Part 2- The Camacho Family Reunion...

And the day was here...Saturday, July 20th

 

After 6 months of planning meetings like this last one a few days before, the day had arrived for the 3rd Annual Camacho Family Reunion...in LA, and we were excited! We had our agenda planned, menus set, special water bottles and stickers made, we knew who was doing what and when, and it was time to wait for our guests to set things into motion. Last year's reunion had been in Ensenada, Mexico and it had landed on my brother's wedding date so we had not been able to attend. Jerry and I were in particularly excited for this experience as we had heard how great it had been to meet and spend the weekend with our extended family.   

The reunion was scheduled to start on Saturday at the park, but because we had families coming from the Tijuana and Ensenada areas, they had arranged to arrive on Friday night. So of course, what choice do we have but to start the party early by having
carne asada tacos at 11pm!!!
  It was a nice way to break the ice, meet, get the introductions out of the way, and I feel like that helped start the forging of this unexplainable familial feel that was only to get stronger over the next few days.

Each of our families had been assigned an out of town family to host at each of our homes for the weekend, and Jerry and I had made sure that his cousin Claudia and her family felt right at home. I married into the family so I had never met them before, and Jerry had very little recollection of them so we were a little anxious, but they turned out to be a super sweet family, and it was honestly very easy to feel like we had known them forever. Their 8 year old son, Carlos, obviously fit right in with our boys, and I loved that this situation made them find creative ways to communicate with each other as our boys only speak English and Carlos only spoke Spanish. Time for our boys to get a culture reality check! 

Saturday was here and it was time for the park!

We had a general agenda for the day, but at the same time it was meant to be casual and fun and a time for conversations and more bonding. All our events start out with a family prayer, and the one main theme that was truly scheduled for the whole weekend was for the Camacho family history to be spoken about by my Father In Law and his 2 sisters.  The purpose being that the 2nd and 3rd generations attending could hear all about our ancestors who have passed away in order to carry on those important family stories and legacies for the future generations to come. This reunion was also scheduled purposely to be held on July 20th in memory of the birthday of the  matriarch of the family, Abuelita Beatrice.

Unfortunately, because Jerry and I were scheduled to pick up lunch at that time, we were not able to stay and hear the first stories told, but when we got back the kids were having a volleyball game and everyone was ready to eat.  After lunch it was more talking, playing guitar,  and a fantastic game of volleyball for the adults. I decided to play after a while and had such a great time (and not a bad serve btw)!!! I'm not sure if my team won fair and square, BUT there was a heck of a lot of rallying, do overs, and LOTS of laughing and fun! 

A little family history is in order at this point...My Father-In-Law, Jorge, comes from a family of 14 brothers and sisters- 5 of which are still living, but only he and 2 of his sisters were able to attend this reunion. We were expecting another uncle from TJ, some cousins and aunt and her family from Texas, but sadly they were weren't able to make it.  So it was decided early on in the planning that each family branch according to first generation brother/sister and attending region would be assigned a specific color t-shirt to wear to easily distinguish them and to add some fun and color to the family pictures that came next...

The starting point- 

Jorge (my FIL), Tia Loli and Tia Betty

So

The Red Family- 

Cousin Claudia and Family (the family we hosted)

Cousin Pillo and Family

(son and daughter of Tio Guillermo, my FIL's brother)

Region- Tijuana, Mexico

The Blue Family-

Tia Loli and Tonio Franquiz and family 

Region- Duarte, CA

 The Yellow Family- 

Tia Betty and Rodolfo

with their sons and grandchildren

Region- Ensenada, Mexico

  

And the Green Family-

  Jorge and Gioconda's family

Region- Los Angeles, CA

And a picture of all the family branches together as one.

Again...I love being a part of such a big family!

The Time Line

 

After the park we headed back to my In-Laws house for coffee and pastries, more family history talks and conversation. Then each member of  the family was asked to fill in a time line with their  birthdays and wedding dates of those present and past just to see how we all fit into the Camacho family timeline from the early 1900's to the present.  
I think this idea turned out to be a very special moment for everyone. It was nice to stand back and just watch the conversations happen amongst everyone. Connections were made, common birth-dates realized, and we saw pockets in time where each of the generations were being born and raised next. It was truly an awesome way to connect everyone once again!

 The After Party - We traveled far... just next door to Jorge Luis and Adriana's house for the "after party" that was destined to be the highlight of the night for sure ;).

 Everybody was tired and spent from playing in the sun, but ready to let loose and that we did. Let's just say we had a really good time with our boys acting as DJ's, the kids dancing, and some of us grown ups (drinking age only) enjoying a game a beer pong and Flip cup. TOO much fun really, but there was no harm in being in a safe family environment, enjoying some good music, and a few drinks with the family. (Thank you Adriana for these collages...)

Some other special moments of the day for me...

