Tuesday, June 26, 2007

It's Family Vacation Time!

There is a poor young man out there whose name is Dan. Dan has a nice grandma who sends him money and cute little bears for his birthday. She tucks the money inside a mug or in a card. But poor Dan never received the money because he didn't even open the card. He just threw it away.

Sad story, huh? Not for us! Each year, we come together with Michael's family for the annual Villa Family Vacation. It's a great time to see everyone (even if it is only once a year) and to catch up. The highlight for many is the "dumpster diving" auction. One of the family members works for a university and goes dumpster diving when the students move out. She finds all sorts of treasures that she later "auctions" off to us.

Some are scared at the sight of so many goodies....


And some just smile...


We had a great couple days up in Frazier Park, CA. Michael walked away with two new costumes. Why would anyone want to get rid of these?!?!? A couple years ago, Michael got a caveman skirt.


We got a toaster oven, canned foods, boxes of unused ziploc bags, rolls of aluminum foil, books, picture frames, etc. Anything and everything you can imagine under the sun. The items are auctioned off and we all bid with play money. It's great to spend paper dollars!

At the end of it all, this is what the room looked like...

These treasures have found their ways into our homes. They now sit in our pantries. On our shelves. In our closets. What fun!

And now, all we can do is look forward to next year...

Dan, don't throw any more money away!

3 comments:

kkm said...

Dan is not alone. mom sent my aunt a shirt from Nashville for her birthday. in the mailer envelope she tucked a birthday postcard with a gift card taped to it. my aunt was so happy when she saw the gift that she threw the envelope straight into the garbage without ever looking inside for the card. my uncle took the paper garbage to his bag yard "incinerator" soon after...

and one time heather threw away the brithday car with pictures that i had taped to the front of the box i sent her.

what is is with these people??!?!?! i am the one who always un-crumples the tissue paper in gift bags and inspects deep corners of envelopes to make sure i didn't miss anything!!

Anonymous said...

What fun memories! You guys crack me up. We should wear those costumes to the next freinds weddings we go to. JK
Kariss

Anonymous said...

How much fun!!! I like family reunion times, too!!! You guys sure know how to have fun and how to take memorable pictures!:) What a blessing to have such a neat big family!:)