Summer Fun: Hubby's Birthday & Family Reunion

Yesterday was a wonderful day. My favorite person in the whole world celebrated his 32nd year. We marked the occasion by getting spiffed up and taking pictures with his new iPhone camera in the front yard. I'm so happy with how lovely these pictures turned out. Beautiful memories.

I wore a lovely rose printed Lularoe Nicole dress that I had scored on Ebay. I adore it! Accessorized with a gold holographic Rebecca Minkoff clutch, Walmart sandals and a dainty bow necklace.

I even did very detailed matching nails for the occasion. Rose, scroll and polka dot nails. They were inspired by the beautiful print on the dress.

Colors used were SC Break Away, Essie Russian Roulette, NWP Jedha's Destruction and BP white stamping polish. Thumbs and index are nail stickers from Kiss. The dots and roses are hand painted.

Then we drove to sunny California's bay area, to a lush green park in a quaint little city to take part in a family reunion of my husband's father's side of the family. It quite an amazing event as my father-in-law has 11 brothers and sisters! The family is spread out across the country from California all the way to Chicago where the family grew up. A couple of the siblings have passed on and a few others were not able to make it, but half a dozen of the siblings were there, along with over 100 of their kids, grandkids, great grandkids and spouses.

I had actually never met any of that side of the family and my husband hadn't seen most of them in over a decade, but I couldn't have asked to be welcomed by a kinder group of people. I felt totally at home amongst the laughter and stories of this joyous bunch.

I think this incredible family is really a study of good hardworking people embracing their diversity and with all the tensions occurring in today's society it was a beautiful thing to witness. The patriarch of the family was African American and Cherokee Native American and the matriarch was Creole (French and African American.) They raised their 12 children to be wonderful people who went on to have partners of all different backgrounds including white, black and Asian. Beautiful to see so many skin tones and rich cultural heritages in one close knit family.

Here is all the cousins that were in attendance; it's hard to believe there are even quite a few more!

This is FIL and his sisters and brother.

Hubby's parents.

Hubby with his brother and uncle.

I was blessed to be welcomed as a part of this family and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Afterwards hubby and I went out for his birthday dinner and had some delicious Indian food, yum!

What a great day, rich with memories that will last a lifetime.