Family Reunion

Family Reunion, Aguardiente Style

First Draft of the shirts

As most of you know by the fury of emails I have been sending off in the last week or two, I have come up with the idea of hosting a family reunion during the summer of 2012. I know that it seems rather far away and ridiculous to begin planning now, but hear me out. One reason is that Alex and Melina’s wedding is this Fall and I want it far enough away as to not interfere with their event or take away from it. Second and most importantly, I am in Nicaragua and will be until the Fall of 2011. Finally, it needs to be in the Summer to capitalize on the weather and vacation time so the most amount of people will be able to attend.

I already sent out a couple emails regarding this subject and I am sorry if I am repeating myself. Originally I was planning on having the party during one of the three day weekends, but the problem is that they are either too early or late in the summer, thus interfering with school. Pam proposed the idea of 4th of July weekend since her and Fernando will be flying back anyways from Germany. I think that is a great idea and that offers us either the weekend before or after. Right now I propose Friday, July 6th to Sunday July 8th. While this is a normal two day weekend we could still successfully stretch it to two nights. Friday will be a day to set-up with everyone arriving, going to the airport and preparing camp. Saturday will be the big day with the pig roast, field games, and my raging bonfire that can be seen from space. Sunday will sadly be clean-up and we will prep for future events.

I have also been busy coming up with different shirt ideas. I already sent out my first draft and let me know what you think. I also challenge any of you to make up your own shirt and submit it to me and we can have an election. While I clearly think mine is the best, I realize the limitations of my creativity and know many of you could come up with a much fancier design.

Finally, I need your help in choosing a venue. Some restraints to consider are: we are going to have alcohol, I want a huge bonfire, 70+ people, and pig roast. These qualities will already bar us from State Parks and most family campgrounds. We are going to need 10+ camp sites, I ideally want them together and the bonfire could require some special permits. Some ideas I had are: I know you can get special permits to camp on State land, if anyone knows friends who own a campground, or you know of an existing place to accommodate us. Let me know and consider this your homework for the next two years.

I am really excited about the potential of pulling this off. We have plenty of time and I hope that everyone can make it. I am already imagining a family picture incorporating all the generations from across the country. I want even the most remote family members to make an appearance. Even though it might seem far fetched, maybe we can even get a couple of the family members from Colombia to make it and really turn it into an authentic Restrepo party.

Get excited and give me any inputs you have on how we can make it even better.