Monthly Archives: July 2010

One of the main attractions of the reunion is the annual golf tournament.  It is always a fun time for everyone involved.  Harvey’s of all ages play and any female golfers are also invited…. how kind of them.  Jenny and Michelle were the only gals that were involved this year.  If it weren’t so hot here in Texas, may be I would learn but I think that boat has sailed.  Austin (15 years old) was the youngest this year.  The picture above is Heath (Austin’s dad), Austin and Keith… taken just before leaving the hotel.  I told Keith I loved this picture because A. some of my favorite people are in it but B. because Keith had a cup of coffee in his hand.  If you know me, you know I LOVE coffee…. Keith just recently started drinking coffee.  I had documented his first sip of a coffee beverage at Christmas last year.  (yes, it is that big of a deal in our house…) After I told him why this picture made me smile so much he said, “Well, I hate to tell you but it was actually just water in the cup.” boo….  more on the Harvey Tournament later….

The kids…. with the exception of Randi and Mike.  🙂

L to R: Jaxon, Austin, Conner, Conner, Randi, Grayson with Mike, Emily, Lauren and Cade…. sweet cousins!! What a blessing!

The other highlight of the reunion is our annual dinner or brunch.  When I was younger this was the time when all the “brothers and sisters” (my grandfather was the oldest boy of 9 children) sat at a long head table with their spouses.  I remember being a little girl and going down the line giving them all hugs and kisses and taking pictures.  It has always been a great time of honoring our family.  Now, there are only a few “brothers and sisters” still alive.  It is always a treat to see them at the reunions.  The legacy of this special family meal still carries on though…. there are pictures of all the brothers and sisters and memories are always shared.  This year we had Aunt Bo, Aunt Gloria and Uncle Rowe.  We had a wonderful time of sharing funny memories, reading notes from family members, listening to our cousin Tom sing and they played “In this very room” in honor of the ones who have gone before us.  If anyone knows that famous baptist song…. you know it is a sentimental song.  Everyone was bowing their heads, some were crying thinking about our family, ….it was just a quiet moment during the dinner.  Right about 1/2 way through the song Cade busts out singing, “Hey Soul Sister….” Keith and I about died!!!!  We were beside ourselves that our little man just decided to join in on the song but was going to join in with a song he knew.  🙂  (and his favorite song at this time in his little life…)  I know if my Mimi and Papoo were there they would have loved it and thought it was so cute.  I was crying I was laughing so hard…trying to hold it in of course. 🙂  Thanks, Cade for lighting the mood!!

After the dinner, we had to have a t-off to determine who won the golf tournament.  Of course, the tee off was between Heath and Austin.  Somehow it is always between fathers and sons…. makes it much more interesting. 🙂  ….but I wonder how it’s always set up so perfectly. 🙂

Heath taking his shot

Austin taking his shot…

Family watching from the sidelines….

Winning the tee off!!

2010 winners: Matt, Austin, Emily (the ball girl) & Mike!

Cade preparing for next year’s golf tournament…

Doc Harvey’s Family

Aunt Bo (Harvey) Belcher’s Family

My camera’s flash was messing up so I missed the other families. 😦

Cade’s favorite part of the night was watching his cousin Tom sing and play the guitar.  He is so obsessed with music!!!  I think he could have sat there all night watching him.  He sat with Lauren and danced and clapped.  During one song (a Beetles song) everyone was waving their hands and Cade was waving away!  It was like his “perfect world” for 20 minutes.  Tom is so talented and we loved listening to him sing.

Cade listening to the music with Pops

Clapping along to the music…

Joe and Jaxon enjoying the music

After the dinner we all went to a dance/bar type place in downtown Grants Pass.  It was like something you would see in a movie that would be labeled “Dance Hall.”  It was so fun because we had a long table and family members of all ages were there…. from the age of 25 all the way up to my Great Aunt Gloria and Great Uncle Rowe.  They are in their 80’s and were the first one of the Harvey’s to be out on the dance floor.  I knew I got it from somewhere…. just never knew it was the Harvey in me. 🙂  Aunt G and Uncle R are a rare find…. they were so adorable dancing the night away.  Thanks for being such great examples of a loving married couple who keep things fun while staying young!!!  I just love my family!!!

ps…. there is still one more part of this 4 part post.  Good grief…. Harvey reunions are busy!

