I'm just sayin...: Labor Day Weekend Recap…

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I will give you a brief Labor Day Weekend recap (note, of course, that all “aunts”, “uncles” and “cousins” are mostly my “Labor Day” relatives…

As you know, a tropical storm decided to blow through our area last Friday. As you also know, last Friday kicked off the greatest weekend in the world for me (Labor Day Weekend). So, of course, we loaded up the van during a break in the storm and headed out of town… to the beach. Listen, if it was a category 4 hurricane then maybe I’d call to see if anyone else was going… but a little tropical storm wasn’t going to stop me from going. The trip to Litchfield was pretty uneventful (a little bit of rain here and there), but I’ve driven in worse. I won’t give you a play-by-play of the weekend, I’ll just tell you I missed seeing those who couldn’t make it (especially my cousin Jane and her husband AJ) but had a GREAT time seeing those who were there.

*Sonny and his family couldn’t make it, so I put a pillow in a chair with his picture on it. It was late Sunday night before my Uncle DG realized Sonny wasn’t actually with us (and he had, in fact, been talking to a pillow with Sonny’s picture on it). To be fair, the pillow sounded just like Sonny, so it was easy to be fooled.

*I entered a verbal agreement to help my cousin Will (who is a preacher) to be a consultant to help him with marriage counseling. I told him to just call me whenever he was going to meet with a young couple looking to get hitched and I’d be more than happy to give them all of the advice they need. Will was on board with the idea… The Wife didn’t seem to be as excited.

*I also offered to help my cousin Sally grade papers. While she was polite, I can’t say she was as open to my offer as Will had been to the offer I made him. I assume it’s because she saw The Wife’s previous reaction and wanted to side with her.

*Perhaps the best part of the weekend was seeing my children play with the other children who were there. Teresa Lynn and her family were there for some of the weekend, which helped as far as childcare went (Leah was born to play with children… it’s her gift, but Ansley and Meredith also helped entertain Susie). As far as the “younger” kids in attendance, we had: Mac (6th grade - Sally and Will’s son), Annagray (3rd grade - Sally and Will’s daughter), Mary Ruth (5th grade), Susie (1st grade), Daniel (Kindergarten), Bliss (Kindergarten - Chandler and Taylor’s daughter), Hart (2yr old - Chandler and Taylor’s older son) and Witt (1yr old - Chandler and Taylor’s younger son). Like I said, I loved seeing the 3rd generation of this family all playing great together.

*One day at breakfast, Mary Ruth and Annagray came up to me to ask if our families are related. I, of course, said yes. I mean, really, I’m just as related to all of them as I am to The Wife’s family. Sure, there’s no marriage license to unite our families, but there is about 80 years (give or take some years… I’m not great with math) of love shared by our families. So I have no problem claiming we are family.

*I fully expect Hart to be the biggest child there next year.

*He’ll be the biggest person there in a few years.

*I still get nervous when I’m with Mac. Most of my time is spent praying he doesn’t engage me in a conversation. He’s a great kid, don’t get me wrong, but for at least the last three years I’ve been intimidated by his intelligence. My biggest fear is he’ll ask me a question and realize I’ve had no clue about anything he’s been talking about. He’s crazy smart a probably more mature than I am (who am I kidding, he’s way more mature than I am).

Sadly, I didn’t get a lot of pictures this weekend. But I did get a few good ones…

Having already eaten the cheese, Hart turned his attention to the grapes

Bliss and Daniel working on some crafts

Bliss, Annagray and Mary Ruth looking for turtles

Hart wanting to take Susie somewhere...

...in a hurry (this is probably my favorite picture)

Annagray, Bliss, Mary Ruth, Hart and Susie

Hart... happy to have another boy in the picture

Witt... laughing at me

This is what happens when two boys get together and their parents don't pay close attention to them

The Wife and I went to get in bed after the Clemson game and this is what we found (true story, a child will expand up to 5 times their normal size when sleeping in bed with their parents)