From the travel journal - Day 5

Darcy's entry:

On Saturday night we had the wiener roast. I had a lot of fun playing with Lily, Shad, and Jamie. Lily, Maddy and I played monkey in the middle, volleyball, and badminton. We had fun roasting and eating hot dogs and marshmallows. We didn't go back to Aunt Lorene's for a long time and when we finally got there it was 11:00 PM. I took my shower, texted Gabby, and went to bed.

The next day we got up at 7:30 AM and went to church. After church we went and visited my Grandpa Russ' grave. Then we went back and wandered around outside Aunt Lorene's farm. We found two deer, some birds, and lots of chickens.

The reunion on Sunday was a lot of fun. Gabby came down for the reunion! We played with Lily and Carson. Later on I was hot and decided to walk down to the pond. Shad was in the pond and he was saying that he was gonna throw me into it. I simply walked past and he got out and came running at me full speed. Gabby and Carson cheered him on. We ran circles around the bonfire awhile and then I was caught with Shad on one side and Gabby on the other. I ran toward Gabby who caught me. I dumped cold water down her shirt and she let me go. I took off, but unfortunately, I was tired by then and Shad caught me. (Had I drank that water I would have crushed him!)

He picked me up and carried me a couple of steps then put me down because he too was tired. He then tried to drag me to the diving board, but my arm was really slippery, and I slipped right out of his hold. I ran a little, but he grabbed my other, un-slippery arm, picked me up and threw me off the diving board into the pond. The water felt really cold against my red, hot, sweaty skin. I swam over to were I could stand and sat there for about 20 minutes before getting out and walking back to the farm with Gabby.

Gabby and I played volleyball, badminton, cornhole, and monkey in the middle with Carson, Lily, and some blonde boy who's name has escaped me! Soon the reunion came to an end and Gabby, no matter how much I begged, had to leave.

Later that night Big Scott, Melissa, Jamie, Lily, Kelly, Maddy, and Jaime's mother went out for pizza. The pizza place we went to eat at was where our cousin Marc worked.

After dinner we went back to Aunt Lorene's, took our shower, and went to bed.

Cara's entry:

The reunion, as always, never lasts long enough for me. It is so great to see everyone who shows up, but it is so difficult to make my way around to spend quality time with everyone. I got a lot of grief for my forgetting of names on my homemade family tree, but fortunately those members that I left off completely weren't at the reunion so I was saved. (I have since added them, and in my defense the paper wasn't large enough in this travel book to begin with.)

Darrell, as usual, did a great job of getting the farm ready for the big day. The pond was beautiful and the kids took advantage of that. I would have liked to have gotten in, but alas, that was another thing I didn't get to do because of time.

Here are some of my memorable moments at the reunion:

• Rusty showed up! - I only put this because I'm very tired of getting asked, "Where is Rusty?" or "Is Rusty coming?"  I'm not kidding, but the first people we saw when we first arrived on Saturday were Darrell and Aunt Lorene.  I hugged Darrell first and he said, "What do you hear from Rusty?"  Just once I'd like someone to be happy that I'm there for heaven's sake!

•  Seeing everyone - especially the new additions.

 

• Big Scott's cooler in the van - The man does know how to keep everyone cool.  The contents did send Kelly into the house for a midday nap though.

• Rusty giving the blessing - Darrell told him to do this and I got a bit choked up when he gave it.  Made me think of my Dad.

• Mike's corn - Not as good as in the past because of the Indiana drought, but it still tasted better than Florida.  Plus there was plenty of butter and salt to help.

• Dave's antics with shooting - After most everyone had gone Dave and a few of us were looking out over the soybean crop and Dave started telling us all how he would shoot things.  He decided he would shoot antelope the next day and proceeded to show us how he would sight it and shoot it.  While he was babbling and demonstrating, three deer ran right across the field.

• The bonfire mishap - Unfortunately, what happens at the reunion stays at the reunion so I can't expound further, however, it all worked out in the end and no one was hurt and nothing destroyed.  Darrell is the man!

• The rose - Dave told me that there use to be a rose bush in the corner by the smoke house.  Little by little it kept dying off.  This winter he was mowing the farm and he forgot about the bush and mowed over the whole thing.  He just knew he had killed it, but right before the weekend of the reunion he came up to the farm to find a single rose growing in the same place.  He thought it was Grandma Ruby saying hello, but I think it is my Dad since it is so close to the spot where he had his heart attack.