Johnson Family Picnic

My Grandma Johnson chose to not have a family gathering at Christmas last year. Instead a summer picnic was scheduled for Saturday, August 1st. When my Grandpa Johnson passed away in January 2008, his obituary listed 12 children, 48 grandchildren (2 deceased) and 32 great-grandchildren. It will be an amazing number of great-grandchildren when all is said and done. My youngest 1st cousin will be in the second grade this year. The picnic was well attended. I roughly calculated 95 family members present. I think around 22 were not there. Everyone seemed to have a great time. One of my aunts prepared some games for adults and kids alike.

Shelby with my cousin Payton playing egg toss









Shelby, Noah & Aunt Ashley participating in the flour bags fight










Morgan playing water balloon toss with Noah











Shelby playing fill the water bottle on the forehead










Pass the sponge game










Shelby sitting out a game










Pinata Beating

Both girls loved riding

I asked for a picture and this is what I got

My oldest brother Jeremy and his wife Sarah are going to adopt a 4 1/2 year old boy named Micah from Ethiopia. They will be going to get him around mid September. We had a small shower for them during the picnic.

Probably the most memorable part of the picnic for me was watching my uncle Tom chase my 2 young cousins Colton and Payton. Because Colton is kind of a trouble maker, we all assumed they dumped something down Tom's back while he was relaxing in the lawn chair. As we were watching Jeremy and Sarah open their gifts, the chase was on. Later we found out that Tom asked Payton for a kiss and she said he had to catch her first. This was funny to me because when I was a kid I was close to one of Tom's daughter's Terra. Whenever we asked if we could do something together the answer from Tom was always, "Only if Sarah gives me a kiss." Since Tom has always had a full beard and a somewhat scary personality, I was tortured as a child by uncle Tom and his kisses!