Cooper Family Reunion

The Cooper Clan gathered at Lake Hiwassee near Murphy, NC, July 9th to July 16th. All the cousins were there except Jennifer and Jon. Chris brought his friend, Vee. Roger and Carol surprised us with special shirts made for the occasion. Each family unit rented a separate cabin and we floated around from one to another for a variety of communal meals and activities.

Fishing

Tubing

Swimming

River Rafting


The whole group.



















Our cabin had a killer driveway, but was conveniently near to its own private dock.




Our private dock with covered boat space.




The picnic table was on the path between the cabin and the dock.




Looking back up at the cabin from the path.









Laurie and Rudy hosted a ham dinner Saturday night and the cousins had their first chance to get together, remember who everyone was, and play games.
Standing: Jenny, Stephanie, and Stephen.
Sitting: Megan, Samantha, Sarah, Roger, Tom, Kelsie.









Chris and Vee.




A game of trivial pursuit, where there was only one team and the person with the right answer got to roll next.




Alan and Grandma retreated to the porch to get reacquainted. It was much quieter there.




Eventually more people found the porch.
Rudy, Carol, Alan, Roger, Dad, and Anne.




We did pizza rolls as a communal dinner and the cousins ended up playing more games.




Adults mostly ended up on the porch.
Clockwise: Mom, Glen, Beth, John, Jerry, Dad, Andrew.




Reading Harry Potter at bedtime. We're on Book 3 now.









Jerry's family: Hannah, Chris, Vee, Andrew, Jerry




A large group got up early enough to take a morning hike and see the dam.




Glen and Roger.




Kelsie.




While the rest of my family went rafting, I took the boys to the pool by the entrance. There was a beautiful little garden here, too, along with tennis courts, a playground, covered picnic tables, and the community office.









Just as we decided to leave the pool, it started raining again. We got a lot of rain, due to the remnants of Hurricane Dennis.




This fungus's color is so vivid.




You can't escape seeing trees on my album pages!




Jenny captured this tiny frog. We spotted a number of them hopping around.




These walking sticks were pretty busy.









The golfers.



















The dam that is responsible for Lake Hiwassee.




Uncle Roger and Aunt Carol hosted a barbeque pork night and the kids started a game of Risk, much to Roger's delight.




Roger and Tom finally finished the game a couple of days later.




The Florida Coopers' cabin.




Glen found some almost dry enough wood for a campfire.




Jenny and Glen teased it into starting.









Roger brought his guitar down and played for us.




We made smores, and don't dare try to take Alan's away!




We also dug out our leftover sparklers from the 4th of July.




Beth and John hosted tacos one night and dessert another night at their place. The kids were happy to try out the retro Atari-style games on the TV.




Once again, Glen ended up splitting wood for a fire. We were somewhat foiled this time, though, by a rain shower.




Jenny did manage to coax it into burning, but we weren't able to sit around it and enjoy it as much.




On our last evening together, Carol suggested we all bring our leftover food to their place and see what would get eaten. The kids started a grand Scrabble game with teams. Team 1 was Sam and Steven.




Team 2 was Megan and Lisa.




Team 3 was Kelsie and Hannah.




Team 4 was Vee, Chris, and Roger.




Roger and Andrew.




Tom amused himself and us by fishing for people with money as bait.




Meanwhile, Alan watched intently as Tom played a game.




Later, Chris very patiently allowed his hair to be adorned.




The magnificent result!




Alan had to cut some pink lanyard lace and decorate his own and Sarah's hair.




Roger and Tom essay a game of chess.




Roger gets silly with Kelsie and Tom.




Samantha, Kelsie, Tom.




Alan and his pal, Cousin Samantha.




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