Family Reunions

Next year seems to be the year of family reunions. Currently, we have two on the plans for next year.

My family, the Klasens, will be gathering in Michigan next year for a family reunion. The exact time is not yet established but it will be around the Fourth of July. The exact plan aren’t firm yet either. Part of the time everyone will stay at my sister Kelly’s house. We think the trip will include some side trips to Frankenmuth, where you can get some awesome fried chicken, and a couple of days in a beach house on Lake Huron. Hopefully, the plans will start firming up soon.

The kids are really excited to get to go to Michigan. Sean was there when he was a teeny tiny baby, but Savannah has never been there. In fact, despite having grown up in Michigan, I/we haven’t been back in about 10 years. July might be a rough time for us up there as its likely to be humid for us. The kids are looking forward to seeing the Brunk kids (Kelly’s kids) again, as its been several years since we have seen them and they all play really well together.

The other family reunion will be the Pechuls (Suzanne’s family) reunion. Next March, everyone will gather at some dude ranch type place (as Suzanne explains it) in the San Antonio region of Texas. Being that we live in ranching and horse country (not too mention wine) in Arizona, the dude ranch isn’t a special calling to us, but getting away to the country will be nice for the rest of her family. We are certainly looking forward to seeing her family as we all had a great time at the last reunion in Cloudcroft, NM. This trip will be over the Easter time period, so Easter Sunday we will likely attend an even greater, extended family reunion that is held every year not too far away from the ranch we will be staying at. I suspect there will also be a day trip to San Antonio one day and maybe taking the kids to the Alamo and visiting the River Walk. Hopefully, we will leave some days for rest and relaxation and not be always running around.

We have also been thinking about what cruise we wanted to take next year. Several have looked attractive to us. There is nice repositioning cruise from Ensenada, Mexico to Hawaii that appeals to us. There is also a repositioning cruise from San Diego to Ft Lauderdale that traverses the Panama Canal that has interest. And there is an Atlantic crossing repositioning cruise that looks good. You probably notice all of those have a bunch of days at sea, which are our favorite part of a cruise.

However, with two family reunions now planned, plus two trips for Showstopper dance competitions (one to Phoenix and one to Anaheim), a cruise next year is now looking doubtful. We will just have to play it by ear.