Not Your OARdinary weekend
The clock struck 5 on Friday and my tail went sailing out of the office. Say-hay-ling out. Not that the week was bad. I actually had a pretty good week. But, it was Friday on a holiday weekend. Bye bye.
Shelton and I got packed and got out of town. We headed to Joplin to my parents' house. My dad had a pretty big Memorial Day celebration going on at his cemetery on Saturday. They did a civil war soldier's funeral re-enactment. Pretty impressive turnout. All the actors were in full dress, folk band. It was really interesting to see.
While there my brother was yee-haw dancing to the folkband. Goofball. He lost his balance and dropped like an anvil to the ground. We all just sat there, we being my family, laughing. We then realized he'd been "down" for a while. Turns out he banged his ankle up pretty badly. We took him to the hospital as it was swelling and he was in pretty bad pain. The X-ray showed that it was not a break, no more than a sprain.
Baffled me because Kyle heard a loud pop when he fell. Word to the wise- turns out that sound is a good thing. It means there is no break, it means that the tendon tore.
After that we all went back to the house. We fixed a monster dinner of ribs, potatoes, corn on the cob, bread... you get the idea. The whole nine. It was deelish. We all sat outside on the patio, had dinner, told stories, laughed- it was awesome.
During dinner Jenna mentions that she is going canoeing for her 18th birthday next week (sigh, yes, i said EIGHTEEN!) We all start talking about how NONE of us have ever gone canoeing and at 9pm last night spontaneity snuck up and bit me in the butt. I don't let that happen very often. I mean, we have calendars for a reason... if it's not on the calendar, it's not supposed to happen.
Anyhow, the whole fam packed up at 9 o'clock this morning, headed to Elk River for an afternoon of canoeing. Mom, Dad, Shelton, Myself, Kyle and his g/f LaRenda, Jenna and her new b/f Cody. What a growing little bunch we have become.
Good-ness gra-cious. I have not had that much fun, serious good time all around fun in Lord only knows how long. We had 4 boats, 1 for each couple. For the most part we did alright. I think Shelton and I sailed most of the river backwards.. we just could not get flipped around.
Speaking of flipped, TWICE- count it TWICE, we had near death experiences. Our canoe collided in a strong current with mom and dad's canoe. The canoe got sucked underwater. All of our belongings went floating everywhere and innocent bystanders (camping drunks) had to rush over to SAVE OUR LIVES!!! Ok, not quite that dramatic, but without their help we would have lost a canoe and a lot of stuff.
We managed to make it down the 9 mile route in 3 hours. Stopping once for a little picnic and rock skipping. We managed to avoid nasty sunburns. Shelton is a little pink and my lips are pretty burnt, but all is well. Shelton and I headed back to Wichita when we returned to Joplin. We showered, ordered a pizza, and watched reruns on ABC.
This weekend was surreal. I don't remember the last time I enjoyed my family this much. All of us, as one group. It was really fantastic. I'm glad I took a camera because today's memories are definitely worth holding on to.
Shelton and I got packed and got out of town. We headed to Joplin to my parents' house. My dad had a pretty big Memorial Day celebration going on at his cemetery on Saturday. They did a civil war soldier's funeral re-enactment. Pretty impressive turnout. All the actors were in full dress, folk band. It was really interesting to see.
While there my brother was yee-haw dancing to the folkband. Goofball. He lost his balance and dropped like an anvil to the ground. We all just sat there, we being my family, laughing. We then realized he'd been "down" for a while. Turns out he banged his ankle up pretty badly. We took him to the hospital as it was swelling and he was in pretty bad pain. The X-ray showed that it was not a break, no more than a sprain.
Baffled me because Kyle heard a loud pop when he fell. Word to the wise- turns out that sound is a good thing. It means there is no break, it means that the tendon tore.
After that we all went back to the house. We fixed a monster dinner of ribs, potatoes, corn on the cob, bread... you get the idea. The whole nine. It was deelish. We all sat outside on the patio, had dinner, told stories, laughed- it was awesome.
During dinner Jenna mentions that she is going canoeing for her 18th birthday next week (sigh, yes, i said EIGHTEEN!) We all start talking about how NONE of us have ever gone canoeing and at 9pm last night spontaneity snuck up and bit me in the butt. I don't let that happen very often. I mean, we have calendars for a reason... if it's not on the calendar, it's not supposed to happen.
Anyhow, the whole fam packed up at 9 o'clock this morning, headed to Elk River for an afternoon of canoeing. Mom, Dad, Shelton, Myself, Kyle and his g/f LaRenda, Jenna and her new b/f Cody. What a growing little bunch we have become.
Good-ness gra-cious. I have not had that much fun, serious good time all around fun in Lord only knows how long. We had 4 boats, 1 for each couple. For the most part we did alright. I think Shelton and I sailed most of the river backwards.. we just could not get flipped around.
Speaking of flipped, TWICE- count it TWICE, we had near death experiences. Our canoe collided in a strong current with mom and dad's canoe. The canoe got sucked underwater. All of our belongings went floating everywhere and innocent bystanders (camping drunks) had to rush over to SAVE OUR LIVES!!! Ok, not quite that dramatic, but without their help we would have lost a canoe and a lot of stuff.
We managed to make it down the 9 mile route in 3 hours. Stopping once for a little picnic and rock skipping. We managed to avoid nasty sunburns. Shelton is a little pink and my lips are pretty burnt, but all is well. Shelton and I headed back to Wichita when we returned to Joplin. We showered, ordered a pizza, and watched reruns on ABC.
This weekend was surreal. I don't remember the last time I enjoyed my family this much. All of us, as one group. It was really fantastic. I'm glad I took a camera because today's memories are definitely worth holding on to.
