2012 Vardiman/Carter Family Reunion

7 August 2012 - 10 August 2012, Camano Island, Washington

Click on any photo to enlarge

Descendants

Phil & Louise Carter Vardiman's Children:

Oldest to Youngest
L-R: Larry, Billie, Steve, Mary Phil, Anne & David

Vardiman Siblings with first cousin, Mary Ann Carter

Larry & Jeannette Santen Vardiman's Children:

Youngest to Oldest L-R: Laura, Daniel,

Dad has consistently mixed up our names with our 3 aunts so we paired up with the aunt he regularly called each of us over the years!  R-L:
Michelle/ Billie, Kelly/Mary Phil Laura/Anne

Larry (middle) over the years called his son Daniel (Left) by his brother's name, David (right). Grandsons: Spencer (back L) Carter (back R) and Noah (M)

Steve Vardiman with 1st cousin, Mary Ann Carter Berkey (Steve's wife, Dianne, couldn't come)

Bob and Mary Phil Koger

Ted and Anne  Kurtz

David and Debbie Vardiman

Tom and Mary Ann Berkey (1st Cousin, Daughter of Frank Carter, Louise Carter's brother)

Victor and

Fansler Family
Sons: Spencer & Carter, Dog - Terabyte "Tera"

Daniel Vardiman
(wife, Kriston and son, Ian couldn't come)

Tim and Laura Hohmann
Son: Noah

Daniel periodically used "Facetime" on his "i-phone" as a videophone to show his son, Ian, what was happening at the reunion.

"We were grateful almost everyone was able to attend the family reunion as it was touch and go for awhile for a few people, but everyone except Steve's wife, Dianne; Daniel's wife and son, Kriston and Ian; and Larry's siblings' children made it.  The Vardiman family reunion was held at our parent's home on Camano Island, Washington and lasted for 4 days from August 7 - August 10.  Larry and Jeannette's children stayed at their house with overflow sleeping in the vans or camper in the driveway. Bill and Billie, Steve, Bob and Mary Phil, David and Debbie stayed in a rented beach house down the road from Larry's house, Ted & Anne camped in a tent outside the beach house.  We met and ate at Larry's house and the beach house. 

Tuesday, August 7th
Arrival day.  Family members, including 4 dogs (Jeannette's maltese "Buttons", Victor's Zuchon (Shitzu-Bichon) "Terabyte", Kelly's large dog "Mae" and later in the week, Laura's black lab "Jake") arrived throughout the day while those already there played Sequence.  Larry made hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill as each family arrived.  He also passed out a rough draft of a book to each family that he wrote called "Doc's Tribe" about stories from their childhood. Michelle had created 4 newsletters on the French side of the family, the Blanchet's, and put them down at the beach house for family to peruse at their leisure. Anne gave massages to those interested throughout the week at the beach house.

Rented Beach House within walking distance of beach on the Puget Sound

Porch at the beach house

Larry's Living Room - Laura gave the Vardiman dogs some training while Victor watched.

Larry's Dining Room - Vardiman games from sequence, concentration...

...yahtzee and computers in between family activities.

Larry's Back Porch - It seemed like Larry was always cooking something in the kitchen or on the grill on the back porch.

Wednesday, August 8th
First thing Wednesday morning the majority of the family members sat out on the porch at the beach house drinking coffee and getting reconnected. Mary Phil and Bob must of drank four pots of coffee between them and kept losing their coffee cups. After about the third time of Mary Phil blaming someone for moving her cup everyone noticed she wrote her initials on it. When she went into the house everyone seemed to be on the same page and came up with the same idea at the same time of writing her initials on every coffee cup they could find.  Billie even crossed out her own initials and put "MP". When Mary Phil came back out she not only was able to find her coffee cup this time but unfortunately was unable to figure out which one was hers and this ran through the whole weekend as a joke.  She immediately blamed Larry.
       

Cousin Mary Ann (Uncle Frank Carter's daughter) and her husband, Tom Berkey arrived for the day.  We ate at Larry's house for lunch with sandwich makings, potato soup, potato salad, five bean salad and chips. We had spring rolls for hors d'ouvres in the afternoon made by Anne and dinner of Larry's fried chicken and Grandma/Mom Louise's delicate "Charlotte Russe" recipe for dessert made by Michelle.  

