Hello, my lovelies! I know, it’s been a while…life threw a few curveballs my way so I’ve been doing all I can to handle those and get back to a regular routine. So here I am, let’s get started!
As you may have guessed from the title of this post, my mom’s side of the family did its reunion this year (we have one every other year). The short version of my family reunions is that once upon a time, there were three brothers. They started the tradition with their wives and kids of doing these reunions, and it continued to grow and expand as the family did. Traditionally, each night a different branch makes dinner, usually the same thing each time but the Frank Martinos (my branch) like to switch it up. We always sit around in a giant circle outside for hours talking and spending time together. It’s always great and I’m absolutely always exhausted by the amount of people (love them all dearly, but it’s a lot of “on” time for an introvert) This year we spent a week at Cowan Lake State Park in Ohio and had lots of bonding time (and food…and drinks). I wanted to share some of that with you guys, mostly to let you know that I am, in fact, still alive! Enjoy!
This set was from a few different trips to our favorite place in town: TinCap Cidery! We all tried several different ciders and beens, as well as some good food. My favorite cider is the one pictured twice: mango and hatch chili. Sweet with a nice kick at the end! It’s closely followed by the raspberry (also pictured) and the peach. One of the times we went was the whole group, the other was a smaller section of the herd. Not featured but highly important: this is a dog friendly establishment, and one of the owners has a handsome large poodle named Cappy, who is the employee of the month.These are from our day trip to King’s Island, a pretty cool theme park (that was doing a fun Grand Carnivale theme). It was only a small group of us that went, but we spent about half the day running around and living our best little theme park lives. Bonus thing: I got a beverage towards the end that was strawberry, lime, and Prosecco that came in a large souvenir cup that lights up in fun patterns at the base! Very refreshing after a long day in the sun.This collection is just random fun things that I caught pictures of. There’s some of my littlest cousins (all of whom are adorable and crazy), as well as my generation of cousins (missing two of them that weren’t able to be there) and the full Frank Martino branch (my grandpa). Our branch handmade gnocchi for our dinner of the week, which took a good portion of the day and was very fun! We made glowstick jewelry one night, had s’mores, and did so much other cool stuff that I did not get or only caught on video. In the central place of honor: my favorite cousin, Smokey! He belongs to the two lil bear boys.
These reunions are always a highlight of my summer when they come around, as wildly tired as I am when I get home…I’m still trying to catch up on sleep! It’s always crazy seeing how much the littles grow in between, how much food and drink we can possibly consume, and how much togetherness we can absorb in the span of a week. We all have our little spats and disagreements, but in the end we are family..and that comes before all the rest.
Adventures & Appetites 