Meet My Big Fat Italian Family.

I’m not usually much of a weekend recap blogger, but I just had to share about my weekend because it was special. Really special.

My grandparents are two of the kindest, sweetest, most wonderful people I know and this Saturday, they celebrated 50 years of marriage.

FIFTY YEARS.

You wouldn’t guess it, but their life hasn’t been easy – their parents weren’t a fan of their relationship (Lutheran dad didn’t like the Catholic boyfriend), so they eloped. They struggled for years with infertility, but ended up with eight children. And dozens of grandchildren. And one great-grandson (Gabe!).

To celebrate their 50 years of marriage, they took us all to a lodge to spend the weekend. Crazily, there were exactly 50 of us. 50 family members after 50 years of marriage.

Yes. We are that family: we make matching t-shirts and wear them. Just wait, you guys, you’re only on the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the dorkiness of my family. (And I say that in a loving way – I fit right in.)

The three-hour drive to the lodge wasn’t fun because Gabe hates the car. I cannot wait until we can turn his seat around. Or possibly get a private jet and fly everywhere since he loved flying so much.

I spent the three hours playing dress-up in the backseat with Gabe. What? He liked it.

Once we arrived, the fun began! There was even a schedule for each day. How very Monica Gellar of us.

Dinner the first night was hot dogs, which meant my sister and I toasted ourselves some grilled cheese. I smashed some Doritos on mine to add a little flavor.

 All of my cousins loved Gabe, which was so fun to see them spending time with him and fawning over him (“He’s so cute he makes me want to cry!” my 10-year-old cousin gushed).

I especially love getting to see my teenage brother with Gabe. He’s never, ever been a baby or kid person, so it’s cute to see how much he actually likes Gabe. :)

The lodge was right on a lake, which meant the little boys wanted to fish (have I mentioned how many little boys are in my family? There are a lot.)

We also spent a lot of time at the pool. My shoulders are super freckly now!

This is my 4-year-old cousin who lives in California and I want to steal. HE IS SO CUTE.

I love doing puzzles (again: hi, I’m a dork), but I can never do them at home, since I feel like Gabe would destroy it in two seconds.

Gabe did so well sleeping at the lodge. Normally, he wakes up all night when we sleep in the same room as him, but for the first time ever he slept all night just feet from our bed! (Well, the first time aside from the first 6.5 months when he slept right next to me. Yeah, that.) Each night, we put Gabe to bed in our room and snuck out – using our cell phones as makeshift baby monitors. It was so perfect – we could still hang out with everyone and Gabe got to go to bed at his normal bedtime.

I think Mike’s favorite part of the trip was that we each got our own queen-sized bed. Yep, we slept separately because, why not take advantage of your own big hotel bed, right??

Saturday morning, everyone presented my grandparents with these flowers. On each flower, there was a memory from one of their family members. My aunts are way too thoughtful. Then we hiked to a lake – a lovely way to start our morning.

Saturday evening was crazy. It was basically a wedding reception without a wedding. Plus a skit. And karaoke.

My cousins all performed a skit about how my grandparents met. It was hilarious. And cute.

There was also a slide show of my grandparents’ entire lives.

There were lots of tears when my grandma and grandpa gave a speech about how we are their legacy and how proud they are of all us. After that was a delicious dinner and the cutting of the cake.

And then the karaoke-slash-dance-party began! Let’s just say my family isn’t shy. At all.

Singing Blondie. BLONDIE. Ha.

Dynamite by Taio Cruz was the most fun. 

My mom and her six (6!) sisters sang together – “Bad Bad Cookro Girls”

Teenaged boys probably whispering judgmentally about their dorky family.

I think the best part of the night was when my mom sang “Poker Face” with my sister and cousin and realized the lyrics said, “If it isn’t rough, it isn’t fun.” HAA.

It’s sort of weird to some people that I have so many small cousins – two of my cousins are the same age as Gabe – but I really love how our family has all the generations mixed together – my uncle is the same age as Mike. Plus, who doesn’t like having cute kids around?

Gabe was obsessed with looking out the window to the swimming pool below. He kept saying, “Watie.”

Mike thinks his outfit is too babyish. Psh, I say.

We also ate the best tiramisu in the history of tiramisu. I even took all the leftovers back to our room so we could eat it for breakfast with coffee. I’m drooling just remembering this amazingness.

This picture captures what it’s like to be in my family perfectly:

Working out in our dresses after the dinner-dancing shenanigans. Not because we are exercise freaks, but because it’s fun to use gym equipment. 

It was such a fun weekend that went by so quickly. I really am lucky to have such a fun immediate family and extended family. I really hit the jackpot with these people.

Also, a very happy belated Father’s Day to both my father and my son’s father. I could not have asked for better men in my life.