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. 

chronicles of a family reunion part 2

i woke up and it was overcast-nice. the heat has been ridiculous, so it was a nice change. mom called up to my room and asked if i'd had breakfast yet. nope. she said there wasn't much in the lounge as far as the 'continental breakfast' went. so we walked over to casey's and got their breakfast pizza. yum. and while we were walking(basically on the other side of the building), it started to sprinkle.

when we got to stone park around 10:30-11-ish, it had sprinkled a little more and there was wet ground and some puddles (nothing crazy, mind you).
so i got the boys ready and we took their exercise pen up, hoping for a small place to set it up out of everyone's way. they had a perfect little spot in the corner!

then while aunt kim, mindy, sue and debbie were setting up, i took the boys for a little walk. we found a nature trail and decided to check it out...their feet got all wet, therefore, they got muddy. but i think they kinda' liked it. it was a little different for them than our usual walks. lots of new smells.

by the time we got back, some more people had started to arrive. everything was pretty much ready around 1 pm, so we got everyone inside the lodge and prayed, and then came the gluttony...marvin, kim's husband was the designated 'grill-master,' and he did a fabulous job (with choices of hot dogs, brats and burgers)-love the brats! the salads were delicious (got seconds), and as we were eating my cousin, stacey showed up. [i'm not going to change it because it's kind of funny, but when i was re-reading this, i had to come back to clarify that we were not eating my cousin when stacey showed up. commas, commas. it should read: as we were eating, my cousin, stacey showed up...i missed a comma]

we are only a couple months apart in age, so as we grew up, we always got to hang out when we'd come up to grandma's. we'd wander around the neighborhood, and play. so it was great to see her and meet her new sidekick and love of her life...when she introduced him to my parents, she introduced him, saying, "you can call him pete or pj." it sounded like: you can call him peterpeejay. so i made sure my parents knew it was one or the other, not a hyphenated name.

i cannot believe how stinkin big all of my cousins' children are! what in the world! i made sure that the little ones knew not to feed the dogs. i think chaco did a pretty good job at deterring them from reaching into the cage-he's the barker...he barks at little children. the littler they are the more anxious he is about them, add flip flops flopping around, and it just gets worse! i kept a vigilant eye on him, because while bruno would never bite a child, i cannot vouch for chaco if someone was in his face and bothering him...i doubt it, but those would be famous last words.

the dogs don't really like to be held, and all of the kids really wanted to hold them. i felt bad saying no, but from past experience, they just get very squirmy and try to jump. that scares me because the doctor has said that they have week knees anyway. last thing i need would be to have to find a vet in sioux city and mess up the whole trip.

at one point, i was over by the dog-pen (don't worry, i did not stand over there all day long), but while i was standing there, ralph came over and we were talking about what i feed them, etc...he and and mindy have greyhounds that they raise and he was telling me that the company that produces canin royal actually has a plant there in the area and they also make another brand called tuffy's and that's what he feeds his kids. and while we were talking, i could hear one of the husbands of one of my aunts talking with my dad about politics, and i think my dad likes to rile him up by using facts, and making him stick to logic, and that just befuddles him a little.

everyone except grandma-they say she was sick that day

it was a good group-all 10 of the brothers and sisters were there, and most of the cousins were there, excluding my brother, troy, jess and mckenzie.  there was some ladder ball, volleyball and a board game going. there was also a lot of pictures to sift through, because a few people brought old Bibles, pictures and baby books, etc. aunt kim's husband made a great presentation on the laptop that mom and i watched when we first got there-it was really well done!

around the 3-ish hour, we decided it was time to go because we would have a long trip home.

the trip home was fairly uneventful-just after kc on the way to clinton, i was going a little fast and rehearsing in my head the story for the police...it went something like this: sorry, officer, i was in a hurry because i need to get to walmart before it closes so i can get a black slip for church tomorrow to wear under my dress. if i don't get it, i can't wear the dress, and i can't go to church. if i don't go to church, i might miss the opportunity to contribute to the mission fund to feed the children in africa. i am certain you don't want me telling people that you are the reason children are starving in africa..right?

when it started to get dark, we were in the windy (like it winds around, not like the wind blowing) roads of missouri. so i slowed down a bit and had my eyes sharp on the road because the last thing i need is to leave a bunch of baby armadillos orphaned by running over their ma. i saw no armadillos, but we did have to come to a stop because there was a fawn that didn't know how to cross the road..we were close enough to count it's spots...1,2,3...stupid deer. then we got going again and slowed for a raccoon crossing...and a little closer to home we saw a white horse standing on what looked like the embankment close to the road-it looked like he was too close to the road to be behind the fence, but he was just calmly eating. i thought about the mess that would ensue if he were to step out into the road. then i determined that he must've actually been a unicorn, and he will use his magic powers to spirit himself away to fairy land-catastrophe averted thanks to my quick imagination. i even told mom that he was a unicorn.

and that concludes travels to the family reunion.
julie
p.s. all of the pictures for today's post were courtesy of my aunt kim-unfortunately i may have left my usb connection, to download pictures from my phone, at the red carpet inn. boo.

part one of family reunion

family reunion part 1. we got here in one piece..i got pulled over by a cop because he was coming the other direction and he must have been driving pretty high speed because i didn't get enough of a chance to slow down enough before he clocked me and turned around....i proceeded to take the radar detector out of the window and when he walked up he said, do you know how fast you were going? i looked up and said no because i wasn't exactly sure. i feigned surprise when he said he clocked me at *87, and it took everything within me to not sigh relief and say, "good, i'm glad that's what you clocked me at because it might have been closer to 94."

we went to my aunt beth's house and another of their sisters and her daughters and grandkids came over and we had some kfc. when we drove by where my grandma's old home was, and it has since been leveled and turned into a park and walking trail. it has changed so much! almost unrecognizable.

then we played a game called wazzit...it's one of those with phrases that are written in a way to make you figure them out like: talk talk would be double talk. anyhoo, it was running long, but of course we couldn't stop in the middle of the game without finishing, because that would go against board-game etiquette...although, in order to get done quicker, we may or may not have all had a hand in cheating to help each other reach the end so we could get a winner (none of us really cared who won...) cheating in order to finish...principles, principles....

we checked into a red carpet inn earlier today (it was a cheap one near the park, that accepted pets)..

well, all i can say is that this hotel should probably be picked up and moved to the little town of halfway down by mom and dad's because the management seems to be just that. they haven't even been at the counter any time that i have walked by. the vending machine has about 3 choices...and i think i might be in a smoking room that they just pried the little smoking sign off the door...not sure. it should have been a hint when i called to make the reservation and had to ask the person to repeat everything twice- it seemed like i had been routed through a customer service center in india, but no, not to my surprise, there was an indian boy that checked us in...and tonight his mom had to re-key my key card because i couldn't get in my door...bruno and chaco were probably playing a prank...

now it's time to get some sleep so that i can talk to people tomorrow and come up with things to say and stories to tell-i have a crazy, silly imperfect family...but it doesn't even matter because at least it's MY family! i wouldn't have it any other way!

julie