All in One Weekend!

We celebrated two birthdays, attended the Hurlburt family reunion, and made it to a post-reunion gathering at Jon's brother Phil's lake house... all in one weekend! Very busy, but fun nonetheless.

The Hurlburt reunion is an annual gathering for the descendents of Ruth and Harry Hurlburt, Jon's paternal grandparents. It's a chance for Jon and his brothers and sisters to see cousins they played with years ago.

This is Jon with his cousin Joel Craker. Joel is holding his new baby daughter Laurel (named for his late mother, who is Bud's sister Laurel). Jon, of course, has our little Leila, who looks big here because she is a month older. Joel's wife and I also posed for a pic with the babies.

Jonathan was able to rearrange his work schedule, to attend the reunion. We were glad he was able to spend more time with David before David flies home to West Virginia this coming weekend. Actually, Jonathan stopped by again yesterday afternoon for another visit with us, and made plans today to take David on an inner-tube float down the river. So they're getting to spend quite a lot of time together this summer. Jonathan is seven years older than David.

Baby Leila was passed around quite a bit at the reunion. This is her with her cousin Nathan Hurlburt. Don, Nathan is the one that you (shall we say... "scolded"?) for spending too much time near your little sister and her friend Ingrid, at our wedding almost thirteen years ago. You were a little concerned because Laurie was tipsy, and you weren't sure about that Nathan-character (I think he's O.K., Don... ).

Anyway. Just checking to see how many of you actually read my commentary.

Leila continues to impress everyone with her sweet and smiley baby ways. She was awake for most of this long day of socializing, but didn't complain much. Here she is with two of her aunts, Tammy and Jill.

Jon's mother organized some of the children into singing an impromptu rendition of "You Are My Sunshine". Of course, Emma participated.

After the kids sang, Jon's brother Brent led an auction of items everyone had donated (proceeds are saved to help pay for some meal items as well as a charitable donation of some sort to the city in Harry and Ruth's names).

You may recall in my last entry that Brent recently had brain surgery as the result of a bump to his head. We were amazed to see Brent back to normal health, with hardly a scar showing, at the reunion. He's just fine and back to his normal activities of bike riding, lifting weights, roller blading, etc., etc. I think he's pretty much a walking advertisement for the benefits of a physically active lifestyle.

We gave Michael and Emma each $5 to spend at the auction. Michael spent his money right away on two ceramic pieces... a Christmas plate & cup set and a candle holder. Emma scored an assortment of stuffed animals and kiddy treasures. After her money was gone, a Halloween costume came up for bid. She ran over and fervantly begged me for, "More money... please, Mom! I love this costume SO MUCH! Please!!" I agreed she could have one more dollar, and she managed to win the costume with that. On closer inspection, I was very impressed with Emma's acquisition. Here it was a brand-new, still in the package costume, in her size, originally priced $49.99! Good eye, Emma-! (Emma is wearing the costume in the photo at left).

After the reunion, most of the group went to Phil's lake cottage for a second potluck. This time the food had a theme... Mexican. Everyone brought items to build tacos and burritoes. There were chips and guacamole and margueritas. I thought it was a fun spin on the traditional potluck.

Emma swam (this time we brought a suit) and Michael and Emma both went for a ride on their Uncle Mark's new pontoon. Emma reported that she steered the vessel (almost) the entire way.
Jon's mother gave him a card and cake that night. His birthday is coming up this Thursday, and depending on whether or not he has to work Friday he may or may not be home that day. So Sunday, shortly before Jon had to leave for work in Crivitz, we had lunch and sang Happy Birthday to him. Two neighbor girls, Makayla and her younger sister Janetta, were happy to share Grandma Jane's home-made chocolate cake with us.

That afternoon we went to Owen Park in Eau Claire, to attend a birthday party for Emma's friend Avala. So we had more cake. Avala is the dark-haired girl to the left of Michael and Emma.

The kids played on the playground equipment and also waded down by the river. Avala's father Crispin, a university professor who teaches environmental science, played tag with the kids as well as helped them make observations of flora and fauna down by the river.

Leila had fun, too... her first time in a swing. Jon had stopped by the park, too, on his way out of town, so was able to share in this adorable moment. After a few gentle pushes, a calm Leila started to drift off to sleep. Since we were concerned she might slide through one of the swing's leg holes, we had to take her out right away.

Look at the beautiful quilt my sister Laurie made for Leila! We haven't received it yet, but Laurie is giving it to us in August, when her and Mark come visit. Laurie bring's an artist's eye to quilting, with her selection of fabric and color arrangement.

Now to close with a poem from Michael. I'm printing this here because Grandma Jane has trouble opening "Michael's Blog" when I send it out, and I want her to see it too. Note: Michael "made up" some of the words in this poem, after a talk we had yesterday about how Lewis Caroll made up words in his Jabberwocky poem in Alice in Wonderland. Anyway, here it is:

1682,

a man thrumbles bumbles to a zoo

looking at the animals to

he skipped to the scary section

took a pip at the tourist attraction

stared and smiled for awhile

and pulled out his kazoo

he let out a shelp and smiled a bit

he looked a glare, which made him stare

at the tourist attraction

he stumbled and cried

there's a Jack-o-lantern

the pumpkin screamed

and let out a stream

of extra electric lightning

this passed and untamed the man

and made him lose his head

and made the man

unmad and merry

also brary as a cherry

not quite as satisfied

as you and me would be extrised

We don't quite understand

the purpose of the imparision

but we do

factually and actually

understand that he was undoably emortalized.

I think that says it all! I'll close with that.