The family reunion that didn't happen

[Cajungaltx]

I thought someone might find this humorous on a Monday morning, so I'll embarrass myself and share... lol.

My graduation ceremony went fairly smoothly - I hope. I haven't looked at the photos yet - but I took photos of the kids. They had these huge white numbers on a dark backdrop that kept grabbing my focus, so I had some issues for a bit.

After I dropped my gear off at the house, and everyone was ready, we left Katy around 5:30 or so....

As we are getting on I-10 in Katy, my phone rings, and it's Bryan, one of the attorneys that I owe my soul to having a crisis. He'd been working on an 8 page arbitration award, and gotten an error message that he'd never gotten in 21 years of using MSDOS based WP 5.1 (oh yeah baby!) and needed me to fix it. Bryan hired me for the company I work for now, 9 years ago - he's like family at this point almost, except he pays better.

His office is right off of I-10, on our way, with a McDonald's around the corner, so Brad was going to drop me off, and I'd run up, fix the problem while he got the girls and us dinner, and then we'd take off.

Except that when we exited I-10....Sarah decided that the juice/cheese/assorted other things that her Daddy had fed her weren't sitting so well in her stomach.... and threw up in the car.... all over the carseat... and other stuff...projectile puke y'all... it's nasty. And the look on this little one's face is just heart breaking...

Fortunately, Bryan (the attorney)'s office has showers and so we stopped and Brad unbuckles the entire car seat and carries the entire thing into the shower area. Tori stripped Sarah down, between them both, they washed out the carseat etc while I did the responsible 'mom' thing and avoided the entire mess by going up and trying to fix Bryan's problem.

My husband has a cast iron stomach... I can handle it if I 'have' to... but there are reasons that it takes two to have kids...

We ended up rescuing Bryan....(my husband actually fixed it) and he handed Brad $150 cash for fixing it.... so it's a 2.5 hour delay dealing with the puked in carseat, fixing the pc, getting it all cleaned and back in the car...

By the way... just in case your wondering... the first word out of her mouth after she was cleaned up, and up in the office area was: Bite (when she saw crackers!)

So we are getting ready to head out.... my dad calls in a slightly inebriated manner....... "you guys should just come in another weekend, everyone's gone from the family reunion..."

I explain to him: A.) Brad had national guard this weekend, but went in two days during the WEEK to make a trip to Louisiana work, and B.) I don't have weekends off - it's when I shoot photography sessions.

"Well, no problem, you guys come in."

We get to Beaumont, and stop to change Sarah into her pj's and get Tori something to eat, and my nephew Eric calls (the nephew that I photographed his wedding recently). My dad is passed out (he was drunk when he called) and he locked up the RV (where we were supposed to sleep) and my mom is passed out as well (she broke her ankle a couple weeks ago, and probably did more than she was supposed to be doing at the family reunion, so at least hers is understandable...pain meds)...

I checked the price of hotels, thinking, oh, we can just get a room - which is what I was going to do ORIGINALLY but my dad said, no, you guys can stay here....

$100/night short notice...for 6 hours (maybe) of visiting until we head back to Houston...

So we turned back around and went back home. I sent Eric a text message, and haven't talked to anyone since then.

Left the house at 5:30ish.... got home around midnight....

I love family reunions.... *grin*

How'd YOUR weekend go?

[texkam]

NBC called. They need a reality show. :)

[CaptainTom]

My weekend went very well thank you.
Saturday I just hung out around the house, checked out the photo gear and then left for Dallas to assist my favorite Wedding Photography team.
The reception was at the Dallas World Aquarium (hot and humid), and the food was really great. DBD catering.
Sunday I slept in late ( 8am ) and goofed off on TPF until getting dressed for a Gala affair in Ft. Worth. Got home last night, watched some TV and went to bed.
It's OK to be mad at me. I understand.

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by texkam

NBC called. They need a reality show. :)

Mark.... I'm telling you... they put the fun in dysfunctional....

Cajungaltx added 0 Minutes and 29 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

My weekend went very well thank you.
Saturday I just hung out around the house, checked out the photo gear and then left for Dallas to assist my favorite Wedding Photography team.
The reception was at the Dallas World Aquarium (hot and humid), and the food was really great. DBD catering.
Sunday I slept in late ( 8am ) and goofed off on TPF until getting dressed for a Gala affair in Ft. Worth. Got home last night, watched some TV and went to bed.
It's OK to be mad at me. I understand.

HA!! I do... I do!!!

Sounds like you had a great weekend! ;0)

[Cerbera LM]

You win

Isn't making memories fun.

[carrbowl]

Sorry to have a laugh at your expense Donna... : ) It does make the rest of us appreciate our less dysfunctional families!!

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by carrbowl

Sorry to have a laugh at your expense Donna... : ) It does make the rest of us appreciate our less dysfunctional families!!

It's funny how stuff like this will be the stuff that my older daughter remembers. Trying to explain family dynamics to her was alot harder when she was younger and I was trying to protect her from stuff... at 12, it's easier just to be factual about it, and TRY not to be judgemental about it... let her draw her own conclusions...

