July 14 dawned warm, humid and damp.  Once again it had rained on reunion
day, luckily before most of us were out of bed!   We had great weather all
day, and the kids spent most of the afternoon in the water, coming out only
when we dragged them out for the attempt at an all-reunion photo.  We tried
it soon after the adults finished eating (which was quite some time after
the kids finished eating!),  so we managed to get everyone in the photo,
except for my nephew, who hid behind the barn!  We recruited a young man
also enjoying the beach to handle the camera for us, and he was quite
interested to learn that the noisy group of people he was photographing were
the Bonifaces.  He lived on Boniface Point, not too far away!  Boniface
Point was at one time part of the farm owned by my great-grandfather,
William Boniface (1850).

We had 41 people make it to the reunion this year, two who came from
Washington state.  This was the first visit to the Boniface reunion for
Linda Kaser (daughter of Betty Wolhuis) and her husband Rick.  They were
interested to hear of the Vancouver Reunion in September, as it is in their
neck of the woods.  Maybe you'll get to see them, Steve!

Entertainment at this reunion is never organized.   Everyone brings food,
and eating is the first order of business.  After that it's a free for all.
The older folks come to visit with cousins that they haven't seen in a
while, the kids come to swim, and the genealogy addicts come to share
stories, info and photos.   The photos from the Eastbourne Reunion were a
hit with that last group, as were the photos of Rickney Farm, where William
(1763) and Elizabeth Boniface lived in the 1841 census, and of Horse Eye
Farm, where Elizabeth lived with her son Rubin in the 1851 census.  Barbara
and Jim Osborne kindly took Aki and I to those houses the day after the UK
Reunion.  William and Elizabeth are my 4XGreat Grandparents.  Barbara's
3Xgreat grandparents.

This year the weather was just right for sitting and talking, and that's
what most of us did until after 5 o'clock, except, of course, those playing
in the water with the next generation of Boniface descendants.

Respectfully submitted,
Michele T. Boniface Tsuji