New Best Friends

We just got back from our family reunion in St. Johns. My siblings and I have heard the outrageous stories our whole lives about this town and its characters. It was fun to watch my kids enjoy those same stories (as well as some new ones). When we were little and got together with distant families, my parents would strongly encourage us to mingle with our cousins. We used to joke that they were our "new best friends" for the day. Being a very shy kid, that was extremely hard for me. As a not-so-shy adult, it was great fun to re-get-to-know some of those "kids" while working with them to plan this reunion. And my own kids had a great time. Most know that the shy gene didn't get passed on to all my kids. Here's Tab quickly making new friends. Her new best friend is Zachary. I believe he is the kid in the black shirt and blue visor:This is Ethan's new best friend. Her name is Katelin. I don't think he left her side for more than 5 minutes. She was so so good to him. This is how much he loves her. He is notorious for hating to have his picture taken. When I asked him to show me his parade candy so I could snap his picture, this is what he did:When I asked him to take his picture with Katelin, he hopped on her lap and posed:

WHATEVER!!

And I can't recall if my kids had ever been to a parade before. As if he'd never seen candy in his life, Ethan kept chasing the "floats" to stockpile as much as he could. And sweet Tabitha was incredibly persistent about getting a water bottle. Yes, a water bottle. I guess when they're only throwing one at a time out of the back of the truck it makes them more special. She jogged beside that truck, waving her arms in the air and dodging other kids who kept diving for the coveted bottles. I think she thought if she just held out long enough they would notice her and throw it directly into her hands. Well, her persistence paid off. She finally got one, and was very proud of her conquest.






And as if they weren't from my gene pool at all, they bravely and gladly, I might add, participated in skits. I would have been scared to death to do such a thing (even as an adult, I must admit). They did a fantastic job. I don't have pictures of the skits yet, but here's two of the posters they made for them. And, I must say, I know they're my kids and all, but I was very impressed with Tab's banana split, Ellie's hay bales, and Syd's tractor. They definitely get that from Marshall's side of the family.