Today started with Brandon and I totally ruining the plans. We all woke up and were planning to go to the “beach ditch” which is a man-made swimming pond that has artificial sand and full filtration. I helped Brandon drop off his car at the shop and then we took the Highlander in, it desperately needed an oil change. By the time we finished it was too late to go to the beach ditch before the family BBQ in the afternoon. Whoops!
So, instead of going to the beach ditch we played all day at Brandon and Erin’s house. Somehow we managed to coordinate all 4 naps so we had a nice mid-day break where Erin taught us a card game named Garbage. I was in the lead when the kids woke up and made us abandon the game!
Everyone continued to relax and play at the house until around 4 when my Aunt Kristin, Uncle Nic and their daughter Gisele came over. My aunt Lynn and her husband Jeff also joined us a little later. We all enjoyed catching up and Brandon and Erin grilled everyone some dinner.
The kids just kept all playing together and I’m pretty sure they’d be playing there at this moment if we didn’t stop them and put them to bed. After getting the twins ready for bed and changed into their pajamas the adults got distracted and they ended up running back and forth through the hose while Gisele and Brooke sprayed them. To remedy the situation Erin peeled off Charlie’s pajamas and he may have been running around naked for a bit until Gisele said it was awkward for her lol.
At the end of the night we let Brooke experience her first hot tub (after we turned it down). It was still too hot that even though she begged to go in she didn’t really enjoy it. I made sure to point out that sometimes rules exist for a reason and it isn’t just adults trying to stop the fun.
After we finally wrangled all the kids to bed the adults stayed up and continued catching up. Reminiscing about things like when my dad was camping in Minnesota and tried to open a beer bottle on a picnic table and just completely shattered the whole neck of the bottle. We were so happy to see everyone but sad knowing this was our last night in Minnesota.
-Jay
How wonderful to have happy family get-togethers.!