Hutton Family Reunion

The main reason we were in the Valparaiso, IN area was to attend the Hutton family reunion.  The Hutton line is my maternal side and for some reason the family never has had a reunion.  Part of that is there was a big age spread among my mother and her siblings.  Her two brothers moved away from home when they were in their 20s and didn't return that often.  Mom's older sister moved to Chicago and that left mom and her younger sister Betty as the only two children living in the hometown.  The other brother passed away at 29 after a long illness.  

The reunion was the idea of cousin Jim and he put together and planned the whole event.  It was held at his home since he has 15 acres and a very large home that held everyone with plenty of space to break into groups and chat.  He did a fantastic job of organizing and getting everything set up for the reunion.   

I hadn't seen a number of the cousins since 1952 and have only seen a couple others a few times over the years.  I really enjoyed chatting with them all and catching up on what's been going on in their lives over the years.  Just sorry it has taken this long to hold an event like this.

Jim had a bouncy play thing for the reunion and the younger children just about wore it out playing in it.  

Jim's daughter Melissa lives next door and he uses a golf cart to run back and forth to her house.  It came in really handy for the reunion with everyone taking a ride around his 15 acres.

We had a brief shower during the event and it didn't slow down anyone from riding the golf cart one bit.  

There was a photographer at the event taking photos along with everyone else doing the same thing.  I didn't take any since I was chatting the whole time we were there.  The photographer took a group photo of everyone, however I don't have a copy of it yet.  Gerry did manage to snap the photo below of my cousins, minus Suzzane who had gone for a walk.  The photographer had to leave and couldn't wait for her to return.

Back row: lr  Chuck, Edith, Tom, Jim & me.  Front: Pat and Dodie.  Chuck, Tom, Jim, Pat & Dodie are siblings and Edith is our cousin.

There are 17 cousins in the family on the Hutton side and 8 were present for the reunion.  4 have passed on and the others couldn't make it for the event.  We had cousins from Colorado, California, Illinois, South Dakota & Michigan at the reunion.

Later in the evening we had a large fireworks display in the backyard that rivaled a small town's fireworks.  It was a fitting end to the reunion and by that time everyone was worn out and ready to call it a day.  A great day at that.

Our daughter Cassie and family made the drive out from Maryland for the reunion and joined in with the festivities and had a great time also.  They stayed with us in the motor home and we were able to get in some quality visiting time.

We have a number of photos of the family but I don't like to show everyone in case they don't want to be out on the internet.  There were at least 80 people there and it would be difficult to include everyone in the blog.  

That was our long Saturday, how was yours?