Aliens, yurts, and prayers

We just attended the biannual reunion of my grandmother’s family - this year it was in Ruidoso, New Mexico.   Not quite sure why it’s pronounced “Ria-dosa,” or why nearby Llano is pronounced “Lan-oh,” but I digress.  Here are the highlights…

We drove through Roswell, New Mexico each way -- which means that I’ve now been in Roswell four times in the last three months.  If you’ve ever been to Roswell, you know that’s six times too many. 

So we had alien sightings (and not just my Dad):

And even the McDonald’s had an alien theme:

We had prayers:  “Oh Great Provider, please provide a gas station in the middle of this desert!  Quickly!  And please give my mother an extra dose of patience when she finds out I forgot to fill the gas tank before leaving town.”  [He chose to answer the first positively and second negatively.]

We had randomness:  at one point one of my cousins pointed to another cousin and said to me, “She’s the one who lived in a yurt!”

We had my Mom and aunt Linda teaching my grandmother a new dance move:

We had family history:  my grandmother’s sister-in-law recounted her response when her husband proposed....

Beth:  “I can’t get married!  I decided long ago to travel and see the world!”

George:  “Let’s travel and see the world together!”

Beth (to us):  “Well, that was the right thing to say....”

Finally, we discovered a hidden benefit of cherries early in the five hour drive home.  We were trying to keep the boys awake until after the lunch pit-stop at the abovementioned alien-infested McDonald’s.  Since Jonah spent much of the previous night whining, this was a challenge.  He was nodding off so Jonathan broke out the cherries saying “Every time Benjamin nods off, I feed him a cherry to wake him up.  Every time Jonah nods off, I threaten to feed him a cherry to wake him up.”   

[Note:  the calorie-phobic Jonah just hit the 20 pound mark, though…yeah!]

Comments

[The Grandfather]

20 POUNDS ... GO JONAH