Families are the Best

Families are the best. At our last family reunion, my cousin Bruce said, “I really enjoy your blogs, Jill, but I have a question. Are you ashamed of your family?” The question surprised me and I asked him why he asked me that. He replied, “Well, you never write about us in your blog.” Okay. Point made. I love my family. But Bruce is right. I have not written about our family reunions. And believe me, there is plenty of material. I promised Bruce that I would write about our reunions soon. So here I go.

My mom’s side of the family has had a family reunion every year since our kids were little. Prior to the start of the reunions, our family gatherings were mostly centered around celebrations with my maternal grandmother-her birthday, holidays, Mothers Day, etc. When she passed away, we wanted to make sure we continued to get together regularly. So we started having family reunions every year on Labor Day weekend. We aren’t a big family. My mom had one sister. Mom had three kids, and Aunt Carol had two boys. Most years, we have gone to Kentucky Lake. We usually get a group of cabins, or we get a block of hotel rooms, depending on where we go. I strongly suspect the places we visit are never the same after we leave.

When we were young kids, my cousins, Bruce and Kyle, were the fun ones. We got in more trouble during the few days when we were with Bruce and Kyle than we did all the days of the rest of the year combined.

From left to right-(1) my cousin, Bruce, (2) my cousin, Kyle, (3) my sister, Shelly, (4) me, (5) my brother, Ty.

I remember Mom and Aunt Carol, brave women that they are, taking us to the store when we were together. While they shopped, we kids entertained ourselves by playing hide and seek in the racks of clothes, and by climbing in the shopping carts, hanging on for dear life as we careened around the store with Bruce pushing the cart. One time, when we were visiting them, we were playing King of the Mountain with Kyle and his friends on a big dirt hill by their house. If anyone is unfamiliar with the rules of King of the Mountain, you try to climb up to the top of the hill while everyone else tries to pull you back down. It can get pretty rough, depending on who is playing. But I thought I was a tough girl. Well, I got pulled down and landed in some shrubbery on the side of the hill. Something sharp was in the shrubbery and whatever it was, it cut my back. Kyle took me back to his house, since blood was running down my back and soaking my clothes. I remember some discussion between my mom and my aunt as to whether or not I needed stitches as they were doctoring my cut. They decided I didn’t, and I still have the raised scar on my back. Maybe the stitches would have been a good idea. I remember another time when they were visiting our house. I walked downstairs to the playroom to find my doll, with a mustache drawn on her face and her hair cut so most of her scalp was showing. Kyle got in big trouble for that one. Good times.

I struggled with how to write this story. Since we have had so many years of reunions, it was difficult to decide what I should write and how I should write it. I decided to just try to write about some of my best memories of the reunions.

When we started having the reunions, all the cousins (my generation) were married and had children of our own. Our little family was growing. Between the five cousins, we had ten kids. The first few years, we met at Kentucky Lake. We stayed at Kentucky Dam Village.

This is quite the group.

My cousin, Kyle brought his boat. We spent the weekend water skiing, tubing, swimming, horseback riding, and enjoying our time together.

Aunt Carol and Mom look a little skeptical of Ally’s and my paddle boat skills. Aunt Carol is safely outfitted in her life jacket.

We sometimes rented a pontoon boat as well, for those who wanted a slower ride around the lake.

I love this picture. These are some of the favorite guys in my life-my husband, my dad, my two nephews, and my son.

Ryan was allowed to drive the boat for a while. Ryan looks thrilled. I’m not sure what else is going through his head, but by the look on his face, he has plans. My nephew, Trae, in the back, looks terrified. Probably justified.

Maybe I should mention here that my mom and my Aunt Carol have a fear of water. I’m not sure how much they enjoyed the water activities, but they never complained.

They definitely enjoyed the visiting and shopping.

My cousin, Bruce sometimes brought his jet ski as well. I can’t believe I trusted him to drive me around. History would make me believe he would flip me off the jet ski or something.

My sister and I went tubing together. One time. One time only. We were both on the same tube, hanging on to the handles. I thought Kyle was going kind of slow. Boring. But Shelly was still screaming every time we hit a bump. I gave the sign to Kyle to go faster, while yelling, “Go faster!” Shelly yelled, “Noooo!” and then yelled some words I can’t include in this story, if I want to keep it family friendly. Kyle went faster. A lot faster. There were times the only thing touching the tube were our hands holding the handles, the rest of our bodies airborne. It was great! Shelly didn’t ride the tube again. What a weenie. This may be a picture of me and Shelly on the tube. I’m not sure.

This is probably what I looked like after a great ride on the tube. Shelly was not in a picture taking mood after her ride on the tube.

