Brothers and Sisters

Since attending the two weddings with friends at the end of September, we have been spending October with various brothers and sisters.

Set One

First it was Deb and Jim. We wanted to catch them before we headed south, and they came up to the lake for the weekend.

It was a low key weekend where we spent a lot of time talking while eating, drinking, and enjoying the view. There of course was a boat ride, a walk to Black Cat, and a trip to the craft fair. There always seems to be a craft fair when Deb is in town.

The conversations covered a plethora of topics including cataracts and other ailments, the trees in the yard and what we might do with them, financial plans, future travel, the kids, the grandkids, growing up in Peabody, and all my brothers and sisters. As a former daycare owner, Deb is interested in our past childhoods. Of course, most people would be. (For example, the bed and breakfast staff in Ireland where Matt used various utensils to explain things.)

After a restorative weekend, Deb and Jim seemed ready to resume babysitting duties for their grandchildren.

Set Two

Matt and Megan made their yearly trip from Davis to spend a week at the lake to get their fill of apples, apple cider donuts, chocolate chip cookies, and cooler weather. Matt got to wear his new Irish sweater. Often. I got to wear my stained sweat pants. Often.

Here again, we had interesting conversations covering many of the same topics we had covered with Deb and Jim, including the trees in the yard.

During one of our conversations, we talked about how each of us self-identify in certain ways, and those identities might not be completely accurate (or accurate at all). For instance, Matt pointed out I identify as a helper, which I agree with. And I often do help. However, I also “help” when “help” is not needed or even desired, and I shouldn’t feel that I need to “help” all the time. It was an interesting concept!

The four of us also played our annual game of pickleball where I spent way too much time laughing. They once again beat us because they scored at least one point. Four actually, which was one better than their score last year.

Gail came up for a day. (Gail is a long lost spoon in Matt’s set of utensils.) We took a boat ride to Meredith, had lunch there, and then returned to sit on the deck to enjoy the view and have more conversations. She had to leave by 4 because of her cataracts.

Nicole (and Brew of course) joined us the second half of the week. Megan made her much-loved grilled cheese and tomato soup, and Matt made some delicious Old Fashions. We took sunset cruises for the views and sat by the campfire (one time with guests), again having conversations.

We also puzzled, which has become another yearly tradition. Megan even bought a puzzle board. Apparently we are serious puzzlers. We tried to save the puzzle for Nicole, but ended up finishing it (well finished 999/1000 of it), so Megan and Nicole went out and bought another one.

This week also involved closing up the lake for the season, which is a lot of work and always a bit emotional. Another season behind us. We celebrated Nicole’s birthday, which for her, was another mark of passing time. It goes by fast, doesn’t it?

Set Three

From the lake, we were off to New Jersey to see the next set of siblings – Caleb and Lucy.

Chris and Meagan had a rehearsal dinner and wedding to go to, and Dave and I babysat.

What a treat to have the kids to ourselves. However, there was no sitting around enjoying the views, and most of the conversations included the phrase “booty butt.”

We picked the kids up – first Lucy from day care and then Caleb from kindergarten. Lucy had a nervous smile for us, but walked slowly up to us and gave us hugs. Caleb yelled from across the playground and ran over full speed to Dave first and then me.

We brought them to the park where one of the parents there offered us some advice on how to get Caleb out of the swing after he got stuck and politely informed us he had his shoes on the wrong feet.

For dinner, I of course made my mac & cheese out of a box.

Bedtime was a bit of a challenge with Lucy because she wanted her mommy. I tried to get her down first, then Dave, then me. She finally buried herself in my arms while I rubbed her back.

Meagan came home after the rehearsal dinner because she thought it would be too much for us if she stayed over. She was probably right. The next day, she got Caleb off to school, but Lucy stayed home with us.

I asked Lucy a couple times if she wanted to go shopping for a toy, but she wasn’t interested. So we went to another park instead. There was a lot of “Higher Grampy!” on the swing.

She wasn’t ready to leave the park when it was time for lunch, so Dave and I applied our 90’s style of parenting and just walked away. I feel guilty about doing that.

After lunch, I tricked her into a nap. I sat with her on the rocking chair in her room and told her she didn’t need to go to sleep. She wanted to watch some show about a kitten, or an angel, I couldn’t quite understand, and I couldn’t get YouTube to work. So I brought up a video of me skating from 12 years ago. She told me she liked my hair. And she eventually fell asleep.

When she woke up, we went to Lowes. (I needed a few items so I could “help” around the house.) While there, she picked out two Christmas ornaments – one was a slice of pizza and the other was a coffee. See, I have learned a little since the 90’s. I would have talked my kids out of those choices.

From Lowes, we picked up Caleb from school and went to have some ice cream where I tried to calmly talk Caleb into getting off the table without using my 90’s parenting style tone of voice.

The next morning, while I “helped” around the house, Dave set up a fort with the kids. That’s where Meagan and Chris found us when they got home.

Chris was a little worse for the wear after the wedding, so the rest of us went to Caleb’s soccer game with coach Meagan. Meagan had a bunch of Bad News Bears while the other team had a bunch of Ronaldos. When Caleb took out the best Ronaldo with a full-on hockey check or maybe a football tackle, I had to turn away to hide my smile.

Then it was back to Lowes with Caleb for an exchange and a large bag of Flipz, followed by more “help”, dinner out, and an episode of The British Baking Show.

Sunday morning, after a couple more games on our iPads, we were off to Florida.

Set Four

In Florida, we met up with one more sister / brother-in-law, Sue and Austin. They had us over for dinner to their new place a couple streets over from us. They gave us the full tour and told us about ideas for updates they were considering. All of the ideas sounded great. However, as we were eating dinner on their patio enjoying the nice weather and having conversations that did not include the phrase “booty butt”, Sue commented they didn’t really need anything more. What they had was perfect for what we were doing right then.

Unfortunately, I was too tired to take any pictures of their view.