Family Reunion and so much more!
How it is, boys and girls? This was a mad busy weekend. Lemme tell you about it.
Friday night we had Mark and Karla Taylor over to our house for supper. Mark is the preacher here at Pleasant Ridge. They’re very cool people, but I never really got to talk to them for more than 30 seconds at a time. It was great.
Directly following that, we began the weekend-long Kite Family Reunion (Mom’s family). All of Grandad’s 4 siblings and 13 out of 16 of their children (Mom’s sibs and cousins) were there, as well as all the related spouses. I don’t know what the percentage was of "my" generation that showed up, but it was regarded as highly successful.
My aunt Jeanne put most of it together over the last 6 months or so, and she and Mom did a lot of the hosting work at the Pleasant Ridge building. Most of Mom’s generation had hotel rooms, but all of Grandad’s siblings stayed with him and Grandmom.
Friday night Kara and I caught up with them at Colter’s for dessert, then spent Saturday with them at the church building. Sunday afternoon we went over to Grandmom and Grandad’s to visit for a couple hours before everybody left town.
My cousin Jon (Fuller, Jeanne’s son) spent Friday night with Kara and I and it was very great. I hadn’t seen him since the wedding, which was at the very beginning of some pretty substantial weight loss, and right after some pretty serious live events and changes. He looks a lot different now, but he looks absolutely great. We were talking about the fact that even the way he talks and moves is a little different, and the resemblence to members of his immediate family is stronger. But he’s still the same old Jon.
Talking with Jon about our shared family is always an interesting experience, because the perceptions from the Fuller and Barcroft standpoint are often quite different. Conversation this time, though, put some pieces in place that really kind of created a backdrop to much of my conversations with Jon. In some ways, I feel like I really now not only understand how Jon thinks about some things, but where he comes from, and what circumstances lead to it. It was very neat.
It was also very neat to see Grandad’s siblings again. They all get together every couple of years, and many times they get together at Granddad and Grandmom’s. Since I live so close to them, that means I usually get a visit in when they’re down. It was really weird to have a connection with them, but not with much of Mom’s genearation, who I hadn’t seen since I was about six, or never met at all. (Name-drop: Mom’s cousin is the successful and well-known golfer Tom Kite, who was on the Simpsons once.)
By the way, I should warn you: If you use the phrase “There will be a quiz” as a joke with me in the next few months, I’m likely to punch you in the mouth. Also, although technically the Kites do have “clan” status, that word was tossed around this weekend quite a bit by a large number of people who never use it. I got the impression that it was done on the pretense that synonyms for commonly-used and more accurate words is amusing. I must agree with that theory, but still it was done an awful lot for one weekend.
But it was still a very good weekend, and I really enjoyed myself.
Also, yesterday we ate lunch with Bryan and Amber Monroe, and met a couple of their other ACU friends, who seemed pretty cool. Amber is a good cook. Then, spending last night watching Darkwing Duck with the Hendersons rounded out our weekend nicely and certified its awesomeness .