Click photo for movie

Food was in abundance so when David and Debbie decided to go on a walk the majority of family members thought it was a good idea to walk off some calories so a whole group joined them!


We played whiffle ball (Kelly's brainstorm) in the front yard with Laura's son, Noah, making his own "Noah's base" between 2nd and 3rd base!  Late afternoon we took group photos, and looked at past photos together.  Family time in the evening involved discussion of family genealogy and how to access the website (Michelle and David's project). Afterwards we said "good bye" to Tom and Mary Ann Berkey.
    Click photo for movie and wait a few moments.

Larry's boat, took 4-5 people across Puget Sound to Coupeville

Stopped by Laura's work on the way to Coupeville

Laura waved good bye as we left for Coupeville

Deception Pass - View from the bridge

L-R: Michelle, Victor holding Tera, Jeannette on bridge over Deception Pass

Ice cream at Coupeville

Thursday, August 9th
Five family members went with Larry on his boat across the puget sound from Camano Island to Whidbey Island. The rest of the group convoyed in three cars to meet at Coupeville. The group in cars stopped to see Laura who was working at the veterinarian clinic where she's worked for five years. Also on the way the group stopped at Deception pass where the bridge crosses over onto Whidbey Island. After eating lunch and ice cream at Coupeville, four family members took the boat back to Camano Island while the rest returned in cars. Family time in the evening involved discussion of current family events by Debbie, Anne, Mary Phil and Steve then we said "good bye" to Steve. Mary Phil represented the siblings and had a coup, by asking Larry that Friday's plans to take the ferry to Friday Harbor be cancelled in order to have a more relaxing day on Friday.  He was relieved.

Hike at Camano State Park

Anne's hairdo by Laura

Looking at the view

Spencer back at the beach house on his DS

Saying "Good bye" to Bob and Mary Phil

Playing Family Charades. Larry acting as a bat.

Friday, August 10th
This was a relaxation day. Everyone got up when they felt like it and meandered down to the beach house for breakfast of blueberry pancakes made by David. Visiting with each other in the living room or on the porch was a fluid and spontaneous activity. In the afternoon eleven family members went for a short, level hike on the south end of the island at Camano State Park. After dinner, (Italian penne' cooked by Daniel) we said "good bye" to Bob and Mary Phil.  Debbie, always the life of the party, suggested we sneak around to the back of the beach house and wave as Bob and Mary Phil drove away.  Everyone was giggling while crouching behind the neighbors car waiting to surprise Bob and Mary Phil with enthusiastic good bye waves. 

Laura suggested we play Family charades and had each person write down one or two family memories that everyone should remember.  Then we split up into two teams and laughed right away as Billie and Michelle couldn't remember which team number they were on just seconds after counting off!  Laughter continued as we watched the reenactment of  memorable family stories like Larry acting like a bat to tell the story of Steve and David catching bats and puttng them in a burlap bag in the basement then discovering the bats gnawed their way through the bag and got loose in the house!  Billie's hilarious yet accurate rendition of their Dad, Phil Vardiman, drinking water from a jug  while driving down the road on family vacations was the best skit of the evening. Family time in the evening finished up with Billie, and each of Larry's kids giving a current update.

Click photo for movie and wait a few moments.  It's worth it!

Saturday, August 11th
Departure day. Down at the beach house Billie made "Cherry Slices", a sweet dough with cherries and blueberries made to look like a flag. When it was ready to be cut up Anne had Daniel cut the sweet dough while Anne and Billie saluted the flag and Debbie ran around taking pictures.  Billie likes to make it for large groups like her church's "God and Country" day once a year. Ted and Anne headed out after breakfast to drive back home camping along the way. 

A game of Sequence commenced while Victor and Michelle packed.  Good bye hugs sent off Victor and Michelle's family with Daniel who wanted to see their house in Idaho.  David and Debbie left shortly after them and Bill and Billie were going to stay for another week with a brief visit out to Idaho as well."

Written by Michelle Vardiman Fansler and Daniel Vardiman 12 August 2012