Trip Log (Part Two) – Being There

After many hours in the car, many stops at various “rest” areas and many, many annoying preschool cartoon songs, we arrived in Missouri. Since the reunion was a surprise, we couldn’t go right to Aunt NS’s house, so instead we went to my Uncle P & Aunt T’s house. My Aunt C & Uncle J had arrived the night (or early morning – a whole other story, which Aunt C should email to me and I’ll include it as a future post) before. Lots of hugs. Lots of laughs. And a few surprises.

Apparently, my immediate family (with me pregnant and two toddlers – one of them ill – was the only family that was able to arrive “on-time”. This is surprising because I usually pride myself on being fashionably late.

By the time, Mom, her hubby and my little sis arrived, poor Lij, who had been looking forward to seeing Grandma for weeks, was too tired to even get off my lap. He took a bit of a nap and recovered enough to help Dylan chase Aunt T’s chihuahuas around the living room for awhile before crashing back onto Daddy’s lap.

But we finally got around to surprising Aunt NS that evening (only a few hours later than originally planned). The poor, ambushed lady took the whole thing with grace. But she later told us that we should probably not plan surprise reunions in the future. No problem! It was too much work keeping it a secret anyway!

For the rest of that night, we ate and talked and laughed and generally had fun. Until late. Aunt NS, always gracious, offered her house for my family and my little sis to stay in. This worked out well since we were able to put the kids to bed at their regular time each night without having to leave the party. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen the first night, so while everyone was saying their good-byes for the night, Lij simply lay down in the middle of the hallway flat on his back, legs splayed out, arm over his eyes (I think my little sis got a picture of this. I'll upload it as soon as I get it). He got sick of waiting for his derelict parents to put him to bed and not knowing where his bed was in this strange new world of relative’s kneecaps, he just gave up waiting and went to sleep on the floor. He really is a good sport, huh? I promise you that we did move him to a bed.

As the days passed, Lij gradually got better. By Sunday – when we left – he was feeling so good that he was back to his old self again. I think that finally convinced my family that he had actually been sick in the first place. He’d been such a sweetheart about it that it was hard to tell if you didn’t know him. But when he asked us for a nap each day and to go to bed each night we were convinced. Along with the fact that instead of roaring loudly upon meeting someone new he merely smiled weakly, stuck out his tongue and batted his eyelashes to let them know that he liked them. What a trooper!

During the reunion, we did what my family always does when they get together. We had fun. Lots of it. And not always conventional fun either. My Aunt NS’s house is close to a beautiful river (almost in her backyard) and we went down one afternoon to scout locations for a picnic the following day. We even brought two kayaks along in case anyone wanted to go for a ride. But we encountered a problem. The river had swollen with an unseasonable amount of rain and had flooded the road leading to the picnic sight. Always up for an adventure, my aunts and uncles took turns two-by-two going out in the kayaks to explore. The rest of the group waited in the wooded lane at the edge of the swollen river (which looked more like an ephemeral pond from where we stood) and talked. As my Aunt NC put it: ‘What did you do for your family reunion? Oh, we stood by the edge of a puddle and waited.’ But never has anything so seemingly mundane been so enjoyable.

Together we had good food (biscuits with sausage gravy and barbequed ribs, to name a few), good music (all of my family either plays an instrument, pretends to, or sings when we get
together) and good times.

There was a sign at the turnoff to Aunt NS’s road (which helped quite a few of us find her road on many occasions I might add) that read “free free puppies.” I assume there were two frees because there were two litters of free puppies. I never did find out the real reason. But one of the puppies took to following our group around and was lovingly christened ‘FreeFree’. Lij and Dylan were in love and played with FreeFree every chance they got.

At one point, Lij confiscated Mom’s camera and started shooting away. Mom just let him have it. She said she couldn’t wait to get her photos developed and see what was important to Lij at the family reunion. She said the pictures will be priceless. I said there’ll be a lot of kneecaps and hubcaps. But somehow, to a grandma, that doesn’t matter.

It was so neat to see my family again. To meet the newest members. To introduce everyone to my husband and little boys. And just to catch up.

And it was priceless to watch Lij and Dylan have such a wonderful time with my family, especially staying at Aunt NS’s house. Some of my most wonderful childhood memories were made while spending time each summer in her house. It has a certain smell to it (and I don’t mean smell). Every time I smell a combination of dried flowers, herbs and massage oils I think of her. And I feel happy and loved. Smelling her house again was like instantly being transported to a safe and wonderful place in my childhood.

And now I’ve been able to share that place with my boys. I don’t think I could ask for anything more. Except maybe if I was able to see all my family as often as I would like (which would be preferably every day).

Sorry to disappoint you, Grauntie (and all the others who might have wanted parts 4 to infinity), but tomorrow’s installment – the homeward journey – will wrap up my trip log.