Sunday,  July 21st -  Sunday's events were to be held at our house, so after we all set up, we left for Spanish mass at Our Lady of Grace. I had let the celebrating priest know ahead of time that our family was in from out of town so we were introduced as a group at the beginning of church and then we were given a special surprise blessing as the congregation put their hands over us at the end of mass..super nice! This meant a lot to all of us, but mostly to my FIL and his sisters as it understandably turned out to be a special highlight for them.



Then we finished off the event with a BBQ at our house, the last of the talks and few more family pictures...

 
There were many special moments at the end...tearful thank you's and heartfelt sentiments from many that spoke for how everyone was feeling. But most of all, I think there was a grand feeling of love and admiration for everyone in the room, and a true desire to do this more often. It was an undeniably special weekend that brought not only the whole Camacho family closer (near and far), but our immediate Camacho family as well.  As a family we had all worked really hard to make this happen for my FIL, but in the end we were the ones gifted with its complete success all the way around.

Thank you to the entire Camacho family for such an amazing weekend experience,

for giving me the honor to be a part of this reunion and a part of this beautiful family!!!

With lots of love,

XOXO

2 Reunions and a Baptism (part 1)...

Oh, there is soo much to catch up on!! I don't know where I got the idea that this summer wasn't going to be much fun for my family, but I was soo wrong!  This has been a month of some continuous weeks of many fun family affairs for us, and we have some great memories that I wanted to share, but it looks like like its going to be a three parter as the title of this post suggests.




July 13th- The Palacio Family 2nd Annual Reunion in San Diego, CA

We had 2 reunions back to back this month, and the Palacio Family reunion was the first one to enjoy.


We hadn't been back to San Diego since last year's reunion so this year we headed to down south a day before to spend some time at our Cousin Meño's house (which is like being home away from home), and we took advantage to visit our favorite pizza place in La Mesa- San Filippo's Pizza, just one of the best mom and pop pizzerias around. We just don't have one quite like these in the valley! Anyway, either we were really hungry or something because that pizza was delicious!

 The next day was the 2nd annual reunion back at the same great location as last year, Spanish Landing Park on the port of San Diego. It was a beautiful day, and its always a beautiful spot with a small beach for the kids to enjoy and a space big enough to hold this huge Palacio family for a day full of fun. Some one mentioned that it was almost 60 of us who showed up from my Mother In Laws side of the family, and yet there were plenty of family members that werent able to make it so we could have easily hit almost 90+ members if all had joined. I love that we are part of such a big family! 

Our cousin Claudia is the one who always puts this together and she always does a great job, but the rest is up to us.  We all bring food, side dishes and desserts to share...Always tons of food! There was a volleyball game played (San Diego vs. LA, and apparently there is a rematch in the works). The kids spend their entire time in the small beach and playing and getting along with their San Diego cousins, while we caught up with family we hadn't seen as well.



The whole point of these reunions is to make sure our kids get to know their family...their whole family,
from all sides, so when they get older they too will continue to get together and keep up the family traditions.  The more we do these the more everyone will be connected.


 




I loved seeing Christian and Jordan, the musicians in our immediate family meet and get to know their cousin Giovanna who sings (Cousin Fernie's daughter who goes to UC Merced). They spent time time collaborating and playing together. Soo cool!

Then its time to take the big Palacio family picture, which is a task in itself, but a fun one.

Then just the Palacio-Camacho family...

 

Then there's our little family...

And then Jerry and I...

It was a great 2nd annual Palacio reunion and a wonderful weekend in San Diego as always!

We love spending time down there and always enjoy relaxing and the non stop conversations and  eating of good food that Meño and Ana always serve up... Good times!

Thank you to Claudia and all our Palacio family for the wonderful memories 

and we can't wait for next year's reunion.
XOXO

That following Tuesday was our 19th Wedding Anniversary so SD was an added way to celebrate out there too, but it was a quiet 7/16 that included Menchi's with the boys, and a dinner on Thursday at PF Chang's since I had never been.

Happy 19 years together Baby!!

 I love you!

NEXT, the Camacho Family Reunion to follow...

Thanks for stopping by!

Something special about the beach...

As the boys and I hit the beach this week,
It gave me some time to realize that there is just something soo special about a trip to the sand...

Driving over Kanon Road and spotting the ocean and knowing your getting close
Finding the perfect station and spot and calling it yours
Finally sitting down and digging my feet into the damp sand...my favorite

Watching my boys enjoy every minute playing in the waves
Even with the sounds of the waves crashing there's a special quiet your mind achieves
There's time to read a good magazine or a book
There's time for a good conversation to be had (this time with myself ;)
Time to close your eyes for a few minutes
Time to soak in the sea breeze and the beautiful sunlight
Time to work on getting that year round tan?
Time to think about anything and everything
and yet life's issues tend to go away...at least for a little bit while you're there
You can't help but find yourself people watching and observing...Oh dear, can that be amusing!
And yet you're not there to do much anyway, but isn't that the point?

