Black Family Reunion Weekend 2011

WARNING: this is a LONG post with LOTS of pictures and a very lengthy amount of must-have-details in the beginning. Soooo either be patient and bear with me OR just skip this one all together :)

OK, here goes....A couple of weeks ago we pile into the sexy van to make the 6 or so hour trip to north Georgia for Shane's enormous yearly family reunion. I mean, these folks don't play....it's an all weekend event full of lots of fun, lots of festivities, and LOTS of FOOD. Shane worked even crazier hours than normal Mon-Wed so we could leave Thursday morning and have an extra day to spend with his fam. The girls just happened (yeah, right, like they don't do this EVERY DAY) to wake up at the crack of dawn on Thursday so we decided to go ahead and leave so that we could get there in time for the girls to take a nap. As we all know, the girls aren't the best travelers in the world so the quicker we could get this drive over with, the better. We make it to Montgomery in great time and decided since it was still so early we would keep driving to Auburn and then stop there for lunch. We get almost to Auburn and all of the sudden the van starts not going...I mean like Shane is pressing the gas pedal and the RPMs are going nuts the van stops going. We then see/smell smoke coming from the hood. NOT GOOD. He tried the gas again and it was revving up but not moving. TRANSMISSION. AWESOME. THIS IS NOT HAPPENING. SOOOOO, we coast to an exit ramp and make it to the light where the van decides to completely shut down and not do anything. Now we are blocking an entire intersection. Sweet. Did I mention it was 500 degrees outside? The girls start freaking out at this point (the mama was doing the same :) We call Shane's mom and HayHay looks up a tow truck to come tow the van to a shop in Auburn. It took them about 30 or 40 minutes to get there. I'm pretty sure we melted completely during this time. We also called a rental car place b/c we knew it was probably the transmission and would take several days to fix and we were still 3.5 hours from Habersham. We really didn't have another choice. The rental car people said they would send a car to us (by the way....we had brought a TON of stuff with us...i.e....the girls' little four wheelers, etc b/c they love riding them up there). Shane asked if they had a vehicle for us to rent that would hold us, 2 big carseats, and all of our crap. They ensured us that they did. The tow truck got there way before the rental car people (sidenote...not sure why the rest of this paragraph is underlined...I tried to get it off, but I couldn't :)

SO, he hooked our van to the truck and towed it up the road to a gas station (while us four had to WALK to the gas station :). Then we had to unload all of our stuff onto the parking lot of the gas station while we waited for the rental people. Did I mention we had a butt load of stuff?? We totally looked homeless. I so wish I had snapped a pic. I think I was starting to have a heat stroke at this point :) We are all pouring sweat and the girls are starting to complain about being hungry. We wait 30 more minutes for the rental car people to finally arrive. OK, for some reason, Shane thought he understood the lady say that they were going to bring a car for us to the parking lot, we would sign for the car there, we would load the rental car with all of our stuff and then we would be on our merry little way. SO after we had melted some more this pulls up to the gas station....

Awesome! A van. I was so relieved to see it was a van. The lady gets out and starts helping us load all of our stuff. Shane installs the car seats and I go ahead and set up the portable DVD players on the back of the two front seats. We put everything in the van as if we were driving this van. I mean, that's the way it was working, right?? NOT. After we load everything where we want it and after the lady WATCHED me set up the DVD players, etc, I say "Man, I'm so glad we were able to rent this van. I don't know what else would have held all of our stuff." The lady then says, "Oh, this isn't the car you are renting. And actually we have to go pick up another customer TOO, so you and your husband will need to crawl in the back and sit back there while we go get the other person and THEN we will make the 20 minute drive back to the store and we will see if we have anything big enough for you to rent." WHAT???!??! Awesome. Why didn't she say that in the beginning?? Like maybe while I was stringing wires all over the front of the van setting up the dang DVD player. So, Shane and I jam ourselves in the back seat and we go pick up this Auburn PHD student who is from India. The lady warned us that he is VERY shy and nervous and awkward and will probably start shaking a bit and stuttering really bad when he sees us in the car. She said it would probably be best just not to speak to him and just be quiet. OK. Yea, good luck with that...I mean, my kids are super quiet, especially in the car. haha. Great, we are going to scare this poor guy to death. He gets in and does basically what she had predicted but somehow we make it to the store without making him jump out the window. The girls only screamed a few times :)

