We loaded up the car and headed down to FL, my beloved country.
Jonas, Eli, and cousin's son Aiden trapped in a hamburger.
Jonas, Emma, Aiden, and Eli looking for minnows. My cousin Pat and I were so proud of them for not falling in. They (mostly) stayed on the seam that that ran down the middle of the walkway.
Some adults got tricked into participating in this game too, but I will allow them their shreds of dignity by not posting the hip-gyrating pictures here.
Egg toss. Lots of cheatin' going on. Emma and I were partners, and I missed her first toss (it was overhand, and hard. Sigh. She should have asked Daddy) And my dad got four eggs tossed at him on the first throw, but none got splattered on him.
My dad and Nathan thought they were the dream team...
But Eli and Michelle Wright won with some weird bowling/throwing hybrid move.
It made Eli's YEAR.
Just some folks wanderin' around. I didn't take as many pictures of individuals as I meant to, so this'll have to do. We had about 60 people there.
Isaac, Eli and Emma show Aunt Sharran a snake's skin they found in a tree.
We camped out in O'leno State Park Fri and Saturday with my Dad, Uncle Jerry and Aunt Sharran, Shannon and Jim and Aiden and Annemarie, Pat, Austin and gf Lauren. My favorite memory by far was the ghost stories. Nathan told the classic "Falling Rock" (Falling Rock goes on a hunt for the biggest bear and never returns. His father posts signs "Watch for Falling Rock" and you can still see them today. Shannon told the Green Ribbon- a husband finally removes the green ribbon that his wife has always worn after she dies, and her head falls off. The kids all had a go at a head-falling-off-story after that. Then I told a story about the beautiful Indian Semolina who waits for her Spanish lover, but he never returns. She hears his ghost in the whispers of the fire, and you can still hear it today. And the Robitussin-stops-that-coffin one. Who says oral storytelling is dead? Okay, we do, cause it was pretty awful.
Rule of picture taking in nature #1-if there is a rock in the river, you must take a group picture on it.
It's in our genetic code.
These pics are over the Santa Fe River, and we walked the River trail- down to the end of the river where a sinkhole swallows it. The river reappears about three miles away.
Corollary-Bridges count, too.
This is Shannon, Jim and their two: Aiden and baby Annemarie.
The cemetary. I had some fun playing with this one.
My dad and Pat and my clan drove out to Traxler FL to visit
the old church that Dad's grandma and husband and her parents are buried at.
My clan: Kelly and Nathan Bryson, Isaac, Emma, Eli and Jonas.
Interior of Traxler Methodist Church
A banana spider, about three inches across.
I'd like to write a book just to use this as a cover.
The end of the river. It's kind of anti-climatic unless you're there after heavy rains- the river just seems to dead-end. My dad said that he's been there when the water was high, and logs swirl on the surface above the sink. Dad and Isaac saw a really big gator.
My great-great grandparents (my dad's mom's mom's parents)
My great-grandparents' gravestone. The End!
Thanks for the peek into Florida country.
ReplyDeleteYou don't really need a banana spider picture as motivation to write a book right? I didn't think so.