Family Reunion Revisited
I settled on the deviled eggs. They are always popular, even though they stink up a room something awful while you're making them. And it was when they were the stinkiest as I was making them when people began showing up (20 minutes early!). Our family had rented two cabins at Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park in Dawson Springs, Ky. The cabins were "lodge side" so an easy walk to the game room, gift shop, and swimming pool. Here's a picture of the lake from the pool.
We got there on Saturday... we deprived our children of lunch since they didn't get up until 11:00 a.m., therefore ate breakfast late. We refused to stop at McFatty's because we were going to be paying big bucks for the state park's dinner buffet. After eating, my husband took the girls to the pool. I joined them an hour later, but was only in for about 30 minutes when we heard thunder and saw lightning. I made the kids get out, but there were a couple of other people who just stood in the water looking slack-jawed. Being a buttinsky, I said, "Excuse me. You might be careful since it's lightning." This woman looked at me with her blank stare and said, "Yeah. We saw it." And they continued to just stand there waist deep in the water. Well God bless your little hearts, I thought. I never heard an ambulance so I'm assuming they got out of the water without the lightning striking them. We made it back to the cabin before the rain started... and it poured.
Later that night, we were sitting in the cabin talking and watching TV. We heard the sound of a metal trash can lid hitting the ground. We knew there was some creature nearby who was raiding the trash and thought it would be a possum or a raccoon.
See the bottom of the picture to the left of the tree trunk? That's the fairly young raccoon who hit the trash. Actually when we ran out on the porch to see what made the clatter, the raccoon kind of hung around. So I got my dried fruit trail-mix and dug out the dried papaya (I didn't like it). I threw it at Rocky Raccoon and he loved it. He also like the dried pineapple and dried apricots. And the piece of bread. I guess he filled up because he didn't come back that night. But he reminded me of another raccoon incident. About five or eight years ago, we rented a cabin for a week at Pennyrile. My brother came out to visit and a raccoon did the same thing. Only this time, my brother sneaked up on it while it was in the trash can, slowly reached in, grabbed the raccoon's tail and pulled it out of the trash can. He held it up for about a nano-second. The cabin for one week: $800. The gas it cost my brother to come visit: $5. The expression on the raccoon's face: $Priceless. (By the way, I've linked to my brother's band site on myspace).
The rest of the reunion was good. Lots of relatives, including one ex-wife. I think the new wife wasn't happy about it, but no one blew up. No one got drunk. No arguments. No name calling. Thank goodness no politicking (which means I didn't have to tell anyone "I told you so" from the last election). (But that's a whole different discussion/post). So it was fun! Here are a couple more pictures:
The bocci or bauci or bochy or bochie or bochey players. This is a really fun game, although I'm sure they didn't playing using the official rules. You have the little yellow ball that's rolled somewhere. Then the two teams take turns with their green and red balls to see who can get them the closest to the yellow ball. Points are scored based on who's closest. Definitely more fun that croquet.
A pool shot. We absolutely had the pool to ourselves all day Sunday. It was wonderful! Here are second-cousins jumping in the water together. I was very proud of how they made friends (this was their first meeting) so quickly.
Here's the inside of the cabin looking out the front door. Doesn't all that food look good? This is the dessert end of the spread with a lemon something, brownies, a homemade banana pudding, big bowl of watermelon, peach cobbler, and fresh fruit salad.
Finally, we came home sweet home........
We got there on Saturday... we deprived our children of lunch since they didn't get up until 11:00 a.m., therefore ate breakfast late. We refused to stop at McFatty's because we were going to be paying big bucks for the state park's dinner buffet. After eating, my husband took the girls to the pool. I joined them an hour later, but was only in for about 30 minutes when we heard thunder and saw lightning. I made the kids get out, but there were a couple of other people who just stood in the water looking slack-jawed. Being a buttinsky, I said, "Excuse me. You might be careful since it's lightning." This woman looked at me with her blank stare and said, "Yeah. We saw it." And they continued to just stand there waist deep in the water. Well God bless your little hearts, I thought. I never heard an ambulance so I'm assuming they got out of the water without the lightning striking them. We made it back to the cabin before the rain started... and it poured.
Later that night, we were sitting in the cabin talking and watching TV. We heard the sound of a metal trash can lid hitting the ground. We knew there was some creature nearby who was raiding the trash and thought it would be a possum or a raccoon.
See the bottom of the picture to the left of the tree trunk? That's the fairly young raccoon who hit the trash. Actually when we ran out on the porch to see what made the clatter, the raccoon kind of hung around. So I got my dried fruit trail-mix and dug out the dried papaya (I didn't like it). I threw it at Rocky Raccoon and he loved it. He also like the dried pineapple and dried apricots. And the piece of bread. I guess he filled up because he didn't come back that night. But he reminded me of another raccoon incident. About five or eight years ago, we rented a cabin for a week at Pennyrile. My brother came out to visit and a raccoon did the same thing. Only this time, my brother sneaked up on it while it was in the trash can, slowly reached in, grabbed the raccoon's tail and pulled it out of the trash can. He held it up for about a nano-second. The cabin for one week: $800. The gas it cost my brother to come visit: $5. The expression on the raccoon's face: $Priceless. (By the way, I've linked to my brother's band site on myspace).
The rest of the reunion was good. Lots of relatives, including one ex-wife. I think the new wife wasn't happy about it, but no one blew up. No one got drunk. No arguments. No name calling. Thank goodness no politicking (which means I didn't have to tell anyone "I told you so" from the last election). (But that's a whole different discussion/post). So it was fun! Here are a couple more pictures:
The bocci or bauci or bochy or bochie or bochey players. This is a really fun game, although I'm sure they didn't playing using the official rules. You have the little yellow ball that's rolled somewhere. Then the two teams take turns with their green and red balls to see who can get them the closest to the yellow ball. Points are scored based on who's closest. Definitely more fun that croquet.
A pool shot. We absolutely had the pool to ourselves all day Sunday. It was wonderful! Here are second-cousins jumping in the water together. I was very proud of how they made friends (this was their first meeting) so quickly.
Here's the inside of the cabin looking out the front door. Doesn't all that food look good? This is the dessert end of the spread with a lemon something, brownies, a homemade banana pudding, big bowl of watermelon, peach cobbler, and fresh fruit salad.
Finally, we came home sweet home........
posted by Kathy T. at 10:43 AM
2 Comments:
Lovely pics and a delightful story. See you changed your thumbs up pic.
Great story. It felt like I was there. Just think, if things had turned out slightly differently, you might have been able to nominate the Slack-jawed Pool-stayers for the Darwin award. :::shakes head and wanders off muttering about stupid people:::
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