Summer (unofficially) has begun

Yes, for me, summer has begun. Though the official starting date of summer is (arguably) June 21st - my birthday, when you work at a college "Summer" begins once school is out and vacations have begun.

Last weekend (Memorial weekend) I travelled to Seattle to attend Eric and Lori's wedding (pics to come) and to spend some time with family. My dad (as most of you know) has 6 sisters, and between them they have 13 of the 15 grandchildren. As a family we are in close contact with 5 of the 6 sisters, and 7 of the 13 grandchildren, so it was really fun to get to see some of this clan over the weekend.

When I was growing up Memorial weekend was our Family Reunion weekend. We had these reunions as long as I can remember. The first one that I recall (it wasn't the "first", I'm sure, but the first I can remember) was at Moses Lake, Washington - we all had matching t-shirts that my grandparents had given us which were navy blue and in white they said, "I'm a valuable natural resource". I loved that shirt, and that was a fun reunion - hot as Hades and lots of mosquitos, but fun!

I have a lot of favorite memories from those times: the talent show where Anita and I sang "yankee doodle dandy" (that was not the funniest act, but its the way I remember that reunion - there were some FUNNY acts!), the beach where my brother and cousin got mired in the sand knee deep, the one where it rained so much overnight that I ended up sleeping in the van because my air mattress could no longer hold off the water under it, the scavenger hunt on the way to the location, scouting out locations with Gloria and Donna and Ben and singing "Lean on Me" together, my grandparents laughing - in particular, I remember grandpa from those days laughing out loud, the softball game where uncle Jim tripped and crawled the bases. Whoo. Even just thinking about them makes me laugh.

So it was great to be with family again that weekend. We didn't have a big reunion. Its harder than ever these days to get everyone together. My folks and brother live in Phoenix and Ben never takes vacation, and I can never get to Seattle when my parents are there. We don't really speak to one part of the family - lots of weird-bad history there (on her part, after my grandpa died), so we occasionally see one of those cousins (Wendy) and her daughter (Hannah) but not the others. And though the other sisters live relatively close to each other (within an hour or two) the cousins, now that we are all mostly grown up, are the hardest to get together. This weekend my cousin Steve was playing with a band at the Sasquatch! festival at the Gorge in George, WA. ** side note: there were some pretty famous acts at this festival, including Ben Harper and Death Cab for Cutie - my cousin plays for Sufjan Stevens, and was on the main stage - can you believe that?!? Also, Ben Harper is married to Laura Dern and randomly, my cousin Lisa (steve's sister) served her at the restaurant where Lisa works. Ms. Dern left her a big tip, so that was neat, too! end side note**

Well, I could tell you who was and wasn't there, or I could move on. So I'll simply say I got to see a few of my cousins (Katie, Tony, Lisa, Monica) and a few of my aunts (Sally, Anita, Gloria and Donna) and one of my few uncles (Brian) over the weekend and that was really fun.

The highlights of the weekend (in which most of my time was spent with family) were:
Friend-wise:
* sitting with Amy Jo, Kurt, Jane, Kristen, Terry (and others) in the third row of the wedding.
* Lori getting the giggles at the beginning of the ceremony.
* talking at the reception with old, good friends
* seeing Tim and Carrie Lynn and them making me laugh (as usual)
* getting to see Steve and know he's doing well

Family-wise:
* the 4 hour (each way) trip to Spokane on Saturday where we had our "snack" at Zips..., with Gloria, Donna and Anita - boy do they make me laugh
* visiting the graves of my grandparents, great-grandparents and great aunt
* do-si-do-ing at the graves
* playing "Outwages" and laughing so hard that we all almost you know what'd..
* sitting at the "kids" table with the cousins while our aunts and uncle were at the other table
* watching hugh grant movies with G and D

It was a great weekend. And now I'm back at work and enjoying my time here as well.

Thats the update for today. Hope to have pics, soon, for some of the events. Blessings to you!