Our Fraedrich cousin reunion

Yesterday was an historic occasion.  For the first time ever, many Fraedrich cousins met together in Mesa at Amy and Cory's home.  Of Ed and Mabel's children we had:

Florin's - Jerri, Jim, Juli, and me

Edward's - Neil (we just missed Paul and Harriet couldn't come

Cleo - Kay and Jan (Jan lives in Georgia and flew out to visit Kay specifically at this reunion time)

Doran - Dave

Gladys - only one of her children are left and she lives in Wisconsin. 

Plus, we had two more distant cousins - one whose grandfather was Ed's oldest brother (Linda).  And another whose great-grandfather was brothers with our great-grandfather (Beverly).  

It was just wonderful to have everyone come.  I fixed pulled pork and Amy provided buns and everyone else brought side dishes.  Weather was lovely enough to eat out back on the covered patio.  Afterwards, we went to the family room to share photos and stories before everyone left.  

This is Steve with Linda and Rod Dale.  They live in Iowa during the summer and pull their 5th wheel to Yuma every winter.  I met Linda through FamilySearch.  She is not a member of our church.

Here is Juli speaking with Beverly Martin.  She and her husband Chuck live in Eager, Arizona.  Beverly was born a Fraedrich - and had contact throughout her whole life with her birth-mother's sister - but, at the age of two, she was adopted by an LDS family so she and her husband are members.  Chuck and Beverly were in the the Ivory Coast in the 90's where her husband was mission president.  

This is Dave with Neil.  The last time they ever saw each other was sometime back in the 60's.  Neil grew up in Phoenix but moved to Oregon as an adult.  He and his wife, Gloria, are now retired and this is their second year wintering in Arizona.  Dave grew up in Virginia and moved to Arizona in the early 90's.  Dave is just now recovering from throat cancer.  

Here are sisters Jan and Kay. They both grew up with their third sister, Betty, in Tucson.  Kay lives here in Sun City, Jan lives in Georgia and hadn't seen Kay in about 10 years.  Betty lives in Washington.   Kay has a son who lives in Kirksville and whom I met about seven years ago.

Here is Cory with twin granddaughters, Sophie and Eva 

Here is Atley, the twins' mom.

After returning to Anthem yesterday afternoon, Steve and I watched "Coco".   So, the whole day was all about remembering our ancestors.  Pretty cool.