, IN. We're missing Ellaina, Aaron, Madeline and Ella, who weren't able to fly in from Oregon.

Everyone you see here crammed into Erin and Rich's eight-seat Toyota minivan and traveled 600 miles from Minnesota to Indiana.

We left on a Thursday morning and spent that first night in Davenport, Iowa, after visiting the following places in Iowa: Northwood (Roger's birthplace), Carpenter (where many Gordon ancestors were laid to rest), Marble Rock (where Art, Mary Ellen and Roger lived for several years), and Waverly (where Rich attended Wartburg College, Noah's self-proclaimed future school).

We stayed that night at the AmericInn in Davenport, where Sarah took the first swim of her young life in the hotel pool. The next day, we got up and drove across Illinois to Indiana.

Art and Florence's clan

Here's Arthur and Florence's bunch at the reunion ... I think everyone is in the picture except for Joshua and Joey.

Who's the guy on the right? That's Amber's boyfriend Richard, who's a very personable guy and a pretty good bocce ball player. As you can see from their shirts, they both attend Purdue University, where Amber is studying psychology.

My apologies to Mary Ellen and Dick's clan ... I wasn't present when their group's photo was being taken.

Crystal and Sarah

Sarah got to meet lots of relatives at the 2006 Gordon reunion in Indiana. Here she's being held by Crystal, her third cousin ... at least we think that's the term, right Crystal? Or is "twice removed" supposed to be in there somewhere?

Crystal, who is finishing up her LPN nursing license in early August, never passed up a chance to hold Sarah.

David, Samantha and Sarah

We spent most of Saturday at Bill and Sandra's house, swimming in their pool and eating lots of snacks!

Here, Sarah enjoys a swing with cousin David and his youngest daughter, Samantha.

The boys get a new toy

Here are Lucas, Caleb and Noah with the new basketball hoop their great-grandma wanted them to have. We've been having fun with it, playing the game "H-O-R-S-E."

For the Fourth of July, the entire family drove down to Richfield for the parade. Sarah slept through most of her first parade, but the boys got to see some cool cars, floats, a band, got some free candy and even got to pet some corn snakes and boa constrictors that were in the parade with members of the Minnesota Renaissance Fair.

Happy 230th birthday, America!