jaguars in iowa and marilyn monroe in the web-also in iowa

and now for family reunion time!

it's an 8 hour drive from southern/mid missouri to north western iowa, and we were planning to meet at my aunt's to have dinner with her and her husband. this meant that we would have to leave by 9. of course before we left, i had to drop the boys off at the kennel. suffice it to say that they were not happy with me when i walked out. in fact, i am fairly certain that i felt chaco throw the stink eye at my back... and me, well, i felt a little guilty leaving them. although when i thought it over, i decided that it would ultimately be less stressful for them to stay there and be around other dogs (maybe learn a new dialect from the corgi down the way),than to travel 8 hours with us, be around a bunch of strangers and still have to be in a fenced-in area all day, just to turn around and drive 8 hours back. so the lesser of the two evils it was.

we did fairly well on time-dad let me drive (his mistake); i may or may not have transferred the radar detector to their car before we took off...is 85/90 too fast?

we got there a little before dinner. the great thing is that kim's husband, marvin likes to grill. the greater thing is that he does it well! everything was absolutely delicious! amazing steak and grilled veggies! fellowship with family is fun! they have done a lot with the house since the last time we were there, and it looks GREAT! the additions in the basement for the gardening and canning, the addition on the back with the master suite-they did a very nice job-both of them are incredibly handy!

we woke up early the next morning to do breakfast and get to the park to set up for the reunion. we may have taken a long detour around trying to find the lodge. just as we were driving up and over a hill, 5-6 wild turkeys were gaggling* around so close to the road that we almost had turkey sandwiches for lunch...then about 10 yards further on the other side of the road, there was a baby deer (i suppose some people might call that a fawn..fair enough). i wonder if the turkeys were preparing to gang up on the deer..awesome! we saved an innocent deer! *(please note that i do realize a gaggle is a group of geese, and a rafter is a group of turkeys, but it's also a noisy, disorderly group..)

while we were waiting for everyone to arrive, i took my camera out and found a trail, hoping for more national geographic opportunities...i apparently will NOT be switching jobs this summer-i found nothing. i mean...i wasn't expecting a jaguar, but i did go through the mental exercise of visualizing what i would do and how i would start with the eyes...most vulnerable part. ridiculous? perhaps, until i get attacked by a jaguar and come out alive! (go ahead, laugh it up, you know it's true though). as i was entering the train and had walked in about 20 feet, i turned to see a lady and her dog entering the trail as well, so i kept going, thinking to myself, "great. they are going to ruin EVERYTHING!" she must have heard me thinking because when i turned around about 3 minutes later, i didn't see or hear them. unless of course...the jaguar?

i kept walking the path and wondering how much poison ivy i was brushing past...and which tree the jaguar was in.

so..what's so special about this dew-covered web? well, if you look really closely, you'll see...a likeness of marilyn monroe **

once people started to arrive, i put on my social face and conversed. last time we all got together, i did not get as much time as i was hoping for with my cousin, michelle, so i made a point to sit with her and learn what all was going on in her world and with her family. love that girl! when they started playing games, i pulled my other cousin, trish, in to sit and be a part of the game-playing. i watched, as i am a better watcher until i know what's going on! then stacey arrived-my cousin who is closest to my age-we're about 5-6 months apart-so we got to sit and talk and catch up. it was fun getting to chat with her youngest for a bit as well; bree is a fun young lady and her mom was trying to convince her of the importance and the love for family.

people began to clear out early, but we stayed to kind of wrap it up and shut-er-down. the boys men man-boys and michelle were in the middle of another card game (hand and foot/a family fave), so we decided that it would be fun to pause the game and take it back to uncle dwayne and aunt susan's so the kids could go swimming and we could continue to chat and laugh. when we got there, all of the kids went out to play, and we pulled out the card table. one group in the dining area finishing their game of hand and foot, and the rest of us in the living room playing another card game (i don't recall the name of the game, but i do believe that they let me win...although, susan is very competitive, she probably wouldn't just let me win)...i will chock it up to beginner's luck! i really do enjoy my time with my cousins, aunts and uncles. family is precious. we were missing a couple of cousins who couldn't make it.

my aunts are so thoughtful and went through a lot of time and work to collect pictures of the family throughout the years!

uncle rick in the plaid, next to his wife, marlene. he is the oldest brother, and really resembles my grandpa

marvin and jerry- i would always love to be a fly on the wall..or squirrel in the tree in this instance!

mom joining in the outdoor games

new game...tracks? trains? tickets? routes? it actually looks like a great game!

me and stace-just catching up-i want so badly for great things to happen for her! 

bree-just kickin it with my camera, because that's how she does! ;)

take 1-susan wanted to make sure we got her best side...i mean, her wet side...don't worry, it was wet because of water balloons...nothing more nothing less.

almost all of them there are 10 sibs total. missing: uncle craig-couldn't make it from ohio, and uncle dave had to leave early-due to physical difficulties. i am sad that i didn't get a pic before they left.

and michelle-my sassy, funny, fun-loving cousin! so glad we got to hang out for longer this time!

 we left the party and headed back to kim and marvin's and when we got there, they were watching a show about mountain men-never a dull moment!

we had to leave early sunday morning because i had to pick up the boys between 4 and 5, so we got breakfast on the way home, and again, i drove... with the fearlessness and need for speed of mario andretti. it goes without saying that we were home with ample time to spare!

i asked mom to go with me to pick up the boys, because i took lots of things for them, and i needed a little assistance. when we walked into the kennel, the lady opened the gate, and bruno came running out to me, but no chaco. i was a little worried at first that maybe she'd put him in a wrong kennel, but then i saw him on the other side of the plastic door, just hangin' out outside probably looking at the other dogs and wondering how he could annoy them. it took several seconds before he caught on to what was happening and came running through the plastic door! "WHERE WERE YOU?!?!?" they kept asking. and when i told them, chaco was like, "no worries, mama, we had lots of fun barking at the other dogs. they were SO afraid of us." mind you, even in the small dog section, my dogs were smaller than all of the others. <cough,cough> no one was afraid of them..just sayin'. and i didn't have the heart to tell them that i would be leaving early the next morning--instead, we just hung out all night on the couch enjoying sunday night life with popcorn.

next up...i believe that would be florida!

-julie
**marilyn monroe will not appear in the dew drops on the web...no matter how hard you look and squint your eyes. if you saw her, you might want to get your eyes checked..or your brain. she's just not there. why would her likeness show up on a web in the grass? charlotte, from charlotte's web-NOT REAL ya'all.