What a disaster of a travel situation for us! Emily and I had chosen to fly out of Seattle for our trip home for the Riggott family reunion to make it easier for us to start our sea kayaking trip in Vancouver… wrong choice. Despite the horrendous travel we endured the party thrown by Emily's father more than made up for it! 
Our flight was a redeye out of Seattle at 11:30pm but before we even left the house at 6pm for the drive up there it was delayed 20 minutes. We should have just known and turned around but instead we continued on hoping we could still make it. Nope… the flight was cancelled and re-scheduled for the morning. Apparently, the smoke from the BC fires was the cause of all the cancellations. We spent 45 minutes of the drive up to Seattle on hold with United Customer service which wasn’t any help when we actually got a hold of them. We ended up at a Best Western down the road from the airport where I got about 2 hours of sleep once we actually got checked in.
Our flights the next morning were also both delayed through Philadelphia and we weren’t able to get into Windsor Locks until about 9pm on Friday night.. unfortunately after most of the family had gone to bed and we were unable to help with the set up at all. We lost 12 hours because of either those epic BC fires or United’s shitty airline policies. We better get paid back for that $250 hotel room we were forced to get!
On Saturday Em and I woke up early to help set up the yard and get the coolers ready for everyone. If I remember right there were roughly about 80 people that were expected to come including my mom who was thankfully invited so I could get to see her between holidays. It was wonderful to see Chris and Julia and our niece and nephew Hadley and Landon. Abner was of course adorable as well. 
Around noon family started showing up and a big pot of homemade clam chowder was pulled out along with an oyster shucking station manned by Gary and Deb. Keith had done a truly amazing job documenting all the family connections in notes and even had a easel set up with printed photos of all the Riggott Family elders. His memory of all the connections was truly impressive. I was lost after about 5 minutes of him explaining it to Emily and I who I hope had a better understanding than I! 
Around 1pm Keith grabbed me to help him pick up the 70+ Maine lobsters he had ordered to be cooked at a local restaurant. We picked them up in the truck and headed back to the house. I was pretty freakin’ excited! My mom showed up around this time as well and was completely shocked because apparently I hadn’t been clear about how big this get together was going to be! ha! Side dishes were laid out, steaks were cooked and lobster bins were put out on a table… it was a feast! 
We battled rain off and on during the early afternoon but by late afternoon the clouds had moved out and it was a really comfortable temperature for everyone to hang out in the yard playing corn hole and getting to know each other. I ran around all afternoon trying to snap photos as I could and even got the drone out a few times to get some aerial shots including one really good one pulling away from the entire family waving up at it. Hadley was super interested in the drone and I even let her fly it for a few moments… shhhh Abner on the other hand did not like it and chased it around the yard barking at it!
There were plenty of lobster leftovers which Lexi and I went to town on de-shelling for munchies later. Most of the family began to leave by around 6-7pm leaving the Florida cousins to play Emily and I in corn hole in the backyard… and everyone was pretty lit by this point. Their dad and uncle were there watching and the game turned into East Coast Riggott vs West Coast Riggotts (us). Well, we won the first game which then of course turned into best of 3… and we still won… with an epic comeback by Emily of course (AKA “The Closer”). This then progressed into the garage with Emily’s old soccer girls flip cup table which unfortunately, Emily and I finally lost at. But.. I did have the pleasure of “icing” both Joey and Kyle for losing the corn hole. I think the sour apple or the mike’s lemonade is what did Kyle in.. who then wandered off down the road to pass out in a car! ha! Young bloods… 
Joey then joined us on the back porch around 10pm to hang out and drink a bunch of water before bed.. I’m still shocked that with all that Keith is going through health-wise he held strong the entire day and late into the night hanging out with family rarely seen and staying in great spirits. He had thrown a wonderful party and all the Riggotts (save for one racist drunkard who I doubt will be invited ever again) were amazing people! 
On Sunday we had a leisurely morning hanging out a ton with Hadley and Landon. Landon attached himself to Emily while Hadley was fascinated by me, chasing me around in hide and go seek and watching me fly the drone to make a model of Keith’s house. We also stopped by Nick and Jen’s house to model it and get some aerial shots for them to help them with the sale of the house as they want to downgrade in size. 
We even got some cute aerial tracking shots following Sophie on her electric car down the street. It was a short but great 2 days with the Riggott extended family and it was also wonderful to get a visit with my mom in as well.
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