May took me to Illinois to spend Mother's Day with my mom and Grandma Reeve. It was a short notice weekend as my Grandma was rushed to the hospital, had intestinal surgery and released the day before Mother's Day. I was able to see her and I brought Addison with me so Grandma was able to see her. I also was able to say a big Thank You and Goodbye to her as she passed away at the beginning of July.
We also made a trip to Iowa for my Grandpa Woldruff's 90th birthday celebration that tied in with the annual Woldruff Family Reunion and Father's Day in Clarinda. It was a great event and I got to hang out with cousin Amanda and family who I had not seen in a few years and her sister Alexa who I had not seen in about 8 years. We got our parents to watch all our kids one night and hung out as adult cousins for the first time. After a quick beer run we sat around in one of our hotel rooms as the nightlife in Clarinda is limited to dimly lit, smokey, small bars. It worked out great because we were able to talk and share stories that some remembered and some completely forgot. The ages ranged quite a bit from Alexa who is in her mid 20s to Scott who is closer to 50. Lots of laughter was had that night and we even made it up for church the next morning. Then Amanda's husband made lunch in the church kitchen for us - some amazing biscuits and gravy.
July took us to Connecticut for Independence Day with the Opalka clan. It was the first time for us to spend a night on the Opalka boat. Back in the day when Peter and Karen lived in Maryland we would do that quite a bit with them but since we started having kids - no dice. It actually worked out very well. We traveled across Long Island Sound to Port Jefferson, NY from their marina in Bridgeport, CT. We even got in a little fishing even though we didn't catch anything - this time. Reasons for that range from no fish to be seen on the radar (Pete's excuse) or that bad driving tangled the lines (mine). Regardless, we had a fantastic time. Pictures can be seen on Facebook. Bonnie also came out for a week to watch the older kids at our house, then took them back to Kansas for a 1.5 weeks. She transferred them to my parents who then took them to Kristin's in Hampshire, IL where they stayed for another week. All in all the kids were gone for 3 weeks straight. We initially hadn grandious plans to lounge by the pool many days and a couple of weekends. We got one full day - alone - at the pool. We also had a scare with an axe wound on Steph's leg. No, I didn't go all Lizzie Borden on her. She thought it would be a good idea to help cut up a tree branch that fell during a storm. She didn't use the saw that was "broken" but thought an axe would work well. Why she didn't use the tree trimming loppers, the world will never know. Nothing major from this one, just a good story and a tetnus shot. The big weekend we were planning to spend lounging was spent heading back to Clarinda for Grandma Reeve's Memorial Service held in New Market. That was nice as well because I got to meet up with more cousins - some I had not seen in almost 10 years. We were able to catch up a bit, remember Grandma and plan to keep in touch more.
From there I headed to Colorado for our national sales meeting in Colorado Springs. I spent the week at the Broadmoor, an amazing place if you ever have a chance to go. I flew out from there to Chicago to spend the weekend at Kristin and Scott's for our own family gathering. Then headed home. I was ready to be home after living out of a suitcase for 11 days. Dylan was also ready to come home - even though he had a week of vacation with his cousins left. He did have a good week with them but was sad he wasn't coming home with us.
August so far - Kristin brought the kids home and came with Lauren for the weekend. We had a pool party that Saturday to welcome the kids home and Chloe was able to introduce her cousin to her friends here. They formed a fast bond and Lauren was very sad to leave.
Last weekend we had the Scanlan, Ferson, Rendzio and most of the Huisenga families over. Vic and Jen Ferson recently moved from New Jersey to Northern Virginia so it was great to have them over for the first time since they moved. I have to say that Reeve kids are heavier to throw than most of the other kids. I guess we grow some solid kids - I was sore the next day from throwing them. One of the most exciting things was when I walked up to the pool area table, grabbed my beer and took a drink. Immediately I spit it out all over Katya's feet. The reason? Warm beer? No, I'd drink that. Funky beer? No, I'd drink that too. A bee? Yep. I had a bee in my mouth that was now swimming the in pool of beer on the deck. Someone, Vic I think, asked if I got stung. I said no but then felt something on the roof of my mouth. It felt like when you burn your mouth on hot pizza for a second. Then I realized that I hadn't had anything hot yet so I stuck my finger in to feel around. I scraped the roof of my mouth and incredibly something came out. There on my finger was a bee stinger, venom sac and some bee guts that were ripped out of the bee as I spewed it from my mouth. That's about when the pain from the sting started kicking in. Vic mentioned that putting onions on bee stings helps so I grabbed some and put them in my mouth to suck on. That didn't work so well. My idea helped a bit more - whiskey. I grabbed a bottle, took a swig and just kept it in my mouth for a few minutes. It did swell up a bit but stopped hurting after a couple of days. I'm all good now but I think Steph is rubbing off on me a bit.
That's all for now but I promise to be better about posting. Summer has been unexpectedly busy. We're headed to Long Beach Island tomorrow for a few days and then school starts.
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