Sunday, July 11, 2010

I will dispense with the excuses about being an inconsistent blogger.

My mom's side of the family had their annual reunion the first weekend of July.  It was just a few days, culminating in an evening at the Scera pool (we've rented the entire facility for a few hours for 3 years now) and fireworks and dessert after (or so I heard, Mim had to go home and go to bed and we missed the last bit).  There was a breakfast on Friday morning, where I took a few pictures, then forgot about my camera for the rest of the day.  Thus I don't have any pictures of Mim at the pool (my mom does, though). 
Mim and Grandma, hanging out after breakfast.
Mim and Grandpa, doing the same thing, except Mim is more distracted.
That little squish loved the pool.  We haven't been this summer, but soon after we got there she was running right into the water.  They also had a little kid slide into the shallow end that she could have gone down all day (which is also the case with slides that are on land), plus she had a little floaty tube so she could just hang out.  Unfortunately, it was a little windy, so she got cold and had to get out of the pool, but my dad was ready and willing to sit and cuddle with her for the hour we had left (which is about 3 times as long as the longest snuggle I have ever gotten from her). 
It was great to see all the cousins on that side- we don't get together much now that we're all older and have so much of our own stuff going on. 
Yesterday and the day before were Mike's mom's family's reunion.  We had a dinner at Kati's house on Friday (I forgot the camera, which I especially regretted when Grace took Mim down the slide on their swing set a few times and when Maren gave Mim a spontaneous hug), and then met for the band breakfast and the parade Saturday morning.  I remembered my camera for that:
That's how Mim feels about parades.  I don't think the fact that she went to bed really late the night before and had to be woken up that morning helped. 
It wasn't all bad, though.  Look at those two cuties.
We only stayed until we saw the AF band. 
We did get a quick family picture, first.  (Yeah, I ran the Steel Days 5k.  My first race since the half marathon I did a few months after Mike and I were first married...yikes.)
After Mim's nap we went to Mom and Dad J's for dutch oven dinner (yum) and family pictures (taken by the wonderful Amber D, who took our family pictures last fall).  Mom and Dad J have 9 grandkids, and when all of them are throwing tantrums and/or crying while they're supposed to be smiling for pictures, it felt like about a million.  Mim was getting into her overtired laughing-and-then-crying-for-no-reason stage, but we managed to get some smiles in the pictures with just her and Mike and I.  About the larger family photos, especially the ones with all of Nanny and Grandad's posterity, I am not so sure.  It was a huge relief when it was over, but I'm glad we'll have all those photos. 
Here are Danger's kittens.  From top left and going clockwise, they are Sweetie Cake, Cookie Pie, Turk, and JD.  I'm sticking this on here so Mike can show his work friend who wants to have one.