Family Reunion

Last week our oldest graduated from 8th grade--a rather extravagant affair considering most of her class is going to go on to high school, college, and maybe post-grad educations.  If this is the the jumping off point, I wonder how elaborate it will get in 4, 8 and 12 years?  Hot air balloons?  Horse-drawn carriages?  A 30-man Pipe Band and parade?

We spent the weekend—Flag Day—in the lovely little town of Fairfield.  When I say “little”, I’m talking four blocks long and three blocks wide.  Little.  It’s an annual event that involves a parade, a fly-by from the local AFB, and lots of candy thrown from the floats!  Yes, it’s really a small town when there is still candy involved!  

Unfortunately, it was raining sideways, windy and cold, and my kids decided they were done with the parade business after just 10-15 minutes.  This picture pretty much sums it up.  Many of the floats were not rain-friendly, so they had to cancel several of them.  The parade was significantly shorter this year…sadly. L The funny bit of the parade was the announcer, who was sitting under a pop-up across the street from where we were standing (and where my MIL’s car was parked, and where my kids crawled in to stay warm and dry).  He let us know what each float was, who was in the cars (mostly conservative politicians, oddly enough), the year and model of each classic car, and some funny commentary.  They started with the Star Spangled Banner, where he sung the wrong words, and later sang, “God Bless America”, and he goofed those words up, too.  He was funny and charming and really made it worth standing in the rain!

We went back to the hotel and the kids spent about three hours playing in the pool.  They were the only ones in there, along with their cousin, Rory, until the very end when a middle-aged man settled into the hot tub, and just as they were leaving, another family of boys came in.  It was a perfect afternoon.  

Sunday was the big paternal family reunion.  I saw a few familiar faces, and a bunch of strangers that I had pleasant conversations with.  The MC for the day was a lady named Pat who, for all her organizational skills and efforts, ended up being a little short with people when they wanted to chat and she wanted them to sit down and listen to another family member sing karaoke.  My DH and I, along with his cousin, Joe, put our heads together and were brainstorming ways to make the event more fun next time.  The food was good, although I think it might have run smoother as a buffet instead of a served lunch.  Also, the should have done group photographs earlier, like just before the meal, instead of at the end when half the people had left.  They had, rather at the last minute, put together a family cookbook and family tree book, but only had 25 copies due to printing costs—they could have put them onto CDs instead for a fraction of the cost.  I also would have liked to have a collection of the original photos scanned in from the first settlers to the area in the 1880s, also on CDs.

We got into the car at 3:30 in the afternoon and headed home--what should have been a 4 1/2 hour trip took closer to six with at least six stops on the way.  We got home late last night and the kids got a little bit of sleep.  Emma needs less sleep, but she’s done with school for the year already.  Ben was probably a little sleep-deprived and started a new round of antibiotics to combat the new lung exacerbation that he’s got going on, and Cammie woke up with a tummy ache, and then proceeded to throw up.  Great.  Monday for sure.

BUT, it’s guild meeting tonight and Kelly took the day off work (I asked if he’d be a dear and drive the kids to school in the morning and he said no.   Sigh.), so as soon as he gets back from the movies, I’ll leave for the meeting.  Or as soon as all the kids are home and Emma can watch the younger ones.  Gotta go pack up the stuff!