We're Youngs!

That's right! Saturday we went to the Young family reunion. How in the world am I a Young, you ask? Well....

Sally was my grandmother. She passed away about 4 years ago....could it be 5? Wow. My Mama was a fighter....she had breast cancer and kicked that. Then, she had her bottom jaw removed due to cancer (smoking will do that to you) and replaced with the small bone in from her leg (!!) and skin grafted from her hip. She kicked that one, too. In the end, cancer won. She was in the hospital for a long time before she passed and I visited her pretty much every day. We became really close and there are very few days that pass that I don't think about her. It was very surreal being around all of her brothers and sisters that look sooo much like her....I'm sure it was much harder for my mom.

Good thing she had Eddie there to keep her smiling! Do you see that look of adoration in his eyes? Man, he loves his Nanna.

Here are the remaining Young kids. Who you can't see here is the brood of grandchildren, nephews, nieces and great- nephews and nieces. I also didn't get a picture of my great-great Aunt Neva who was there, and looking good, I might add! I think I overheard someone saying she was going to be 100 soon, which was amazing. If I'm wrong, please comment and let me know. I know I've got some Young family readers out there! (HI!!!!)

The reunion was at the Randall Oaks park in Dundee which not only has a ton of pavilion/land space for events like ours, it also has a golf course, banquet center and petting zoo (near the parks, not the wedding place :)...) So of course, we went over to the petting zoo ready to show Eddie that there are other animals out there than the ones that say 'woof'! Too bad we're too cheap to pay to see the non-woofers. Poor kid will be the one that grows up thinking a horse says woof :) So instead, we were those creepy people that walked around the outside and looked through the chain link fence....yup...that's us!

The goat promptly stared us down for being cheap. He was king of the goats (standing on top of a large concrete pipe) and seemed quite mad at us. Ah, well. Another day, goat. Another day.

After all of that excitement, Mom and I may or may not have driven to Sonic to get a cherry limeade (OMG - love!) and went back to their house for some pool time. Frankie and my Dad got back from their golf game (with some quite funny stories of my dad skidding the cart down a hill - on purpose, Frankie being flung out of the cart (not while skidding out), hitting trees, a scary 'village' that Dad was totally creeped out by and generally getting their asses kicked by the very difficult course. HA!) and we all enjoyed some time on their patio.

When we started getting ready for dinner, someone talked about having coleslaw. If I haven't mentioned it, my mom started a HUGE garden in their backyard and had some cabbage that she needed to pick. Internet, I present you.....the cabbage...

Isn't it beautiful? Mom was quite proud of herself. As you can see, Eddie was too. And it made some of the yummiest coleslaw I have ever had! Good job, Mom!

All in all, it was a good day. Eddie had another anti-nap day, which he seems to do when we're out and about, so he was starting to really meltdown by the end of the day. Does anyone have any advice there? When we're out, he'll only nap in the car, even if it we've only been in the car for 15 minutes. One day, he napped a total of 1 hour 15 minutes (aka the day not to be named - I think all three of us broke down by the end of that one!). I have started traveling with his blankie so if I lay him down (mostly at my mom's house in the same pack and play that we have at home) he will still have his comfort, but even that doesn't work. He was such an easy sleeper before - I could get him to sleep anywhere, anytime....It is not only exhausting, it has also made me very weary of doing a long day of events because by the end of it, he really isn't a happy camper. Hopefully this is just a phase - I can't stay home all day anymore - I'm going nutty! If anyone has any advice out there, I'd love to hear it.

We're going to try to go to St. Charles tomorrow for a river ride and a little shopping....hopefully the man will nap a little more cooperatively for us. Think positively, right?

-maggie

PS - For those that are interested, Casey is doing AWESOMELY at the World Series of Poker. He has not only made it to day 4 but he did it with over $300k in chips! My last update was earlier this afternoon and he was down to $220k but still in it. At the end of day 3 he only had 150 players to boot out before he was in the money. Can you believe it?! I am hoping with all my might that Casey makes it to the money - good luck!!