And although the beach is the best place and times to be truly shared with friends,
some alone time on this blessed ground is ok to be cherished as well.

Then the drive home down PCH is my favorite too!
Windows down, music UP....Katy Perry was the CD of choice this time- so good!
Hearing the boys talk about how much fun they had
Catching the sun going down just a bit over the horizon
and watching the ocean go by us and inviting us back again soon...real soon!


I love these overcast days myself, but our day at the beach this week was PERFECT!
 
From my corner to yours...may you find those perfect days at the beach this summer too!

XO

Project Life catch up..... Weeks 21 - 24

Hello!

I truly hope you are all having a wonderful summer and enjoying your time. This summer started off fairly slow and uneventful, but it was so nice that way. After the craziness of the year end, we needed a few weeks to take things slow.  We spent some time getting rooms organized which included purging/transferring/donating the outgrown wardrobes of 3 growing boys as well as old papers, toys and STUFF! We've also been planning some small (very small) but hopefully meaningful redecorating  items to our home which always helps us feel good about the space we're in. We also have a very special family reunion and a celebration coming up in a few weeks as we're going to host an out of town family member and a special luncheon so we're hoping these little fixes will go a long way for many reasons.

In the meantime, I am happy to say that I have actually been keeping up pretty well with my Project Life, so I'm here to catch you up on 4 of the last 6 weeks.

Week 21
 

 This week was a busy one as it led into Memorial Day Weekend so I made the "executive" decision that I would include the events of the whole weekend including Monday, but the pictures include some of the following events:

•  Lulu had one of her many playdates with Duchess our neighbor's dog
• Oklahoma's tornado happened and we watched and prayed, and I took a minute to be grateful
• My 5k training continued and I found a delightful reward in oatmeal pancakes
• I did a baby shoot of my dear friends baby boy Matthew with my new camera and got some great shots
• The boys earned a few more stripes on their white belts...way to go boys!
• Saturday, we visited friends from our college day, Cory and Debbie Rivera and their sweet family after a 2 years of not seeing them.  It was nice to reminisce and laugh about so many college stories and realize how some things never change. Thank you Cory and Deb!
• Memorial Day Monday included watching our nephew (Andrew) play baseball and then celebrate his and our other nephew (Jorgito) birthdays. Such a nice way to end the weekend.

Week 22- This week led into the 2nd week before school got out and the craziness began...

• Danny and Lulu, have a special relationship...true companionship! So I had to document that when I caught a special moment between a boy and his dog.

• There were many early days off this week for Mikey, so I spent a lot of time at the nearby Starbucks just to make things easier and lunch at In-N-Out was in order.

• Mikey had his student led conference, dress rehearsals and finished off the week with his Lion King performances for his school play.

• We celebrated Casandra's birthday on the weekend with dinner and dessert at Menchi's.

Of course I took plenty of pictures during Mikey's play so I had to find a way include them, so I turned to making multiple collages to help summarize the whole play. One collage of the sets, one of his performance as Mufasa, and one of his performace as Pumba. The one other thing I was really happy to add was a journal card that I asked Mikey to fill out. I had him write down his thoughts about how he felt doing his first play. He wasn't sure what to write but he did a nice job and it just makes me happy to see it recorded in his writing.



Week 23 and Week 24
Because these two weeks went by kind of quick and so much seemed to be happening that only a few things actually made it into pictures for both weeks. So once again, I made it easy on myself and I put 2 weeks on this 2 page spread. I designed the title cards with text on a 3x4 pictures and made them match and placed them exactly opposite each other to pull the look together.

Week 23- This was the last week of the school year. There were end of the year classroom parties to be had, volunteer baking for me, Chris performed with his band, school ended and Chris headed back to Upward Bound that weekend and we took the opportunity to take a family picture before he left.

Week 24-   This week we were on our own without Chris so Danny, Mikey and I spent a lot of time together, and spent some quality fun time with baby Katarina during the week. Jerry and Mikey had a special moment together that I caught as Mikey had been wanting to watch a basketball game with his dad and they got a chance to do so watching an early playoff game...so sweet! And then the week ended with Chris coming home for Fathers Day and a special picture with Jerry and his boys at church that evening. Another really nice weekend.



It was truly a special weekend as Chris and I also ran the  Culver City 5k for Autism early that Fathers Day morning. I wanted to make sure I got these in as part of the weekend, but there were too many pictures not to include so an 8x10 collage was the way to get them all in. I included a copy of my blog post regarding the 5k behind it so the insert held the one event all together.

And there you have it! 4 weeks updated in one blog post! YAY!!

Thankfully I've been keeping up with my pictures so it really is just about getting my blog post done..the bigger challenge in all of this. However, getting my pages done is my first priority as I am more and more committed to this project as it goes along.

I will be back soon with more updates and hopefully more sharing about our summer adventures.

I will be sharing on The Mom Creative so check that out too.

Thanks again for stopping by!


From my corner to yours...Happy Hump Day!