THE MATRIARCH IS 76 YEARS OLD

My grandmother turns 76 years old today (happy birthday Grandmom)! It's amazing to think that she's so young with 7 children of her own, 23 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild. We celebrated family-style at my parent's house and although the rain drove us inside at the beginning of the party it eventually stopped and the family games began.



Mom, Grandmom and I (three generations of good looking women)



My cousin, Lucas, cracks me up in this picture. I think he was preparing himself to help Grandmom out if she couldn't blow out all of her candles. I also really enjoy the fact that we had three lemon meringue pies, one chocolate pie, cake pops, homemade fig newtons and cream puffs. More desserts than dinner foods? Always a plus.

My cousin, Frances, who is 12 years old is a baking genius and always makes the cutest cupcakes. This time she decided to make these cake pops that look like bees. This was my first cake pop experience and omg! it was fantastically sugary.

If you eat that much dessert you have to find a way to work off the sugar highs...

When my family gets together we have a new family tradition of playing competitive games. This time around we played "Cheater's Croquet" which was for all of the cheating relatives (coughagnescough). They didn't have to keep their cheating ways a secret anymore... The game involved adults playing the game and kids using water guns as a distractions. The kids were more fun to watch.

 The second game we played was a take off of "The Amazing Race" and we had mini-competitions to complete. I was on a team with my cousin Grace & Aunt Celia. We called ourselves the CGCs.

The competitions involved running down a hill blindfolded (or in this case wearing goggles covered in tape) and trying to find flags, putting together puzzles, making paper rings and moving an oreo down your face into your mouth only using your facial muscles, lolol; all silly stuff but so fun.

The winners of the race overall?? THE CGCS!!! WOOOHOOO!!!

I never win anything because my husband is a game genius. So I'm glad he didn't play and I got to win something!!! Yayyy!!!!

And of course, a family blog isn't complete without Miranda. After the rain stopped my sister actually let her baby play in the rainwater. She loves being in water and splashing around!

PS: Hey look! Kyle finally made the blog.



WHAT'S THE BUZZ?

One surprise we found up at the cabin in the Poconos was a bald-faced hornets nest hanging off the side. Ahh, the joys of home ownership. I remember growing up we had a nest outside of my parent's bedroom window. I wish I remembered specifics about how they sprayed that one, haha. I remember a parka being worn to protect against stings and my older sister, Karen, remembers a lot of running.   =)

Anyway...

Of course I decide that it's a great idea to stand underneath the paper nest with my zoom lens and take pictures. At first there weren't many hornets hanging around on the outside but as I stood there they multipled (yes, that was my cue to leave).



Look at the one on the right! Mid-flight!



And now that I've scarred everyone who reads this blog by posting pictures of hornets (and centipedes yesterday), I give you... the inside of the cabin!! I've had more than one person ask me what it looks like inside so I took some pictures. My mom was cracking up the entire time because it was like I was talking to it.

"The living room...."

"The bedroom...."

"The reading nook...."

The cabin is basically two rooms. You have the living room, dining room and kitchen which all attach to the front porch. Then you have the bedroom which can sleep 5.

The cabin was originally named "Tall Oaks" and the current name is "Legacy" which is from the previous owner (great legacy, you sold the place). My parents claim they've renamed the cabin but it has been about a year and so far.... no new sign, no name, nothing. My sisters and I think they should name it "The Black Hole."

PS: As you can see, cabins are a mish-mosh of nice looking furniture. Hehehehehe!! RUSTIC.

"MANVOIDING" THE MEN

Manvoid: when a man purposefully avoids a situation or conversation using the words "I just don't want to talk about this right now." A way to annoy the women in their lives.

Over the weekend, I attended "Impromptu Ladies Weekend" which is basically when all of the women in my family are invited to my parent's cabin in the Poconos and whoever can go, goes! The men have their own weekend which they call "Prayerfest." It doesn't involve praying; more like drunken debauchery, cursing and with a crotch scratch here or there.





