First, apologies for not updating the website much lately. We’ve been traveling and visiting people quite a bit the past week and with these activities, we tend to be less productive on Urbyville. However, it’s time to share the story of our amazing Rooney family, many of whom we’ve been able to visit with over the past few weeks.
The Rooney family is my grandmother on my father’s side and all of her relatives. She is one of eleven kids, Irish Catholic, and from those 11, we have been having family get togethers every four years since well before I was born. At this point, that means we have over 200 people getting together in Findlay, OH for four days of activities and reintroductions with the parts of the family we only see every 4 years.
Our Aunt Maureen makes it easier to stay in touch by creating a directory with all the family branches including names, addresses, and phone numbers. And with our propensity to travel, we have taken full advantage of the Rooney book and visited many family members over the years; this time is no different.
The family visiting started during the bike trip and has continued since. We were able to see our cousin Tim in San Francisco for an amazing Thai dinner (part of SF Food Tour 2011). Once in SoCal, we spent good time with Chris before heading down to Mexico. Once we got back from Mexico, the real Rooney time got going.
We were picked up at the border by Rooney’s: Chris and Debbie. They live north of San Diego and housed us, fed us, and helped us with travel logistics. We then had a big get together at the matriarch of the family’s house, Aunt Rosemary. She is 93 years old and still living on her own in her Los Angeles home she’s lived in for over 50 years. (Imagine the capital gains on that house.) Despite everyone trying to get her out of the kitchen, she cooked up a storm for the six of us that night. We had Uncle Tom from Oxnard, Chris from San Diego, Nancy from LA, and an appearance by our cousin Autumn too.
It was during this night we were reminded of what talent this amazing family has produced. There was a book on the table written by our cousin Bethany on how to direct in Hollywood. She has directed numerous hit shows including 90210, Desperate Housewives, and Revenge to name a few. Then on TV that night, the University of Toledo football game was on and there was our cousin Tim on the sidelines working the headcoaching job at a DI school. Chris, who joined us for dinner, is one of the lead architects on the multi-billion dollar LAX airport remodel that is currently underway. And then we learn that our cousin Jim is in the finals of the TV show Wipeout that airs on 12/8/11. Craziness. There is much more talent but that evening we got a good quick reminder about the special people in the Rooney family.
After the SoCal visit, we drove to Ohio and were in town for the weekly Rooney luncheon. We always seem to show up when Phil is buying (thanks Phil, I owe you a few meals). Here we were able to see Bethany (the director), our cousin Megan, Tim (thru hiked the AT this summer too) and Sharon, and Phil. It was a good get together and we all got caught up on each other’s stories. We also got a quick visit with my Grandma, one of the remaining 11.
We had a Rooney break for a little over a week and then it was Rooney-the next-generation in Raleigh, NC with Gerard’s branch. We stayed with Jon and Heather, along with their two kids, Graham and Grayson. We got to see the whole bunch though (minus Taylor and Will’s family). We got Jon and Heather, Mike and Amy, Jenn, Diane, and Dan and Langley, along with 9 kids aged 7 or under. Though it sounds like a wild time with that many little kids, they were actually well behaved and all played well together. We found out they all get together once a week for dinner and see each other often. They get to spend lots of quality time with grandma (Diane) too. It’s a really good promo for having family all close together. It was awesome to simply be part of it for a couple days.
We’re now in Myrtle Beach, SC. We’ve already seen my parents last week while they were on vacation in Beaufort, SC and will spend the Thanksgiving Day holiday with my sister and her family in Summerville, SC. It really is an amazing family. Everyone is so welcoming and caring about each other. We’ve received nothing but smiles and spectacular hospitality. While we’ve been fortunate to see so many Rooney’s, there are still many we haven’t seen yet. We’ve got the book though so if our travels take us close, we’ll be stopping by. If not, we’re Rooneys too so know our door is always open – wherever that door may be – and we’ll be waiting with a smile