Asilomar is a great venue and here is the view from our house (which was designed by the woman who designed the Hearst Castle).
As some of you may know Brenda and I have a slight family connection. Our great great grandparents are ...well...the same. I know that this may be weird to a large number of people, but when you are dutch and live in a dutch community that is the way it is. We found this great family history album at the reunion that traces the De Jong heritage back to the 1400's and yes has the common link in there. This was up for bidding at the family auction held at the end of the reunion and I figured we had to have it.PS: we found in the book that the first husband of my great great grandmother on the De Jong side was her first cousin, so we are just carrying on the tradition.
Joke if you want, but we wanted to make sure the good looking and handsome De Jong traits would continue/increase in the next generation.
My brother showing his daughter the starfish.
My grandmother and her immediate family that could make it.
All of the cousins and second cousins (third cousins not present). I was glad that Brenda and I did not fit into the same family picture categories (cousins).
Joel (brother) Missy (his wife) and Brenda and I...and of course the lone cypress.
Grandma De Jong and Delaney (my niece).
The family auction which the proceeds go to the next reunion. We had over 130 people this time and are hoping for more in 2011.
Today we went to the aquarium and of course the kids loved it. We also had a great time.
18 comments:
First off, I never did comment on your last blog...The Fly Fishing Trip looked like an amazingly good time. Great pictures! I really am quite envyous.
As for this new blog, I think that it is pretty cool that your family gets together for a large family reunion. Mine used to do something similar, maybe they still do, but I haven't been to one is over ten years. I think it is good to celebrate one's family and heritage.
As for the book showing the the "common link". I think, if I were you, I would have bought it too. Then I might accidently tear out the page showing the Elenbaas/DeJong connection, and lose it for ever. I kid! I kid!! ;) I think anyone, who looks back at their family history, will find some things, or people they may not be too proud to share.
Well, that's it. Cheers!
Lemme see, what kind of kissing cousins joke can I come up with? Nah, I think they've all been said. I'm glad you bought the album, so now you can educate your children, and they will proudly tell everyone that mommy and daddy are cousins. :) By the way, I read Ben's comment back to him because I thought it sounded a little mean at the end...and he really didn't mean it to be mean.
Hey! Kim and I have the same great great grandparents too! Now I feel slightly less creepy. And I have good news when it comes to having children; our one child is 2.5 and appears to be completely free of genetic defects!
boer
Wow that looked like a really cool place, love the lone cypress! I'd love to have taken some shots of that.
So good to see pics of your parents too! I miss seeing your family in Fulton. It was so nice getting to see your dad when I was traveling for Trinity!
Wow! Looks like you guys had a great time at the ole family reunioun. Thank goodness you finally came clean with the whol "incest" business. If it's just out there then there can be no gossip, cuz you just joined right in. Hahaha!
Really looking forward to hanging out with you guys SOON!!!!
cara
That's right, Cara. Might as well tell the truth. It was a little strange being at John's family reunion and seeing old pictures of my father in the family album....alrighty then! I am glad my parents weren't invited or else they would have been more than happy to show up.
hope you have fun in the netherlands. Maybe you can find some other cousins. We have some very familiar names in our lineage.
Life is a wonderful God given adventure. Enjoy and share it and thank God for it.
Love
John's Mom
John, I think it is totally cool that you married your cousin. We live in a relativistic culture which claims that "what you do is your business and what I do is mine." I respect you for doing your own thing and subscribing to your own view of truth. As a matter of fact, you've inspired me to go find a few more wives to add to my already growing harem. Beautiful.
(I feel a little guilty for writing that right after your mom left such a nice comment John.)
Coast looked sweet...as always. We're heading out there again this weekend for some time with Mom and dad. Eric and Kara are coming up too! Should be fun.
I guess that tattoo you got when we were in Mammoth is fitting isn't it? Didn't it read, "If she ain't a cousin, she ain't nuthin'?" Brenda got quite a catch with you buddy.
Schenky, Thankfully the tattoo is in a place where no one can see it. Great, now even his mom knows! John will be glad that you said that I got a good catch by marrying him. 99% of people say it the other way around.
Missed you in Ripon. We'll see you again after the next babe is born.
I was amazed to stumble across you blog and see the bit about your family history book. I, too, am a de Jong with roots going back to the 1600s that we know of. I'd be interested in sharing some info, beginning with what part of Holland your family came from, though we probably want to go off-line to do that. We might find we're cousins...but I'm not the least bit interested in marriage, sorry.
I was also intrigued by your family reunion. I am from a family of 8 and though our parents are both gone we still get together at least every couple of years. It gets harder each time, so now most years it's just the "older generation" of siblings.
Schenky, Thankfully the tattoo is in a place where no one can see it. Great, now even his mom knows! John will be glad that you said that I got a good catch by marrying him. 99% of people say it the other way around. Missed you in Ripon. We'll see you again after the next babe is born.
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