My mom, aunt Agnes and I got to the cabin around 9:00ish on Friday night, unpacked and made our beds up for sleeping. The rest of the group had been there for about half-a-day (lucky) and were already relaxing. Once everything was squared away it was time to let the wine flow and flow it did.

It was pretty amusing to sit in a room with my mom, her mom and a few of her sisters. They act exactly like my sisters and I do; loud, yelling at each other about old stories and memories and just being generally out of control. Now I know exactly where I get that gene from!

Around 11:30pm, I decided it was time to lay in bed and read but trying to concentrate with a bunch of excitable women was difficult. Amazingly, I fell asleep within minutes and didn't wake up until 10:30am the next day! GLORIOUS!!! It was really nice to not have my dog around for once. She's a believer in the cold nose wake up in the morning.




The Cabin



The cabin is owned by this pretty lady, my mom.

Saturday morning was the BIG walk of the weekend and we went out to Balancing Rock. I'm pretty sure my family just named it that because it doesn't seem like a lot of people know about this rock garden in the woods. During the hike I kept hearing, "Christine! Another mushroom! Come take a picture!!" So I have about 20 different pictures of mushrooms. Yellow ones, purple ones, red ones.... my family loves fungi.

Funny stick mushrooms

Balancing Rock is a good, long hike from the cabin; about 4.5 miles rountrip. During the hike, my aunt Agnes always brings oranges for "sustanence." Originally, we all made fun of her for it but there was a time when she got us lost in the tick-infested woods (she swears I wasn't lost) and we were happy for the oranges because of the lack of drinkable water.



Balancing Rock (and aunt Kate)



While we hung out exploring the area my mom talked me into exploring a cave in between two boulders. Before I actually poked my head in and crawled around the other side I made sure to get a stick and bang all of the spiderwebs away. Ughh! I could also see little bugs when I was in there but I ignored it all for the sake of fun.

After our hike back to the cabin the next step on our agenda was RELAXATION!! Some people swam, some people fished or read, some kayaked. My Grandmom and aunt Celia decided to fish since they both have their fishing licenses and Celia actually caught a blue gill.

Agnes has gotta wash that man right out of her hair!

My aunt Kate was the fish of the group who swam around the creek while people shouted after her, "watch out for the water snake!" or "yes, beavers will bite you from under the water!" Haha! That didn't deter her and she stayed in until her lips were blue.

I knew the water was cold and wasn't going in. Instead I went off in search of the beaver's dam. They built it last year and it made the water on the creek rise pretty significantly. You're not allowed to tear it down though since the cabin is on state land and beavers are special creatures. ;D

We were lucky to get in the hiking and outdoor relaxation because it started to rain towards the evening.

The next day we walked out to the spring which is at the last cabin on the road. This hike was shorter, about 2.33 miles roundtrip. There were a lot of puddles to cross (or walk through if you're me) and lots of hills to climb. On the way up there we saw a cute little red eft! He was probably the size of my finger and not too annoyed at being picked up.

We also had some brave people pick up a centipiede, omg eww!!!

Only crazy, gross people would do that. Once my mom chased me with one and I ran so far and so fast away from her!!



The spring is such a pretty place because it's so moist and lush. There are ferns growing everywhere and also tons of different kinds of moss. My aunt Celia is a botany teacher and was collecting it all weekend. Personally, I thought it would make a better bed though.

My mom tried to tell me to frame this picture and give it to my husband, Kyle, as a Valentine's Day gift. Hahahaha!! Oh Mom, the 1st problem is I'm clothed and the 2nd problem is that moss isn't sexy.

The weekend was really nice and definitely relaxing. I love going up there because there isn't cable television, no cell phone service, no computer.... nothing. You go to sleep, sit, hike, kayak, relaaaax. The only bad part is that eventually......

You have to go home.

Coming up from Ladies Weekend: Hornets & A Look Inside the Cabin