We pull into the rental car place and the owner comes outside and says to the lady with us "um, what do you think you are doing to fit them in? I don't know if we have anything large enough." Um, excuse me?? Shane had asked this question on the phone 2 hours ago and they were positive it wouldn't be a problem. He points to a Jeep Patriot and asks if that will work. Shane says he will make it work. So, I go inside to get the paperwork done while Shane begins to unload, yet again, the carseats and everything else out of that van and installs, yet again, the carseats into the Jeep thingy and begins to try to cram all of our stuff into it. I need to mention that in the beginning of this whole deal (when our van exploded on the interstate) the mama did not have good perspective on the whole situation. The daddy did. Well, the daddy's good perspective was wearing thin at this point. He looked like he had jumped in a pool b/c he was sweating so much. The girls were acting OUT OF CONTROL. I mean, they were pretty much STARVING at this point. So, I'm inside and I tell the guy that we just need the car for the day and we wanted to drop it off in GA (we could drive Shane's mom car back, thus we didn't need to pay for a rental for 4 days). Well, of course, he tells me that they don't do one-ways and we would have to keep it until Monday when we drove back thru to pick up the van. Super great. I sign all the papers and then look out the window and see the daddy coming towards the office with a wonderful look on his face :) Our stuff wouldn't fit. PERFECT. He just unloaded and reloaded for the 3rd time in the sweltering heat with screaming kids and it wasn't going to work. Yikes. The manager then takes us back outside to show us a vehicle that he had "forgotten" to mention that would hold all of our stuff. Yep, a DODGE RAM extended cab TRUCK. Are you serious?? Yes, he was. And that was our ONLY option. SO, the daddy unloads the JEEP (BLESS HIS HEART) and loads the RAM. I got back inside to re-do the paperwork and I sarcastically say to the guy, "So, what's that gonna get, like 5 miles to the gallon?" He then quickly replies, "oh, no ma'am. They don't make trucks like they used to. That one will get you 25 miles to the gallon or more". I completely laugh at him and say "yea, right". Like I didn't grow up with trucks. Geeeez. He also looked up the weather forcast for the rest of our drive and assured me that we would be good with the weather and that "it looked like it PROBABLY wasn't going to rain so our stuff would be ok in the back of the truck". Oh, ok. Thanks.

We barely squeeze the girls into their carseats since the front of their carseats touched the back of our seats....and that was with our seats moved ALL the way up as far as they could go. If we got in an accident, it would be the end for the mama and daddy cause we were eating the dashboard. At 1:45 we finally leave that place. We hunt down somewhere to eat since our poor children were literally begging us for some food and we finally got back on the interstate. I look at the speedometer after a bit and notice that the truck has a thing on there telling you how many miles to the gallon you were getting. Wanna guess?? 11. yep, that's right. Yea, he straight lied to this mama. Nice. It did jump up to 18 here and there but not too often. We did finally make it to Habersham...only 5 hours later than we had originally planned. Here is the beautiful RAM.....perfect for a family of four :) haha

To our surprise and great relief we found out that our transmission was actually ok. The top of the transmission fluid container had somehow come off and all the fluid had leaked out thus causing the transmission to completely shut down. That was dang good news after the lovely day we had had :)

If you are still reading then that means you hung in there!! Congrats! Now off to the rest of the weekend....

Immediately upon arrival at Gigi and HayHay's, the girls had to have a tea party :)

The next morning Shane and Uncle Lance took the girls trout fishing at the trout farm that their grandpa used to take them. (Gigi took some cute pics of the outing and I will post those when I get them). The girls both caught some trout and were beyond excited. The AMAZING daddy told me to skip out on the outing and SLEEP IN. It ranks up there with one of the best gifts ever. The mama woke up at 10am. I can't remember the last time I slept in, much less till 10 am. It was beautiful. A big shout-out to the daddy for that special gift.

