Grandpa was in the midst of the commotion for much of the afternoon. It was good to see everyone taking turns visiting with him, because he really seemed to enjoy all the conversation. Eventually he did take a good nap, and my brother got a great picture of his little guy taking a simultaneous nap in the car seat next to great-grandpa's chair.
My cousin Lauren was the driving force behind getting a cousins picture altogether. We started out with Aunt Ellen taking the photos; Stacy warned this was not the best idea :) Somehow, Aunt Ellen discovered the burst mode on my camera and I have 200 slow motion individual pictures of the crowd! Then we realized Josh wasn't in the picture or even at home (lacrosse game to coach) at the time of the photo, so we had to recreate it later in the afternoon.
How many babies do you see in the photo below? Aha! There is another, cleverly disguised behind his mama, next to me :) My brother isn't just flexing his muscles for the picture, he's holding a whole extra person back there! I believe Caelan was in charge of this round of pictures. She noticed my other brother half hidden behind my cousin, and talked him out into the open for other people's phone photos. As you can probably imagine--getting a picture of all of us actually looking at the camera with eyes open instead of closed was not an easy task! But well worth the effort :)
Once the photo-taking party broke up, Josh spent a solid hour teaching our boys the basics of lacrosse. Buck snagged a couple of pics of their efforts. I don't mean to brag . . . but I'm pretty sure my cousin offered both boys full scholarships at the college where he teaches if they come play lacrosse for him after high school. Granted we'd have to find a lacrosse program (which he says is near impossible in our state) and then he'd have to still be coaching at the same college in approximately six to eight years, but hey, it could happen. Whoo-hoo, full ride! :)
The weather was just perfect for a houseful to spill outside . . . a couple of kids even braved the pool! It was icy cold, and Graysen had to borrow a swim suit from Josh (and cinched it well), but he took a quick swim just for the fun of it. After he'd left to dry off, my cousin Lauren's oldest spent a significant amount of time and effort cleaning the pool for his grandpa. Buck and I spent a significant amount of time warning Stacy when Lawson was about to knock her out with the long end of the net pole :)
My parents brought their new puppy to the party--it is very young, so still a bit of a chewer. My dad told Lauren's five-year-old that the puppy really just wanted to eat his shoe laces, and the best way to keep the puppy from biting him was to take off his shoes. My dad tells this to us shortly before we see Lawson sitting in the grass THROWING his shoes to (at) the puppy :) Oh, the things kids process and apply when talking to their jokester great-uncle. Caelan was like, "What are you doing? Don't throw your shoes at the puppy!" And then I said, "Uh, Grandpa told him to," and she laughed and nodded in understanding--she's known grandpa plenty long herself :)
Well, we tried to get a picture of all our parent-siblings together, but Aunt Jan had taken grandpa back to his care facility and Aunt Sue was ready to head home. We got four out of five and I think it turned out to be a nice picture. Funny story: as Uncle Tom was making the rounds and hugging my family good-bye in his preparation to leave, I expected the usual farewell wishes, "Good to see you! Thanks for coming! Your kids have really grown." Instead, he whispers to me, "Take the licorice . . . if Aunt Jan sees that I left it, she's going to be SO mad!" LOL, I laughed so hard :) And we did take the licorice--the giant bucket of licorice is still nearly full, despite weeks of the kids nibbling the individually wrapped ropes. I fully intend to take this bucket once again, only this time to share as part of Graysen's turn at baseball snack next Tuesday :)
As the sun was beginning to set, I noticed we had three of our generational red heads all in a bunch, so I had to snap a quick photo. Somehow this gene missed my kids, but maybe someday the red will pop up in my grandchildren :)
When Aunt Jan returned from getting grandpa settled, she told us how glad he was to spend the day with so many in our family. Then she added, "He told me grandma would have really enjoyed being here to see everyone." Which she found funny, because if grandma was still around, we probably wouldn't have all been there, and as a rule, the person you're gathered to remember shouldn't be part of the festivities in person. But what she took from it was that grandpa was pleased with how his wife had been honored and knew that grandma would have been pleased, too. And that is what my mom and her siblings were hoping for that day.
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