Family Reunion Part 2 [Uncle Michael Post]

When it got dark, everyone moved inside to the basement game room. There was a ping-pong table, a foosball table, a table-table, a nice corner couch and a flat screen TV.

Everyone first surrounded the foosball table.


A lot of times, there was more than one ball on the "field" because someone kept adding balls. If you look closely in the picture below, you can see a ball coming out of Greeley's hand.


Shea spent the time doing what he always did.

No, the truth is, he played foosball, he played ping-pong, and he watched Ben play on his 3DS.

Everyone enjoyed the light switches. Emerson showed us the way but I only caught Atlee doing it.

Because I hadn't taken a lot of pictures, I started to snap some of Greeley.

She helped me by parading back and forth in front of me.

I was about to get a nice one of her when Atlee stood up in between us. Thanks, Atlee. :P


Then Greeley asked if she could use the camera. Being a foolish softie that I am, I handed the camera to her. The first thing she did was take a picture of me. (Regarding my expression: I am watching TV. I'm allowed to be slack-jawed.)


Then she took this interesting photo of.....uh....my elbow?


Then she took a picture of some pillows on the floor. There are two of these pictures but I think you get the gist of it.

A couple of minutes later she brought the camera to me and handed it to me. The screen was blue with an hourglass on it and the word "Processing." It does that when I'm changing the memory from internal to a card but not usually for more than a second or two. As I took the camera from her, it kept doing it, so I shut it off. When I turned it on, the Kodak logo came up and the words "Lens" and some numbers appeared. I turned the camera over and discovered the lens was bent and would no long retract. I asked her what happened and she told me but I couldn't hear her as her voice got very low. The picture below is the last one taken. I don't know what that is. I think it might be her hand but she hadn't made a mark on her hand like the one that seems to be in this picture, so...

Riordans in Maryland

Yesterday there was a family reunion in Maryland with some of Rich's mom's family.

Outside they had a neat bean bag game. Uncle Michael played Shea the first game.






Emmy wanted to check out the equipment, make sure everything was on the up and up.



OR it could have been that he found a new toy.



Then he found a platform to speak from.



As is standard procedure in these things, the game quickly broke down into something totally different.




Greeley was wearing a short dress with no leggings and it was a little chilly out. "You're going to catch cold," Uncle Michael said. "Mommy says I already have one," she replied. Uncle Michael lent her a hat to her anyway.



Soon it became less about getting the bags into the holes and more about getting the bags to hit your opponent in the face.




Uncle Michael went to the other side of the yard - and, as usual, was followed. So we ended up playing that age-old game, "Chase Uncle Michael." Notice the frequent shots of Uncle Michael's bald pate.




It was really cold outside, so this footage (of how the game transformed from "toss" to "war!") was taken from inside.






Greeley in a position of power.


Further out in the yard, Atlee discovered horseshoe pits.


Emmy was very excited with these strange new implements.








After playing with the horseshoes at his pit for a couple of minutes, I told him that Atlee had abandoned her pit so we could go get her horseshoes.


I would just like to point out that Emerson did this himself. He picked up the heavy shoe and then positioned it over his shoulder to carry it. I have no idea why but I was very impressed.

Two Posts in a Row?

Surprised you there, didn't I?

Do you know what I miss in November when it's chilly and my furnace is disassembled because the pressure tank apparently has a hole in it which causes it to make such a thunderous clamor that we were all pretty sure it was going to explode at one point? Do you? Do you?

I go to my happy place. And my happy place is the camp in Maine.



Happy children playing on the lake shore.


Happy dogs chasing Frisbees.


Kids all piled into the front of Boat, waiting for a ride.


This year Wilson taught Cady how to swim. In return, Cady taught Wilson how to bark. Gee, thanks Cady.


Did you know my husband loves his boat? I know the kids and I rank at the top of the list, but Boat? Boat is right behind us.

Like Shea, being towed by his dad on the lake. Right behind. See what I did there? Oh, I am a clever little wordsmith.

Or like I love my own little Boat. His name is Wilson and he's not really little.

As we noticed when he tried to climb up on the raft. This was almost as amusing as when he tried to fetch the buoy for the boat.

And after a long day of tubing on the boat, they all come ashore on the paddle boat.

Much better to look at this then to think about a stupid broken furnace.

An Actual Gettysburg Mom Post

What have we have we been up to for the last six months?

A selection for you....



There were evening walks with little girls in pink sparkly dresses with flamingo paper lanterns.


There were also maniacal little girls riding big wheels on those walks. Also wearing pink.


There was a sweet little boy asking his daddy why he loves his boat more. "Why, Daddy, Why?"


There may or may not have been a princess themed homemade hammock in the climbing tree out front for a while. Oh, OK, there totally was.


And water fights with giggly little boys.

There was lots of swimming in the pool in the backyard. Not to be confused for in the spring when the back yard IS the pool.


Somewhere in Cleveland, I decided that I still loved my husband.

And then we both decided that we loved Cleveland- even if we didn't end up going to a lot of its more popular sites. That's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame up there. I hear they have Lady Gaga's meat dress on display now- so that's something.



This fall there has been candy corn, candy corn, candy corn.

Sweet Wilson has apparently gained 40 pounds since he joined us last year. So, no candy corn for him. And he has asked that- out of respect- we keep all snap shots of him framed as the neck up only.

A Lunch Meeting [UMP]

Uncle Michael met Susan, Greeley and Emerson in Shady Grove for a quick lunch.


Emmy needed to get his shoes put on to go into McDonald's. As I held him up for Mom to put his shoes on, he noticed something in the distance.


Inside McDonald's, Emerson was his usual whirlwind of activity. Both he and Greeley were interested in the display case showing off what toys were available with the Happy Meals but only Emerson noticed that the display case seemed to be a bit open and he thought he could maybe just get his toys directly.

Greeley and Emmy in Mickey D's (as my dad used to call it).
(I tried to upload this video about five times but it's too large. Hopefully you'll be able to see it.)

We soon claimed a table to have our lunch while mommy waited in line for the food. If you see some fingers in the edge of this video, it's because Greeley was feeling a bit left out.




Finally, to give Greeley a bit of attention, I asked her about her extensive tattoos - but unfortunately I didn't have much memory left.




Later, Emerson showed off his impression of a mountain lion.

FLASHBACK: MAY 31st [UMP]

Greeley explains why she likes me (Uncle Michael). [You may want to turn the volume down.]