Friday evening kicked off the Black reunion over at Todd and Mary's. We took the girls a bit early so they could swim before dinner....

Gigi and Aunt Julia had the privilege of sitting at the kid's table :)

Cuteness.

The next morning all the guys, along with some of the ladies headed off to the Black Reunion golf tournament. The rest of us went back over to Mary's for some pool time and lunch.

In all my years of knowing Shane's mom I have never seen her get in water of any kind, much less wear a bathing suit. She said the only thing that she will do either of those for is her grandkids :) The girls loved playing with her and Aunt Julia in the pool....

However, at some point in the pool Jocie became OBSESSED....

with 12-year-old cousin McKenzie. She ONLY wanted to be with her. She would SCREAM if she wasn't with her. It drove me crazy :) Sweet McKenzie played with her as much as possible and for that, I am beyond grateful :)

Jocie in her happy place :)

That afternoon the girls helped Gigi cook. They made bowls of salt and pepper. Yummy :)

That evening was the next reunion festivity....Dinner at Clarkesville Elementary. HayHay snapped a couple of family pics before we headed off....

Next to the cafeteria where we have the dinner is the gym. It's an awesome place for all the kiddos to go to burn some energy....as well as making Aunts and Uncles swing them around :)

Tired Uncle Bryan??

The most amazing desert tables ever....

The never changing main dish....

Jocie even talked "Kenzie" into sitting next to her at dinner. Bless you, McKenzie :)

After dinner it's time for the awards from the Golf Tourney. The team that comes in last gets a lovely fake cow patty that has been passed down for years... and here they are ladies and gentlemen....

And the winning team gets an awesome trophy that's also passed down from year to year...

The kiddos went to run around in the gym some more after dinner and of course, the Gabster falls and hits her head. That child is beyond accident prone :)

The icepack made it all better...

and getting some extra lovin from Gigi :)

While Gabbie is nursing her wound, Jocie is over at the table sneaking some more strawberries :)

Then it's time for family pics...

Aunt Margaret's fam....

Aunt Beverly's fam....

Aunt Barbara's fam....

Uncle Jerry's fam....

Uncle Jimmy's fam...

our fam....

Aunt Carolyn's fam....

After the family pics comes game time. This family is crazy competitive. Whoever is in charge of games divides everyone up into teams and comes up with a few fun/crazy games to play. ie...who can hold a cookie over your eye the longest.... Fun times :)

On Sunday morning everyone gathered at Aunt Barbara's beautiful home for brunch....

We got there a few minutes early so the girls wanted to explore...

Until, of course, Jocelyn's bestie, "Kenzie", got there :)

I think I've decided that brunch food is my favorite. I'm pretty sure I ate my bodyweight in muffins, breakfast casseroles, fruit, and a bunch of other yumminess.

After the brunch, the weekend is closed out with a devotional. Afterwards everyone hugs and kisses and says their goodbye's and begins to count down the days until the next year's reunion. It was a great weekend and a great time being with Shane's family.

We decided to stay until Monday, especially since we had to pick up our van on the way home. We headed back to Gigi and HayHay's house after the brunch to chill.

Daddy Tired :) Anytime they find Shane asleep they put stickers on his head. Hilarious.

Or a deflated float. Ha!

After everyone had a good afternoon nap, we headed up the mountain to visit with some friends...

We got to meet baby Ty (Chris and April's newest addition) for the first time. Isn't he ADORABLE??

Practicing their gymnastics....

Mama Blu and baby Ty...

Country Chris and sweet Eli....

Aunt Julia showing the girls how to use her I-Phone :)

They decided to split up and get private lessons :)

April and Cheezin' Eli :)

Just a swangin......swangin...

Donny Ballgame found a katiedid and asked the girls if they wanted to hold it.....

Jocie said no way, but Gabbie was all about it....

She asked if she could take it home and sleep with it...too funny.

What a fun weekend! On Monday we drove the lovely Dodge RAM with all four of us jammed in it back to Auburn and picked up our van (and yes, of course, Shane had to unload and re-load everything once again :) I've never liked my van and all it's room so much as I did after we got out of that RAM :)