Family time

I've got some back tracking to do to catch up on some events from earlier this month. Every summer the Mod family has a reunion the first weekend of August. The attendees are P's paternal grandmother, his dad's siblings and spouses, and whatever cousins are able to come. Usually it is a camping reunion, but this year it was just a picnic - which was perfect for me. It's not that I don't enjoy spending more time with the family, but at this point in our lives I don't love camping, and since I'm always on kid patrol I rarely have the opportunity to converse with other adults since I'm either following the girls, playing with them or at least visually following their every move. It just doesn't lend itself to catching up, as virtually any conversation longer than a minute or two gets interrupted. This year proved to be no different in that arena.

We did have a fun time though. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to find that there was some Polynesian entertainers performing. It was a small group of performers called the Polynesian Legends. At first they were just playing some Hawaiian music, but then there was some dancing, and finally a fire dancer.

Here's C & M trying their hand at the hula.

I believe this was a Tahitian dance. The dancers picked out male participants from the audience. P was pleased to have been chosen until the girls started pulling the shirts off of the males and there was no way to gracefully exit. He was mortified to be shirtless in front of the small crowd. It didn't make him feel any better when I pointed out that he was actually in better shape than the other two men. The extreme farmers tan coupled with the weight of his keys in his shorts pocket pulling his shorts down below his underwear waistband was a nice touch : )

The Samoan fire dancer put the lit end in his mouth and then proceeded to light the other end with his mouth!

Naturally, the girls' favorite part of the reunion was the playground, and more specifically, this tire swing. They must have spent a few hours on this thing!



They only swung with this girl for a little bit. Then a girl M's age came to join them and a boy came with her and offered to push them. My girls had to take a break to eat and then when they were done they promptly went to find Naomi and Michael again so they could all resume swinging. Naomi's mom asked Michael to not push it so it would spin while her daughter was on it, so a few times he suggested the littler girls climb off so he could really push C so it would spin. Both M and Naomi were happy to oblige, so he'd push C wildly for a bit, and then they'd get back on. At one point he asked C how old she was. He was surprised when she told him five. "Oh, " he said, "I thought you were seven." He then informed her that he was eight. While he was a great kid, this glimpse into my future with the girls kind of scares me!

The day after the reunion the girls took off for the beach. P was asked to help out for a few days with a scout high adventure camp out, and those days happened to fall on the days that I work. Since I work long days, we'd have to get a babysitter for nearly 12 hours a day and I just didn't think that would work. When P asked my parents, they graciously agreed to take the girls. I had already planned to go out to the beach with the girls on Wednesday, so they'd be taking the girls three days earlier than planned and then I would come out to join them. This was the longest we have been away from both girls at the same time, so it was also the longest my folks have ever had them together. They have often taken one at a time, and they quickly learned that two is a different ball game altogether! The girls had a good time, but grandma and grandpa were tuckered out, particularly with all the bickering, by the time I arrived to relieve them. Hopefully we haven't ruined our chances of them taking both girls again in the future! We missed the girls immensely, but it would be nice to have an opportunity to spend a few days together just the two of us sometime.

P and I didn't get much of a chance to enjoy our time without kids. However, on Sunday night we did go over to our friend's house for dinner. I have to say that I had more fun than I have had in a long time since I wasn't on kid patrol. When I heard fighting or crying, I knew it had nothing to do with my kids. I was able to engage in adult conversation all night long without interruption. I actually went home that night feeling totally exhilarated.

Here's some visitors the girls saw while at the beach.

Grandma and Grandpa took the girls and I to the county fair while we were there. The girls loved their balloon butterflies.

And we saw the largest cow I have ever laid eyes on!

The same cow.

Good times!

I'm going to try to write another catch up post before I leave for the beach tomorrow, but I'm not making any promises.