Unpacking a house and keeping up with a blog is a lot…. but I’m trying. 🙂  On with the show…

This picture cracks me up… we literally rolled out of bed (hence Cade’s attire…’footy pj’s’ with crocks) and crossed the river to go visit the park.  Keith is the only normal looking one in the picture but we had such a fun morning I wanted to document it. Thanks, Mom for taking picutres!!  Like I said in the previous post, the park across the street was ideal for a little 2 year old boy who loves tractors.  Not only did we frequent the park every day but on Saturday they had the “Froggy Festival” where they had a talking tree, balloons, face painting etc.  It was a fun little surprise…although there weren’t any frogs in sight!

Cousin Grayson and Cade at the “Froggy Festival”, Cade was so funny.  He gave his balloon back when we left the park.

Cade and Lauren

Cade quickly found a place in his heart for his cousin, Lauren.  It was a slow-go at first…. he took a little to warm up to her but once he was “warmed” he never stopped talking about her, asking where she was, saying, “I go see Lauren.” etc… He actually even was talking about her today.  He loves his sweet cousin, which makes me smile. 🙂  We were laughing at how the generations take care of the generations at our reunions.  I use to babysit and play with Lauren and her brothers when they were all little and now that Cade is the little one…. they all play with him.  It’s nice to have built in babysitters at our reunions. 🙂

Dad, Cade & Lauren on a vintage John Deere

The Talking Tree

Down the street from our hotel was some sort of motorcycle exhibit going on…. They had all these different motorcycles with bears on them and each one had a theme of some sort.  One was Yogi Bear, one was a pirate (kinda creepy looking), one was painted with the landscape of Grants Pass (my favorite)…. there were about 12 different ones.  Cade enjoyed looking at them and riding the motorcycle that had a great backdrop for pictures.  I hope he got his fair share in because that is the only time I want to see the little guy on a motorcycle.  It’s actually funny because when we pass them on the street, Cade will say, “No, no…. Mommy says No Motorcycles.” Good Boy, Cade… don’t forget that!

One more picture… there was a bear in front of our hotel so we had to get a picture on it!

On the boat with the family.

It is one of the most wonderful times of the year…. our family reunion.  We look forward to it every year!!  This year we left the blazing heat to head to Grants Pass, Oregon.  It was beautiful and cool!!!  …not to mention, it was absolutely gorgeous.  I remember it being pretty when I was there last time (when I was 15 years old) but now I think I really appreciate the beauty of the trees, mountains, water etc.  Here is a picture of the Rouge River.  There was a park on one side that Cade loved…It had an old John Deere Tractor and digger that he played on every day (pictures to come.)  The other side of the river was our hotel.  Isn’t it beautiful?!

I love it that we have our reunion every year.  I’ve said it before but it is one of our favorite times of the year.  …seeing cousins we only see once a year, catching up on each others lives, hanging out and just relaxing….it is always a great couple of days.  We have quite a few cousins that live in Grants Pass.  One of them owns the pharmacy downtown.  It is such a quaint downtown…exactly what you would picture.  We frequented the Grants Pass Pharmacy (at least once a day while we were there) and had wonderful sandwiches and shakes.  My sweet cousin Emily made the best shakes!!

Cade’s enjoying his PB and Honey… his favorite meal.

…and Keith about to enjoy his sundae.  It was tasty!

One day about 18 of us went wine tasting.  The wineries we went to were in the Applegate area.  I don’t know anything about Oregon wine so I don’t know what this area is “known for”.  We visited Troon Winery, Schmidt Family Winery and we can’t remember the other one …. Schmidt was fantastic and they had a great Syrah.  (putting this so we will remember later in life. 🙂 ) We had a wonderful time just hanging out with our cousins and catching up!

