Ankeny Family Reunion

This past weekend about 90 members of the Ankeny Family got together at Tilikim Center for Retreats in Newberg. My two cousins, my sister and I had been planning this family reunion for the past six months. We had a lot of fun conferencing about this reunion via phone and email. And we pulled it off. We all had a lot of fun. Family members from a year and a half to 80+ were in attendance. The reunion was purposely planned to have plenty of free time a long with bits of scheduled activities to bring everyone altogether.

We played an Ankeny Family Bingo game that was the first night's mixer. It was great because we found out a few things about each other that we didn't know. Then the next night we had our talent night. It ranged from the 16 month old attempting to play his piano piece to a french horn solo, saxophone solo, a poem recitation, a trio singing a song and "MR. Magic". We had a great night. There was a lot of talking, laughing, crying, eating, hanging out, playing games and just being together. Probably the best part was our worship time on Sunday morning where family members shared how God is working in their lives. We prayed for a cousin who is dealing with cancer, young adults spreading their wings, people who have been ill and general health and safety of our families. God is good!