My Big Big Loud American Family Part One.

We're not greek or italian but we are huge. I mean there's a lot of us not that we weigh a lot. Though, like the greek and italians we do love to eat and make huge inordinate amounts of food for all of our gatherings (I call it the "Alice Curse" a need to feed every one and make way more food then necessary).  Let me start at the beginning. My Grandparents Alice and Vern Kempton got married and decided they wanted a big family so they had six kids, three girls and three boys and boy oh boy did they end up with a BIG family.  They have sixteen grandkids and eight natural great grandkids plus a lot of cute married in great grandkids. We like to cut up, eat, laugh and generally be pretty loud.

My mom and dad work for my uncle on his pre-civil war horse farm/Bed and Breakfast in Maryland. My sister works there along with whatever cousin is going through a needs-a-job or finding-themselves type of phase. Mom and Dad have also been married for thirty years and decided to renew their vows out under the Maryland sun so every one in the family was invited to make the trek from Michigan to Maryland and celebrate their love.  So it became a sort of weeks long family reunion.

I hadn't been involved in any of the larger-than-life family gatherings since the flue Christmas of 2006.  I see them to be sure not just all at once and for days in a row, I mean it's pretty hard to coordinate 40 some schedules so you just see who you see when you see them... Did any of that make sense?  I wasn't sure how it would go. The noise, the little children under foot. I'm in the older tier of cousins and wasn't sure what it would be like to interact with now grown younger cousins; who have they turned out to be? Face Book is great but it's not the same as actual face to face.

Turns out it was super fun and crazy and loud and full of food and silly and fun. Just like the old days when we were kids except I didn't end up as dirty and no one told me when to go do bed.  I have so much to say and I want you all to know how cool my family is so it's going to have to be a series because well there's a lot of us plus my camera wasn't working so I got no photos I'm hoping to round some up.

This is the summer kitchen and that little creek runs right through the building.
It's spring fed so it's always the same cool temp and they would use
it like a refrigerator. 

Let me finish this introduction with a description of the farm and how beautiful it is. There is an old awesome house that is the Bed and Breakfast (Stoney Creek Farm) and it was filled to the brim with relatives by the end of the week. My mom and dad live on the property in a smaller but very quant home (it was filled with me and my family and a few others) There is a ton of rolling hills and green lawns One of which had a Big tent filled with relatives, and a small free standing office which was also filled with relatives. My sister's home in West Virginia was filled by the end of the week as well.  There are horses and barn cats and lots and lots of dogs. There is a spring fed creek that actually runs through an old summer kitchen and out the other side. There are ponds and the Antitem river right there.  It's lovely and green and the best place in the world for a two year old and four year old to get dirty pet dirty animals see bunnies and turtles and get some well needed sun after our Michigan winter.