The Whole Fam Damily

After wedding hubbub, it was FAMILY TIME!

But FIRST, let's talk about the paper route curse. Since Carlynne and my 10-year paper route stint required us to drag our bums out of bed by 6 every morning, I now have a biological alarm clock that is PERMANENTLY SET. For EARLY. So, despite the fact that by the time we got to bed after the wedding it was well into Sunday morning, I sprung out of bed at 6am and was wide awake... for the time being.

So, I was wide awake when we had family friends over for brekky on Sunday morning:


But my head started getting hazy and my eyelids got heavy during church. Immediately after the service, Lowell and I crashed on the lawn while Mom and Dad chatted away inside.


After a much-needed nap (back at the house), we headed to my Aunt & Uncle's farm for part one of the G family reunion.

Dan’s family also joined us. After all, they are family now…

Let me just fill you in quick on the G family. My Dad has 7 siblings, each of which are married and have at least 3 kids. That makes 32 of us grandkiddies. 28 of these 32 grandkids are married, and a whole slew of them have kids of their own, so there are 53 GREAT grandchildren. So when I refer to my “little cousins”, they’re actually my first cousins once removed. I think (all this first, second, third, and removed stuff is confusing).

Anyhoo, so aren’t my “little cousins” cute?

My cousins who have recently returned from a 3 year medical mission in Namibia (South West Africa) adopted this little gal (above) to add to their brood of 5. She’s sooo cute, and such a quick little learner! She had already mastered the high 5, so we took it to the next level and taught her the pound. She caught on right away, and couldn’t get enough!

"I'm ready- make sure you catch this on camera!"


"I'm sooooooo good!"


"Any other takers?"


As usual, there were sports, a hay ride, animals, visiting, and food at the farm.

Doesn't Shareen look cute here? I think she was feeling a little nostalgic:)

Now let’s talk about Monday morning. Lowell and I were up at 3am in order to pick up Dan & Carlynne to take them to the airport so they could get their St. Lucian honeymoon underway!

As soon as we pulled into the passenger drop off area at departures, our car spontaneously STOPPED... aaaand wouldn’t start again. It DIED!

Since we were in a drop-off only zone, we spoke with a security person and left a friendly little note on the windshield begging the big bad guys not to tow us.

We waited at the airport with D&C for about 2 hours (bright side of the dead car situation: free curbside parking at the airport for 2 hours!).

We ate a Timmy’s breakfast while waiting with them in the check-in line. When they got to the counter, Lowell and I waited in the open area so we could say our farewells after they were done their checking-in business and before they went through security. They were taking forever at the counter, and without warning were suddenly whisked away (because apparently they both got selected for random baggage checks and their plane was ready to board). WE DIDN'T EVEN GET TO SAY GOOD-BYE! When this fact struck me, the waterworks began. It’s not like we were just going to be separated for 2 weeks. When they come back, we’ll be off too New Zealand for A WHOLE YEAR. CRAP.

We at least said good-bye over the phone, but still. HUGS. I NEED HUGS!!

Anyhoo, when we got back out to the car, it started again. YEAY! So we didn’t think twice, got in and tried to see how far we could get….it died again just inside the city. Shoot. So, we called AMA and waited…

The tow truck driver attempted to remedy the situation, but eventually decided that Lowell's hypothesis was correct--the alternator was dead--and there was no hope of reviving it again without a new alternator. Great. So he towed us home. It wasn't just any tow ride though- this guy was a philosopher. Apparently he’d been a philosopher for 25 years, but he tows cars to pay the bills. He claimed that he knew the answers to everything in life, so we were to ask him a question we’ve been itchin to know the answer to. So Lowell goes ahead and asks, “Why is there pain and suffering?”

Good one Lowell.

This launched him into an exhaustingly long tirade. It was interesting…at first. But then we arrived at home (it was a holiday Monday so mechanics weren’t available), and we were sitting in the tow truck and he was still TALKING. In his defense, he had no idea we’d been up since 3am (and it was now 8:30am), and I very easily could’ve curled up into a ball and fallen asleep. ON THE CONCRETE. Anyhoo, long story short, I went inside to bed while Lowell listened to him gab (and NOT unhook the car) for another 45 minutes (thanks for taking one for the team, Lowell). Zzzzzzzzzzz...

After lunch, we went to another Aunt and Uncle’s cottage at the lake. The sun was shining, there was boating, fishing, hot tubbing, volleyball, conversation…and mocha cake. Of course.

On Tuesday after our car was fixed, Lowell and I made our way to Lowell's parents' farm for some more family time. There was a little farewell party for us, and it was delightful. There are no pictures though, so you'll just have to take my word for it!

Ah, we love family.