Joe, Heath and Keith

The Sheps (26 weeks pregnant)

Heath & Debbie

Megan, Jamie, Debbie & Andy

Harvey Cousins at Schmidt Family Winery

Russell telling us a story, a trait he got from Uncle Doc. 🙂

Megan and I (notice the clothes…the weather was AWESOME!)

Michael & Debbie

Megan & Joe

We’ve had a wonderful summer!!  Cade has been so much fun to play with and just be with this summer…. of course we loved playing with him last summer and the one before but now he plays back and comes up with his own games, songs, etc.  He has such a little imagination and makes us laugh everyday.  He LOVES to play the guitar.  Lately he’s been playing the guitar and singing a song while dancing around.  He’s made up a few of his own melodies.  My top 2 favorite ones are, “Everybody gonna be ok. Everybody gonna be ok.”  (it just repeats from there….)  I think he might have gotten it from the Ingrid M. song “I just want to be OK.”  …..but I’m not sure because we probably haven’t listed to that song in about 6 months.  The other top hit he sings is to the tune of Bob the Builder.  (You’ll recognize it in a second)…. he sings, “Cade and Jack Henwie (Henry) can we fits (fix) it.  Cade and Jack Henwie, yes we can!”  We just love it!!!  Jack Henry has picked up on the tunes too and he goes around singing them as well.  Little musicians, I tell you…. they are CUTE!

Cade also says the funniest things.  One of the funniest he’s just been saying the last few weeks is (and he’ll kill me later for saying this…) “My toot’s stuck.”  I can’t tell if it means he’s trying to poop and it won’t come out or if he’s about to poop… or may be that he just has gas and it isn’t coming out.  None the less, it’s FUNNY!!!  The mind of a 2 and 9 month old cracks me up!!!

Last week we were talking about Baby Graham and I told him that he’d have to share his beloved airplane with his baby brother someday.  I was telling him what a great big brother he was going to be and how lucky Graham was to have such a wonderful big bro.  I said, “Cade, are you going to share your airplane with him?”  He quickly replied with a no…. so I said, “Well, at first he won’t want to play with it but as he gets older he will and you’ll have to share your toys with him.”  He was really listening so I proceeded to say, “Graham will just cry, eat and sleep in the beginning.  He won’t do much else because he’ll be a baby and that’s all they know to do.”  Cade looked at me real intently and said, “Baby Graham gonna cry. His sad ’cause I won’t share my airpwane?”  Sweet guy….. he’s got such a sensitive heart sometimes.  I was glad to know he was listening to me and actually trying to process what I was saying.

Since I’m chatty today…I guess I’ll note why we are naming Graham, Graham. 🙂  Keith and I couldn’t decide between Graham and Sutton.  Everyday we would say is it going to be Graham or Sutton?  We would ask Cade almost daily what he preferred, which was mainly Sutton but I just think because it might be more fun (or easy) to say.  One day we just decided on Graham.  It doesn’t mean anything deep…. I actually just think it means, “From the field.”  His middle name will be Harvey… after my family.  We have wanted to use either Harvey or Doc as a middle name.  Doc was one of my great uncles who was a precious precious Godly man.  Doc just didn’t go with Graham like Harvey did so we decided on Harvey. 🙂 I’m excited to meet the little man in 10 weeks.

Finley, 10 1/2 months; JH, 2 years 10 months

Playing their “Band” in Travis’ shoes.

Cade has been taking swim classes.  He is so willing to go and I thought he was loving it.  He talks about it all the time… and then one day when I picked him up (day 4 may be) the teacher came and asked me if he had ever had a bad experience in the water.  She said he was so scared to float on his back but would always do it because he wanted to please her.  Sweet boy… it has been a slower process for him but by the end of the 2 week session he was doing so great!!  He even dove down to the second step to get a rock. 🙂 I was so proud of the little guy.  One of the things that made me laugh so hard when I went to get him the first day was that all the kids came out with their towels around their neck like they are 18 years old or something (of course the day I brought my camera they didn’t have them around their neck)…but it was still precious!!  I had to get pictures. 🙂

Swim Class Show Day

We are so proud of you, Cade!!