Lots of Guests

In June I invited my mom along with my brother and his family to visit the new place for a week in late July.  I knew they wanted to spend some time there and also extended the same invitation to my siblings.  There are five 'kids' in my family and we're pretty spread out geographically.  All of them came, along with some of their spouses and children and a couple of my mom's sisters too.  It's just a two-bedroom house but is designed for gatherings and this was the experiment to see how things work out with a hoard of people.

We can't comfortably accommodate all of them, and a few stayed at the Centerville Corners Inn, which is just down the street, and the Fernbrook Inn, which is a beautiful former private estate turned B&B.  The beds, trundle bed, sleeper sofa and futon accommodated the rest.

Since the five of us aren't together often, I arranged a photographer to do a group photo shoot on the beach in Osterville, although I don't have those photos just yet.  Here's a less professional version.

Rain threatened and I had to modify the time with the photographer.  The exact time was undetermined until just about time to leave, and gathering everyone was a little like herding cats, but we made it.

We had 17 for dinner that night.  The table stretches out to 10' and the bar seats 3, so we did all fit in the Dining Room.  The built-in hutch

is still MIA and would have been a real help.  It's intended as a set-up area to free the table and peninsula/bar.  It's just another example of what I called "Cape Cod Time" in my blog from June 28.