The BIG Family Picnic

Johanna and cousin Luis, they represent the youngest and the oldest cousin in the family.

Everyone getting situated on the bus.

Tug-of-War: I think we won becasue we had a good coach, Cousin Luis in the grey sweats.

That is Johanna in the hat with her partner Gisella competing along side of Pamela and her partner Andrea.

The men are gearing up for an exciting match of "Who can walk with the egg on the spoon the fastest without it falling off" better know as the "Egg Race."

The intense soccer match. That is Johanna's dad sporting #6.

The face of an enthusiastic, goal scoring soccer player.

Johanna and cousin Renzo showing off a little for the camera.

The Family. I count 52 in the picture and I am told that is only about half. A pretty incredible sight.

Sunday we had a family picnic that Johanna and a couple of her cousins have been planning for the past month. When they started to plan the get together there were about 5-10 people that were going to be attending and the final count was around 60 people. Now they were not all family members (yet) because there were two boyfriends there but everyone else was family. Since there were so many people we ended up meeting at Sonia and Juan’s house at 7:30am and we piled on a full size bus which fit almost everyone and the few extras drove their own cars and met us there. Johanna’s cousin Marcos’ attendance was a big surprise because he was transferred out of town for work. He is a national police officer and was sent to a city involved with a group of local terrorist and he is not supposed to come back to Lima for 2 more months. But he heard about the get together and snuck away for a few days, I hope he does not get in trouble. When we arrived the games began. We played tug-of-war, three legged race, wheel barrow, volleyball and many other fun activities. The next big event was the futbol (soccer) game amongst the men. They asked me to play but I politely declined because my last time on the field was when I was 10 years old and cousin Renato said they were all very good and competitive, so I just sat back and watched. As you can see they are pretty serious because they even purchased team jerseys for the competition. They actually use to play every Tuesday and that is where they first got the jerseys but since they are unable to play there weekly game anymore they were more than happy to get out the old uniforms. After the big game the girls and kids played and Johanna’s team lost 2-1 but she did score the only goal for their team and her father and I were very proud. As you can see in the picture she was so happy she stopped and posed in the middle of the field for a photo. After all of the fun games we all ate parrillada (food cooked on the grill) and finished the day with some? Anyone…anyone? That's right DANCING! Everyone took part and we were all having a great time when the dreaded clock struck 6pm and it was time to go. Everyone slowly packed up and we headed home. What an awesome day.