But we got home, and went to church... and we had, in the end, a good weekend.

So, laugh away... I wouldn't have posted it if I didn't expect it to be funny... lol...

[texkam]

trying to protect her from stuff

it's easier just to be factual about it

Good for you. Don't know about you, but I could tell when adults were kind of keeping things from me. Even if not at that moment, I was later (days, months, years) able to figure it out. Kids are pretty smart and can just sense stuff. To her the trip will likely be remembered as a fun family adventure. Sometimes spending family time together cleaning up barf can be priceless. LOL.

[Teddington]

It's good to hear you made all the right decisions - well ... maybe not the McDonald's thing!!

[Imagebuffet]

Your story makes me feel a little better about my last family reunion. I flew up to Chicago, and drove through Michigan to attend a reunion on my Dad's side of the family. My Dad was in the Navy, so I was overseas much of my childhood, then my parents separated, so I hardly know my extended family, especially my Dad's side. This was to have been my first reunion with them, and the first time that I would have met most of them.

The plan was for me to drive from my motel room to a relative's house in a town several miles distant. From there, the family would travel to the park where the reunion was held. But, when I finally arrived, everyone had left. Of course, no one told me the address of the park where the reunion was being held. So, I alternately waited in the driveway and drove around town. I visited every park I could find. Eventually, that particular branch of the family returned, and I had dinner with them. I haven't made another attempt to attend a family reunion, apart from funerals, since then.

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by Teddington

It's good to hear you made all the right decisions - well ... maybe not the McDonald's thing!!

Terry - we hadn't even MADE it to McDonalds! ;-) So McDonald's doesn't get the blame on this one...

Cajungaltx added 1 Minutes and 0 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by Imagebuffet

Your story makes me feel a little better about my last family reunion. I flew up to Chicago, and drove through Michigan to attend a reunion on my Dad's side of the family. My Dad was in the Navy, so I was overseas much of my childhood, then my parents separated, so I hardly know my extended family, especially my Dad's side. This was to have been my first reunion with them, and the first time that I would have met most of them.

The plan was for me to drive from my motel room to a relative's house in a town several miles distant. From there, the family would travel to the park where the reunion was held. But, when I finally arrived, everyone had left. Of course, no one told me the address of the park where the reunion was being held. So, I alternately waited in the driveway and drove around town. I visited every park I could find. Eventually, that particular branch of the family returned, and I had dinner with them. I haven't made another attempt to attend a family reunion, apart from funerals, since then.

OMG - I would have been SEETHING by the time the got back....

I can so totally see my family doing something like this... lol... seriously.

[herenaustin]

I spent the weekend over 1,000 miles away from my family - in fact - that is how I spend EVERY weekend. And yes - you can be mad at me too.

[doctahjones]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

My weekend went very well thank you.
Saturday I just hung out around the house, checked out the photo gear and then left for Dallas to assist my favorite Wedding Photography team.
The reception was at the Dallas World Aquarium (hot and humid), and the food was really great. DBD catering.
Sunday I slept in late ( 8am ) and goofed off on TPF until getting dressed for a Gala affair in Ft. Worth. Got home last night, watched some TV and went to bed.
It's OK to be mad at me. I understand.

let's see if i can one up tom...

friday night was chill, in preperation for sat...

sat:
got up, showered and got ready to go to the indy race. myself and a coworker's wife got those free marlboro tickets in the mail. i actually don't smoke . we did however have to go get the tickets starting at noon. we got there about 1. there were like 1,000 people in line, so me and my coworker dustin head out to get beer to drink for waiting in line while his wife and my gf wait in line for us. by the time we get back they are just about to check in to get the tickets. perfect timing. we get our tickets, go back to dustin's place, then go out on his boat for a few hours to drink and visit the party cove on eagle mtn. i bring the cam and take pictures, including some dirty old man pics (i love that 80-400 lens!). we head back to his place, change clothes, then head back out to tms for the race. we gorge ourselves on the worst possible greasy food and i take more pictures. we wait 30 min for funnel cake. race is over, we sit for an hour waiting for traffic and leave.

sun:
the aftermath of all the greasy food makes the morning not very fun, but laying by/in the pool for the rest of the day makes up for it.


really though, that sucks about your family reunion. i've had a similar experience before and it was no bueno. hopefully next weekend will be better for you!

[Imagebuffet]

Originally Posted by Cajungaltx

Terry - we hadn't even MADE it to McDonalds! ;-) So McDonald's doesn't get the blame on this one...

Cajungaltx added 1 Minutes and 0 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

OMG - I would have been SEETHING by the time the got back....

I can so totally see my family doing something like this... lol... seriously.

Yeah, pretty much. I was also extremely tired, as I had only 4 or 5 hours of sleep after my trip. But, I did my best to play cool. I wore my head-mounted video camera for our first meeting. Unfortunately, when he answered the door, he made a big deal about my having slipped up his address when I left a message on his answering machine. My rented GPS unit had difficulty locating his house. I ended up turning off my video, because I could see this meeting wasn't going to go well.