There was a long concrete walkway that went downhill from the Kentucky Dam Village hotel. Ryan was introduced to skateboarding by my cousin’s sons. Bruce’s son, Collin, is the same age as Ryan. Kyle’s son, Blake, is one year older and his son, Brett is about six years older than Ryan. Ryan fell in love with skateboarding, and he continued to enjoy the activity for years. The boys spent hours zooming down that concrete hill, walking back up, and zooming down again.

Ryan had plenty of scrapes and bruises, but thankfully no broken bones. He saved that for his college skateboarding days-broken wrist, surgery, screw in his wrist.

The kids sometimes just created their own entertainment. I’m not sure what Collin and Blake are carrying. I don’t know where they got it or what they planned to do with it. They both look a little guilty.

In the earlier years, we always had a cookout during our reunion.

As we’ve gotten older, we have gotten lazier, and now we usually eat every dinner in a restaurant. But the cookouts were a lot of fun. We would decide before the reunion what everyone would bring. We arrived at the reunions with our multiple coolers full of food for our breakfasts and lunches, and our assigned items for the big cookout. One year, as my sister, Shelly, was coming down the stairs carrying one of her coolers, a raccoon ran past her. She screamed and dropped the cooler, spilling the contents and the ice all over the ground. Shelly was scared, but the poor raccoon was traumatized. We didn’t see the raccoon the rest of the weekend. Or any others, for that matter. I’m sure the raccoon went back to his friends and told them to stay away from that rowdy group at the hotel.

Those first several years, we always scheduled one night to eat at Patti’s 1880’s Settlement in Grand Rivers, Kentucky. We reserved a room at the restaurant so we could all sit together. We always had a wonderful time and a delicious dinner.

One year, our room had a small room attached. Of course, the kids had to check out the little room. There was a statue of a Native American lying in a bathtub in the room. What in the world? I’m not sure of the significance of that, but who am I to criticize someone’s decorating ideas? My house is not exactly interior design material. Collin and Ryan were very intrigued by this statue. They kept going into the room to check it out. When they were distracted, my brother-in-law, Aaron, quietly went into the room, took the wig off the statue, and put it on. The next time Collin and Ryan went into the room to check out the statue, Aaron was standing in the room with the wig on. Ryan and Collin were convinced the statue had come to life. They screamed and came running out of the room. They didn’t go back into the room the rest of the evening.

Was it really a good idea to let this group sit at a table together? Not sure. But they must have been on their best behavior, because I don’t remember any catastrophes from that night.

These are my parents. My dad passed away on August 29, 2006. We didn’t have our reunion that year. There have been a few other years that we have not been able to have the reunion. We missed out on two reunions during the whole COVID thing.

My Uncle Jack passed away in 2009.

We decided to try some other places for the family reunions after that. Going to Kentucky Dam Village just wasn’t the same without them.

We continued to go to Kentucky Lake for several of the reunions, but we stayed in different places. We started renting groups of cabins located in different parts of the lake. We also started trying other places rather than Kentucky Lake some of the years.

We went to Grafton, MO one year. We stayed in a resort. We swam in the pool, played games, and we went to a Cardinals Baseball Game. This is a picture of my son, Ryan and my nephew, Trae, hoping for a win.

My cousin, Kyle owns a vacation home at Greer’s Ferry Lake in Arkansas. He and his wife, Debbie, suggested that we have the family reunion at their place in 2015. We all piled in their home and in the small hotel down the road. We spent some time in the lake on Kyle’s boat, tubing and swimming. Some of us decided to hike the Sugarloaf Mountain Nature Trail, located on an island in the middle of the lake. Kyle dropped me, my sister Shelly, my Kyle’s wife Debbie, my daughter Sarah, and her boyfriend at the time, Brent, at the island. It was very hot that day. We set out to hike the trail. It wasn’t long before Sarah started complaining. She was not having a good time. Her face and her shirt says it all-“Whatever-I’m getting cheese fries.”

We all made it to the top of the trail, in spite of the heat and the complaining.

The view of the lake from the top was very pretty.

Another memory from that reunion… My adult daughter, Sarah and my mom taking tequila shots together. Excuse me, what? That was definitely a new experience. In their defense, they were being encouraged by my cousins. By encouraged, I mean my cousins were pouring the shots. I don’t think Mom and Sarah needed much more encouragement than that.

In 2016, we went to Giant City State Park in the Shawnee National Forest. We stayed in the cabins in Giant City State Park. This was handy for me, because we only live about twenty minutes or so from there. An extra appeal was that part of the movie “Gone Girl” had been filmed in some of these cabins and in the Giant City Lodge. If you are familiar with the movie, the character Amy (Rosamund Pike) stayed in one of these cabins when she was hiding out. The filming of this movie was very exciting for all of us. My mom lives in Cape Girardeau, which is where most of the movie was filmed. As a matter of fact, my mom’s house is in the movie. Nick’s (Ben Affleck) sister, Margo (Carrie Coon) lived in the house that was across the street from the back of my mom’s house. They filmed a scene in which Ben Affleck was running through my mom’s back yard. They also had electrical cords running through her yard, and they put a porta potty in my mom’s yard for weeks. They gave her a check for her troubles.

