Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog

It was a noisy and sometimes stinky vacation, but we enjoyed every minute of it. We thought we were smart for scheduling our flight to Raleigh at 5:00 in the morning, but Bridget woke up and stayed up from 3:00 a.m. until our second plane landed in Raleigh at 1:30 p.m. on Friday the 23rd. (It's new math, but you need to add two hours to that, making her awake time about 12 and a half hours.) On our second leg to Raleigh (p.s. we're only taking direct flights from now on) we ended up in first class. I was changing a poopy diaper in the airplane bathroom during the refreshing hot towel service.

After getting settled at the Residence Inn, we headed to Katy & Matt's house for dinner, a talent show, and games (all sorts!). The Family Trivia Game was my "thing" for the reunion and I had enough material to fill about six reunions. Since we didn't get to some of it, I put highlights on the left side of this blog. We had three teams - The Urban League (Jeff, Dad, Katy, Aron), the Panthers (Jen, Brian, Allyn, Rob, Matt) and Team Wonder (Aaron, Mom, Melissa, Ben). Even though Team Wonder was winning after the first night, they ended up with -337 points. The Panthers won with 83 points and The Urban League had 4 points. I had a very proud moment when Brian guessed right on a daily double question and got his team out of the hole. It was a difficult few weeks not being able to tell him what I was laughing about while I was typing up the questions. Melissa should have had a not-so-proud moment when Jeff guessed that Jennie was the one who did a back flip off a horse. Then again, he never had to walk next to Jennie to the school bus stop and pass a house with a dog. Misty water-colored memories... :)

Taylor, Ethan and Weston did a number for the talent show that still makes me smile when I think about it. Three cheers! And it was fun to practice the old routine for "Never Tell a Lie." (That was our big surprise for Mom and Dad. Dad had some of us older kids sing that song for his seminary class in Oakley. That performance made me realize I did not want to act or sing in front of anyone ever.) What's more fun than a sibling dog pile with Aaron on the bottom? Except maybe Harrison singing "Bob the Builder." Or Allyn and Lilja lip syncing (sp?) "A Whole New World."

Saturday morning was reserved for a family photo on the old Wake Forest College campus. I totally agree with Jen that it was beautiful to look around and see uncles and aunts talking to nieces and nephews. Even the littlest kids were okay with someone other than mom or dad taking care of them or picking them up. Once we had everyone situated, Harrison walked off the project. Ha! There's something so visually hilarious about that. Perhaps it's not translating, so I'll move on.
The women (and Noah) went to Beadazzled Saturday afternoon to haze Allyn into her 30s. It's actually a fine club to be part of. We made some nice jewelry and gave Allyn her theme-inspired gifts. A good time was had by all.

Brian, Bridget and I spent Sunday morning sleeping and recovering. I had a sinus something happening before we left for North Carolina and was still barking like a dog, so it was nice to relax. Sunday evening we had round two of the trivia game and more wrestle mania with Bridget. I think all the hugging and kissing from cousins overwhelmed her. At least it made her want to wrestle and not sleep.

We discovered on Sunday night that there was nothing planned for Monday, so we (Brian and I) decided to go to Mt. Airy - the town Andy Griffith is from and that inspired Mayberry of The Andy Griffith Show. We pulled into town at about lunch time and were on our way to The Snappy Lunch when an old guy was coming out of Floyd's Barber Shop. The rest of the day was like an episode of The Andy Griffith Show. The old guy (Jimmy F. Kemp, or the Republican JFK) followed us into The Snappy Lunch and asked us what we were doing, where we're from, etc. Next thing we know he's telling us to follow him to the Dr. Robert Smith house. (This was only after he discovered that I'm not voting for Hilary Clinton.) Jimmy gave us a tour of Dr. Robert Smith's sister Gertrude's house, which was across the street from Dr. Robert Smith's house. Gertrude Smith's house has the biggest draw in town - a portrait of the Queen of England. He showed us all the creepy papier mache dolls in the house and Gertrude's pink bedroom (she never married, surprise) that is exactly as it was when she was alive. We were most of the way through the tour when I dared ask why Dr. Robert Smith was famous. My question was met by a blank stare from Jimmy, so I didn't push it. When we told Jimmy we were going back to Raleigh, he insisted we follow him so that we could go by Andy Griffith's house on our way out. What would it be like to have all day to give strangers a tour of your town?

Bridget realized that Monday night was our last night at the hotel, so she puked it up. Poor thing! Who knew that such a small person could produce so much puke, but she did it. Luckily we were off to Aunt Katy and Uncle Matt's the next morning. Katy treated us to some yummy Jambalaya and the kids played nice together. The next morning Katy, Helena and Anya took us to the old Wake Forest College campus where we took a nice walk, then went to lunch.

We spent Wednesday evening at Melissa and Jeff's in Chapel Hill. They tended Bridget while Brian and I celebrated our anniversary at La Residence. Other than Brian not getting his cherry coke, it was a perfect dinner. My favorite, though, was staying up and talking with Melissa and Jeff. We had a great time at the park with Melissa, Harrison and Chloe yesterday morning. (Ah! I can't believe it was yesterday.) Then we spent an eternity getting home. The end!

P.S. Check out the big slide show below if this looked like too many words to read in one sitting.