And something else that has me all spun up and feeling more inadequate than normal...I was exercising this morning in our kitchen (bad decorative move, but essential to our family fitness) and watching one of my favorite shows I'd recorded. Has anyone else seen 'The Pioneer Woman' cooking show and read her blog? I must be a huge time waster, because even in my dreams I couldn't prepare a pork roast, cole slaw with homemade dressing, Au gratin potatoes from scratch, and 2 flat apple pies with homemade crust, then drive to take beautiful pictures (with the most awesome lens I've ever seen!!!) of the cowboys/cowgirls rustling up the cattle in the fog and then go home and blog about it, and then finish putting dinner together for 15 people...and then quickly make a simple caramel sauce for the flat apple pies. She may have prepared a couple of things the night before...did I mention she home schools her 4 kids, writes cookbooks and, like I said, has a TV show?? I couldn't do that in 3 weeks! Obviously!
How do these women do it? I had to sync my phone calendar with my home calendar with my church calendar today and it took me almost 2 hours! I hate seeing the 'perfect' side of people...because I have this obsessive mind that I have to be that way too, or else...not even try at all. I want to be the best at everything I do and I end up being 20% at everything.
Have I already asked if there is a pill for that?
Anyway...
For the last several years we've been driving up to Wellsville in Cache Valley to my cousin Sharma's house for the "Eberhard" family reunion, my mom's side of the family. Sharma and her husband Jed have an awesome property with a huge, long water slide they've built and rent for parties that the young and old (not me, who doesn't want to have ugly wet hair...or honestly, get into a swimsuit) LOVE.
We used to have Thanksgiving together with my mom's side of the family all the years we were growing up as kids. We used to take turns going to my mom's brothers and sisters...I seriously have such fond memories of driving up Provo Canyon to my mom's twin sisters house in Coalville...narrow, windy roads, lots of green space between the houses with little creeks to cross and far enough away from civilization that you only had to dial the last 4 numbers of a phone number to call anyone in the community! How awesome is that? I'm sure it's changed now since that was 30 years ago, but...and all their TV channels were different too...it felt like we were visiting a foreign place. Ooooo, different TV channels!!!
Our families got super big and houses stayed small and we stopped getting together with the Eberhards. There may have been an Uncle who, with his staunch German attitude, never would let us forget that "All Mormons do is get together to EAT!!" My mom and her sisters have been trying to get us kids, cousins, together and Labor Day has been the day for the past few years.
This is that day. My brain, nor my cold feet (it's cold in my little corner office and Jay has the space heater outside in the back room) won't let me do two different posts right now...so this really is what we did that day! It started early (we tried before sunrise, hoping for beautiful sunflowers, some cloud cover...instead we got full on sun and wind. Lovely.) with a quick photo-shoot with my girls and two of my nieces, Ashley and Allison...they brought me a diet coke first thing in the morning. The day began just wonderfully!
These girls are so much fun and so beautiful. Even more beautiful than they are fun, and they are super fun! I guess I was never fond of having my picture taken so the only pictures I have of me at their age are ones people took without me knowing it...which hits on so many negative possibilities and very unfortunate looks and angles!
So the rest of the day went like this...we piled into the truck, clouds came, rain came, we made an emergency stop at a gas station in Bountiful (northern-ish Utah) because I had enjoyed that diet coke, remember? And Jay, who had his learners permit for a few months at this time, drove us the rest of the way to the family reunion.
I sat in the back seat and played solitaire on my phone to keep myself from being the annoying backseat/passenger driver that I normally am...it helped me to keep my GASPS of fear to a minimum which I'm sure Jay appreciated! I know Will did.
Like I said...the young and the old enjoy it ;) hehehe...Emery was no doubt the youngest to go down the huge, steep slide. The looks on her face were always of sheer terror, but she kept going again and again. Ryan got less responsible and eventually Emery was basically free falling!
My kids won't go on roller coasters...but they'll go on this slide. And then Kristy goes and makes all us vain sisters look bad and proves that she really is the FUN mom! Again! ;)
I took a TON of pictures...some I think the people who are in them would appreciate them not being on the blog...I loved the facial expressions though.
The goal was to go the furthest on the slide, so far that you'd actually run out of slide and hit grass. The more weight, the further you'd go...all I could imagine was a disaster with arms and legs flying everywhere! Me = Cup half full.
That's all a boy needs...his bag of chips and his cup with chip floaters!
Of course there were injuries. Oh, but doesn't Tyler look proud of his wound?
These are most, minus about 8, of my Eberhard cousins. I hadn't seen some of these cousins for 20 years! It was so wonderful! It was quite the photo op...all the aunts and uncles and our kids had surrounded us with cameras, thus the multi-directional looks.
This is the best of Will...did I luck out or what??
This is my mom and her brothers and sisters...not that anyone cares and anyone who is family already knows who these people are, but just for kicks...back left, my Uncle Kim (he's the youngest of the 6), then my Uncle Jan (second oldest, he goes by Ernst, or Ernie I think...which was also my grandpa's name), then my Uncle Randy (third oldest) front left is my mom's twin sister, Holly, then my mom Carolee (they were born on Christmas Day...thus HOLLY and CAROLee) and then my Aunt Collette (she's the oldest of the 6)
I need to enlarge this, I love it...there's always a competition to look buffer than Will. Ryan, you're ALMOST there!
I have some awesome men in my life! (Jay, until you start brushing your teeth without being told to, I might not be able to refer to you as a 'man'! The facial hair helps, though!)
I know it was photo heavy, but I can tell you that my cold toes are almost as happy as I am to be done with this...and my kids are watching 'Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs' for the second time while I've been working on this post. I'm one step closer to being caught up on my pictures. Only about 4 months of undocumented family memories to go.
And a pork roast to make! ;)
1 comment:
Thanks for posting these Julie.
love
Ryan
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