Memorial Day Weekend Reunion, 2012

One of the things I very strongly believe is that it's important for my grandchildren to grow up knowing that they're part of a larger, loving family. Over the years, we've managed to start a tradition of getting as much of the family together as we can twice a year: at Memorial Day and at Thanksgiving. This past weekend, our son Jason and his family came from Dayton, Agnes and I drove with our daughter Yasmin and her girls from here in Virginia, and we descended on my sister Lisa's home in Pittsburgh for this year's Memorial Day mini-reunion. And - naturally - we have pictures to prove it ...

On Saturday, we drove over to the home where Great Grandpa (my father) lives to have a picnic on the grounds. The good news is that the home has a nice grassy area for picnics and games ... the bad news is that we had to keep moving to keep in the little strip of shade at the edge of the woods ...

My brother Paul is a paramedic and, because of his shift work he isn't always able to come to our get-togethers. He and his wife Brenda made it this year, happily enough ... here, he and my granddaughter Leya get into a major stare-down (she won) ...

We hadn't seen our niece - Paul's daughter Brianne - since 2004. She managed to make it to the picnic on Saturday, and it was wonderful to see her again ...

On Sunday, we reconvened at Lisa's house, and her son Eddie played his usual major role in delighting all his little cousins. It was a very hot day, and Jason had bought a fancy multiple-hose water sprinkler to keep the children cool and happy. Here, Cousin Eddie leads Joe, Marcy, Elena, and Leya on a charge through the sprinklers ...

When just running through the sprinklers got old, Eddie dragged out some tarps to lay on the hillside in combination with the sprinklers as a poor-man's water slide ... here, Joe and Noah try it out. They later discovered that you could slide down faster when the slide was lubricated with dishwashing liquid, leaving them all not only well cooled-off, but sparkly clean and without spots ...

And when the water slide got old, the kids moved on to the play tower, where devious Cousin Eddie demonstrated the summer uses of a hose and a five-gallon bucket. First, you fill the bucket while everyone else crowds together on the lower level ...

Then everyone gets ready ... in this case, Leya, Elena, and Marcy ...

And when the bucket is full ...

When everyone needed to dry out, Eddie led the children in a project to make a marker for Great Grandpa's little garden plot at the home. Here, Marcy, Noah, and Leya work busily under Eddie's supervision on arranging colored stones and markers in the wet cement ...

And this was the end result. The final marker included thumbprints from the grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and one button (on the left side) - in honor of the button sculptures Great Grandpa is famous for making for all occasions ...

I absolutely wanted a new group photo of Agnes and I with all the grandchildren. Jason and his family will be moving to Germany at the end of the month, and it will be a few years before we're able to have them with us again for one of our Memorial Day or Thanksgiving get-togethers. Left to right are Joe (9), Noah (6), Elise (2), Marcy (12), and Leya (4).

And Lisa and I had to have a picture of ourselves with Dad, aka Great Grandpa - the man without whom all of this would truly never have been possible ...

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend ... very hot, but that's what beer and ice water and watermelon and all the great summer treats are for. Cousin Eddie demonstrated yet again why all the younger children worship him, Great Grandpa got a chance to see (and hear!) the teeming crowd of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and a grand time was had by all.

I can only hope your weekends were half as much fun.

But now, of course, it's a new week and time to get back to work. Sigh.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo