we crashed someone else’s family reunion early july. our friends invited us and apparently i don’t have much of a conscience because i thought it was a great idea. plus, i was really sad i missed out on their sourdough pancake feed the month before. next thing you know and they’ll have to adopt me.
it’s a family with 11 kids. their kids went on to have anywhere from 11 kids down to a meager batch of five. which means when they all get together they have enough people to throw their own rodeo. complete with pony rides, petting zoo, cotton candy, snow cones, relay races, face painting, and puddin’ eating contests. heck, they could start their own town.
at first i was a little embarrassed to show up with my white city boys while all the other little kids were roping cows in their chaps and wranglers. that is until gideon volunteered to ride a bull. it’s true. he was watching the calf riding, eating his potato salad, and i came up beside him and teased, “hey gideon! are you ready to ride some bulls?” he stuffed some food in his mouth and said matter-of-factly, “sure. here, hold my plate.”
i’m not quite certain what the misunderstanding was. maybe he thought i asked if he wanted to go ride the shetland ponies. even i had to bite my tongue when he went on to tell the cowboys he wanted to do it himself. previously, all the little kids had been held on the calves and pulled off after a one second ride. maybe i should have mentioned that if he went alone he was going to get trampled, but i didn’t want to spoil the fun.
here he is a wiser man.
bull calves are not in fact shetland ponies. it was awesome.
whoever had this farm landscaped for mass grandchildren. this trampoline was terraced into the patio, there was a big fire pit with seating, a playground, a death defying two story slide that had “coma” written all over it, a giant sand box and a family room built off the side of the original double-wide that could house a practical bowling alley. that’s thinking.
the kids had so much fun, i cannot say. and the lawn was like a golf coarse. amazing. with a volley ball court to boot.
we’re ready to start our own tribe. there is nothing like the closeness and community of family. especially when they evidence their loyalty by living in decent proximity to each other. none of this skipping off to unknown cities after the dollar. i ♥ roots.
i want to keep all of my babies and their babies’ babies. i’m greedy like that. maybe someday we could have our own circus.
