we interrupt this program.....

i have been off the blogging wheels for a few days to spend some fun times with my dad's family in johnstown, pa. i will get back to the africa blogging soon :)

we all stayed up in somerset, pa, and had a blast to say the least. it is small town america up there, and i quite enjoyed it! we had family come from all over (detroit, MD, VA, PA, montana). this is my dad's father's side of the family-his siblings and their children. so it was quite exciting. we had almost 100 people come, 45 of whom were my family (granddad's kids and their kids). and then there's my filipino side, but that's a whole nother blog entry. i LOVE my huge family. every single one of them. it makes my heart sing to spend time with them!

we all stayed at the holiday inn (kids eat free, hollllaaa!). they have a "lounge" on the first floor. the first night there, the dj (dennis) played everything from bon jovi to toby keith to pussycat dolls to whoever. it didn't always get my head bobbin, that's for sure, but we just had a blast chilling with the family.

on saturday, the guys and a few of the ladies went to play golf. me alone with my kids in a tiny hotel room is a recipe for disaster, but thank God the weather cleared up, so we headed down to the pool. and thank God for kiddie pools. my poor baby sister michelle was just diagnosed with colitis a couple days before hand and was on a liquid only diet and on medication. her life was miserable, i just felt so awful she was in so much pain. my dad's vertigo also returned heavily the night before we left to head up to PA. it wasn't the most fun physical time for them. but the kids were all able to play with eachother and keep entertained!

saturday night we headed down to the lounge again since there is nothing else to do. there was a live band to play. we all predicted it would be a nickelback cover band, or maybe 3 doors down and were dreading it. but to our pleasant surprise, it was a male and female duo. shirley was on the acoustic, he was on an electric guitar, taking turns leading different songs. they were quite talented!

during their intermission, i opened my big mouth and told them they should have my brother in law justin come up there and do a song while they take a break :) well after their next set started, they called him up and he did a few songs! it was fun! i even got to go up there and sing "seminole town" with him, one of the songs i did back up for on his cd (which, by the way, there are more copies available- lemme know if you want one!). everyone was shaking maracas/tambourine. we had a blast!!!! oh and to paint a picture, the lounge was full of our family and maybe 10 other people. lots of action! haha. but we did have a guy from CVS ask for our info, because he knows somebody..... so i'll let you know what happens. hahahahaha. some of us tried to find somewhere else to go, but no luck. the only thing i got to do was fall down on my hiney down a steep wet hill. glad no one had their cameras out.

sunday was the big reunion day in johnstown. we grilled out for lunch and had a dinner catered. it is so pretty there with lots of area for the kids to roam, volleyball court, etc. it was a nice, chill time to hang out with those we haven't seen in 5 years. i was a little rusty in volleyball which made me so mad. but it was still fun! here are some pics of some of the people....
there is my granddad in the middle and his 4 kids and spouses, 18 grandkids + 6 spouses, 10 great grandkids. out of the 93 people at the reunion, 45 were from our family! 2 are not pictured.
here is one of my fave distant cousins, damian with barb! i had to give him a shout out since he reads my blog while bored at work :)
me and the sisters, poor shelley was so sick!!

so on our final night we decided to go down to the lounge again because it was karaoke night!!!! holllaaaa!!!! our entire family was down there (not the kids of course) including my granddad. jules and sully got us started with their awesome skills! so the pressure was on to sing a song.... i ended up doing faith hill's "breathe" because my family likes it. i forgot just how LOW those verses are-wow! but with the help of monica on the harmony, i made it through.

let me paint a picture. lounge is somewhat fuller with regulars who like to karaoke. the "dj" is wearing a headset, and would walk around singing during breaks. he was garth brooks alright. i first noticed this when my sisters and i were sitting in the back corner and i noticed a man looking over at us, standing there...but wait, is he SINGING to us??? he sure was.... my fave was at the end of the night when he closed out the evening while sitting on the fire place singing to us all. oh good times. they played some music for us to dance to. i think i did the cha cha slide 8 times this weekend.

at the lounge:my cousins jules, jessica, sarah, josh, and jonny.
mom, dad, and aunt vicki (dad's baby sister)

well the night was still young, so some of us hustled over to the quality inn! hahahaha. it was hip hop night there, but it was country when we showed up. they finally started playing more dance stuff and you couldn't move me off that floor! i requested like 3 songs, but they didn't play any of them. but then melanie requests michael jackson's "beat it" and they play it. nice. melanie, michelle, and i had the pleasure of performing in a redskin's halftime show several years ago. we learned a bunch of routines from over the decades, so we learned the "beat it" routine. and sadly, we still know it! but we rocked it out and taught some of the locals too. apparently all the locals went from the karaoke lounge to quality inn with us. they were kind in complimenting our singing skills "yall ain't from around here, are yous? no one from around here can sing like that!" hahahahaha. loved it, you know it.

an awesome pic of jules, shenika, melanie, and sully doing the soulja boy!!!!
kristen, shenika, jules, desi, melanie, and me.

then an even smaller group of us went to eat n' park to grub. with being one of 2 tables in there, it took 2 hours to eat there. go figure. i had to get back to wake up to drive back to NC (well brian had to drive!). it was a fun way to close out the trip! we had a fun roadtrip with the kids back to NC, they did really well. and we got to eat at cracker barrel, that just makes everything fun!