Mom became quite chummy with the “little fella” (that’s what Mom called him) who arranged all of this. They were on a first name basis. We all went to Mom’s one night to watch them film part of the movie. We felt very important. They had the roads blocked off, and we had to have special permission to drive in. Mom had arranged with the “little fella” for us to be able to drive in. We watched them film the scene in which they were arresting Margo. It was really interesting to watch. They filmed the scene over and over, sometimes moving the police car a few feet, sometimes changing the lighting just a little. It gave some insight to what all goes in to making a film.

While they were filming scenes near Mom’s house, Mom was instructed to keep lights on or off at certain times in certain rooms in her house. My Aunt Carol, who lives in Tennessee, came to visit Mom a few times during the filming. One night, while they were filming, Aunt Carol and Mom were watching from the window in Mom’s house. Aunt Carol was taking pictures. A few minutes later, Mom’s doorbell rang. Mom’s “little fella” was at the door. He informed Mom and Aunt Carol that the flashes from the camera and their faces in the window were interfering with the filming….

When I was watching the movie, I watched those scenes very closely to see if maybe I could see Mom’s and Aunt Carol’s faces peering out of the window.

We all went to the movie when it came out in Cape Girardeau. A red carpet and everything. Very exciting.

Anyway, back to the family reunion in Giant City. We went ziplining one day. There is a ziplining course near Giant City called Shawnee Bluff Canopy Tours. The course consists of eight ziplines, three suspension bridges, and three short hikes.

These are my adult children, waiting our turn to get ready to zipline.

Ally: I can do that. No problem. I’m a badass.

Ryan: I wonder if those clips are going to hold me on the line.

Sarah: I couldn’t care less about any of this.

We got our gear on and received our instructions for the day.

The view of the forest above the trees is beautiful. Or so I’ve heard. I didn’t really look down. I was always concentrating on the end point of each line, praying I would make it there without falling to my death in the forest. Thankfully, everyone made it out alive, and we had a great time.

We did some hiking in Giant City. They have some nice trails. I much prefer to rely on my own two feet rather than hanging from a cable in the air.

We ate at the Giant City Lodge one night. They have a family stye fried chicken dinner that is very popular, which is what we had. It is available every day the restaurant is open. On Friday nights, they have a fish fry, and on Thursday nights, they have a barbecue feast.

Giant City has an observation tower, for anyone willing to climb all of those steps. Of course, many of us were willing. So we spent some time up there, getting great pictures of the forest. I’m not sure my mom was comfortable at the top. Or maybe she was just gasping for air after climbing all of those stairs. Or maybe she’s asking if anyone has a glass of wine or a tequila shot. Who knows?

We drove over to Bald Knob Cross before everyone left to go home. Bald Knob Cross is a large, white cross located in Alto Pass, Illinois. It is 111 feet tall, and overlooks the Shawnee National Forest. A number of events are held there, including an Easter Sunrise Service and Blessings of the Bikes in May.

We went to Branson, MO in 2017. We stayed in some condos and did the whole Branson thing-amusement parks, restaurants, comedy show. Several of us decided to ride on some go-carts. My mom’s husband, Cletis, was wearing his hearing aids in each ear when he got into the cart. He was only wearing one of his hearing aids when he got off the cart. That ended up being about an $8000 go-cart ride for him.

We did some more years at Kentucky Lake, staying at various cabins in the area. Patti’s restaurant burned down in 2018, so we had to forego our usual dinner there. We were able to visit the shops at the settlement before the renovations of the restaurant were complete. Each year, there was an outside market that was located near Patti’s Settlement, so there was extra shopping included. Good news for my mom, my sister, my aunt, and my mom and Aunt Carol’s cousin, Pati. They love to shop. I just enjoyed spending time with everyone.

In November, 2019, the restaurant at Patti’s re-opened. In 2023, we decided to renew our tradition of eating at the restaurant. My sister tried to book a reservation and asked about our whole group being seated together like we had before. They told her it would cost $300 to book a room. None of that money went toward our food. It was just for the room. We passed. We just made reservations for our group and hoped for the best. They ended up seating us in three different rooms. We were very disappointed. This was not the experience we wanted. The food was still good, but the experience was not as fun since we were separated into three groups. Here we all are outside the restaurant.

The next year, we went to Kentucky Lake, but we decided to skip eating at Patti’s Restaurant.

Another night of that trip, we ate at a Mexican restaurant near the area where we were staying. Here are most of the cousins of my generation and their spouses.

