All right friends….if you have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know that this post is a LONG one! Every year, we get together with Theo’s side of the family….which is literally no small feat.
Theo’s parents have 7 children- all boys. 5 of those 7 are married, and all 5 married couples have an abundance of children. In fact, with just 4 children, we are tied for the smallest family! There is 8 kids, 6 kids, 5 kids, 4 kids and 4 kids in each of the families. If you are doing really quick math, the total is 41. We now have FORTY ONE people when we get together with Theo’s immediate family. This year, there was 39 people all together- the two oldest cousins stayed home because they have big boy jobs and not a lot of travel time/money.
Just for information sake: there are 27 cousins, who range in age from 20 down to 6 weeks old. Only two have graduated from high school, and we have a rising senior and a rising junior. All of the rest of the 23 kids are under 14! Yes, it can be quite chaotic- but the memories that the kids have of playing with their cousins are just so special.
We drove up to Northern Michigan on Wednesday, arriving around 2pm after our 6ish hour drive. As we were driving up, I looked up and the smoke was SO THICK from the Canadian wildfires. It was slightly unnerving to be driving into that, and to know that air quality was so low (or high, rather, as it’s measured!). Unfortunately, it only got worse and we didn’t have many options for escaping it.
Upon arrival, the kids and Theo were almost immediately on the boat, and I sat down to catch the Argentina-England game, while snuggling my newest baby nephew- 6 weeks old! He has entered the Hines family through adoption and the paperwork hasn’t quite been finalized yet, so no official face pictures or name announcements yet!
From then on, my pictures start to dissolve into one another. I have no idea what day we did each activity so bear with me if the kids are wearing different clothes or the timeline makes no sense haha.
After a taco dinner, Grandpa brought out his Treasure Chest- he collects all kinds of little “treasures” and each day that the kids are with Grandpa, they get to pick a treasure from the box. The parents don’t love all the bits an bobbles and tchkokes that come home, but the kids LOVE this and it would never be a Hines family reunion without it!
After dinner there was a golf cart ride and then somehow Ezra ended up crashing a bike and getting some pretty wicked road rash- but not to fear! There are multiple doctors and nurses in the family, most who travel with their own medical kit.
Two of the families stayed at Grandpa and Grandma’s cabin, while Grandpa and Grandma slept in their RV in the driveway. The other three families- 3 couples and 18 children- slept in a four bedroom Airbnb across the lake. After dinner, treasure box and the golf cart ride/bike crash, we headed over to try to get a comfy bed and put 16 kids to bed in one room. Hahahaha.
After a terrible night of sleep- the kids woke up at 6am- it was back to the lakeside cabin for the day! The ladies loaded up and headed out on our annual coffee shop + thrifting + lunch date. It was quite hilarious because when we walked into the thrift store, there was another customer who could not make sense of us. 1 grandmother, 5 grown women, 4 teen girls, and 3 itty bitty babies. Finally, the lady goes “are they triplets?!?”. We all laughed- nope, just cousins!
Meanwhile, back at the cabin, the Dads have everything under control with boat rides, golf cart rides, a trip to the park for kickball…
When we got back from our outing, I rested for a bit and then decided to go for a run. When I’m around a lot of people and don’t have my space, I start to go a little stir crazy. Unfortunately, the air quality was terrible and running in it was probably a bad idea! But at point, it was either my mental health or my physical health- and going for a run was so good for my mental health!
Check out these photos I took- this photos does not have a filter- the smoke was so thick!
The afternoon was spent doing more of the same- games, activities, dinner, treasure box- you know the drill!
We headed back to the Airbnb and got the kids settled down for bed, and got a good nights sleep!
The next morning- Friday- was family picture day. Everyone gathered for family pictures and we told Ethan and Kindrea that their family had to go first. That is because their oldest- one of the cousins who stayed home to work- had actually driven almost all night to come and surprise us all! He hid behind the shed and when we started to take their family picture, he popped out and joined the picture! They still didn’t know until we were all counting- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8….yep, all 8 kids are here! They kept saying, no just 7…we don’t have Kyrin. And then he goes “yes, you do!” It was priceless and so sweet!
After we got the surprise out of the way, we resumed taking alllll the combinations of family pictures. Individual families, the brothers, the sisters, all the cousins- you get the picture.
From left to right-
Picture 1: Dad and Mom with their 7 sons
Picture 2: All 7 boys (age order in that photo- 2, 3, 5, 7, 1, 4, 6)
Picture 3: the whole family
Picture 4: sisters (by marriage!), friends by choice
Picture 5: our family
Picture 6: all the cousins in age order (except the oldest 3 pictured are holding the youngest 3, and we are missing the oldest cousin) Tera is cousin #7, Kiah is cousin #11, Ezra is cousin #15, and Orion is cousin #21
Some candids during photo time:
Seth (who has Down syndrome) greeting Ori, our matriarch, and two teens boys holding their baby siblings
Phew, after picture time we were all hungry and so we loaded up and headed out to a Chinese buffet for lunch! You gotta wonder what they think when they see us coming, but we sure do bring a lot of business their way!
Sometime on that day, the kids went and shot off rockets with their Uncle Aaron. And at some point, the park was visited. I didn’t go on either of these excursions so I don’t have many details to add.
We watched the Saturday World Cup game France vs. England, which was an amazing game!!! So glad we got to watch that!
There were also many, many rounds of Qwixx and Skull King (dice/card games) played. We also did a family trivia Kahoot game which was a lot of fun and a lot of laughs!
Friday night we were all feeling extra tired, but had a good nights sleep. I’m not going to lie- I have no idea what we did on Saturday. By that point in the reunion, everyone is EXHAUSTED and losing steam fast haha. I went for a walk and enjoyed the clearer air.
By Saturday evening, we eat our last meal together and then start collecting all of our stuff that has been strewn from one end of the lake all the way up to the driveway. We debated leaving late that night to drive back, but ultimately decided to get a good night’s sleep and then leave around 6am Sunday morning. We needed to get back home in time to host a World Cup watch party haha!
And that is a wrap on the Hines Reunion 2026! Fun was had by all, and we leave with a lot of memories. It does take me about a full week to recover, but as we reflect on our parents getting older and the cousins starting to grow up and have their own jobs/spouses/kids, I know that this probably won’t be forever and it’s important to prioritize it while it’s here.
As always, I’m happy to answer any questions about big family reunions and so happy to hear from you when you read and drop a comment on my posts!