My mom and Aunt Carol’s cousin, Pati, started attending the reunions several years ago. The cousins have always gotten along so well together.

We were faithful to our exercise routine. We got up in the morning and braved the hills around our cabins. We didn’t feel so guilty about the ice cream later that day.

Some of the group went shooting one day. Wait. Where is John Wayne? Clint Eastwood? Kevin Costner?

It’s amazing how fast time goes. I know people always say that, but it’s true. All of the cousins of my generation are now grandparents. Unfortunately, our grown kids are not always able to attend the reunions, but they come when they can. Greg and I were blessed with our grandson, Remy, in 2023. All of my adult children, Ally, Sarah, Ryan, Ryan’s wife Kelly, and their son, Remy were able to attend the reunion in 2024. Here is a picture of Greg and me, the proud grandparents, with Remy.

Remy looks a lot like Ryan did when he was younger. I hope Ryan and his wife, Kelly, have good running shoes. If he’s anything like Ryan was, they will need them.

We really changed up our reunion this past summer, 2025. We went to Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. We stayed at Santa’s Lodge. It was not quite the same as having a group of cabins, but it was convenient to the park and some restaurants. I feel sorry for anyone other than our group who had rooms on our floor. We’re not really a quiet bunch. Now that I think about it, I didn’t see anyone else on our floor. I wonder if Kentucky Lake called Santa Claus, Indiana.

Bruce was very excited to get his Bloody Mary supplies. Aunt Carol is trying to look nonchalant, but she was excited about the Bloody Mary supplies as well. I’m sure Mom and Pati are close by. Maybe Bruce should have bought more supplies.

Most of us went to the parks-Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari- one day. The kids had a great time, and it was nice as an adult to sort of act like a kid for a day. We rode the rides and enjoyed the water park. They have some old wooden roller coasters at Holiday World. After riding one of those, you KNOW you’ve been on a roller coaster. They are pretty rough. Shelly was a one and done sort of roller coaster person that day. She didn’t think her back could take another ride.

There was a restaurant across the street from the hotel. We had dinner there one night, and then another day, we went back for ice cream. We also had ice cream at the hotel… But we were at our family reunion. Calories don’t count when you’re at your family reunion, right?

Greg, Mom, Mom’s husband Cletis, Aunt Carol, and Pati opted out of going to Holiday World. Greg drove them all to the zoo that day instead. This group may look innocent. But looks can be deceiving.

Aunt Carol tried to make sure everyone was on their best behavior. It’s so hard being the older sister.

It was a tough job….

Of course, Mom is always the sweet, good girl. Right, Aunt Carol?

Greg loves our family reunions. He is very patient.

There was a brewery near our hotel, called The Santa Claus Brewing Company. We had dinner there one night. We pretty much took over the brewery. The other guests didn’t stay long.

We always have such a good time when our family gets together. Good byes are usually long, with lots of hugs, kisses, and waving. We always look forward to the next reunion, wedding, or birthday celebration when we can all spend some more time together.

Tips:

1. Patti’s 1880’s Settlement and Restaurant is up and running after the fire of 2018. There are gift shops, clothing shops, a liquor shop, and places to buy ice cream on the property. The food at the restaurant is delicious. But apparently, they are no longer as friendly toward bigger groups. Be ready to pay a lot to sit together. Their website is http://www.pattis1880s.com.
2. More information about the cabins and lodge at Giant City can be found at giantcitylodge.com.
3. Somebody needs to keep an eye on the women in the family as they get older. They start to get wild. Or maybe that’s just in my family.
4. Information about the Giant City Lodge restaurant can also be found at giantcitylodge.com. The fried chicken family dinner is available every day the restaurant is open. On Friday nights, they have a fish fry, and on Thursday nights, they have a barbecue feast. You can also order individually off the menu. They serve breakfast as well.
5. I can’t remember the names of all of the cabins where we have stayed at Kentucky Lake. Some websites include http://www.kentuckylake.com, http://www.kentuckylakerentals.com, and http://www.kylakecottages.com.
6. Information about the Shawnee Bluff Canopy Tours, including pricing, hours, directions, reservations, and tour information can be found at shawneezip.com.
7. Santa’s Lodge in Santa Claus, Indiana, is a reasonably priced hotel near Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari. Breakfast is included with the room, and they have a gift shop, and a small restaurant and ice cream in the hotel. More information can be found at http://www.santaslodge.com.
8. There are some really rough roller coasters at Holiday World. Take the warning signs seriously. If you have a bad back, don’t ride on these rides. But if your back is fine, they are really fun.
9. More information about the parks and tickets at Holiday World can be found at holidayworld.com.
10. Find more information about the Santa Claus Brewing Company at http://www.santaclausbeer.com. They are friendly and will accommodate large groups.