8/23/2010

End of Summer

Fire House

One week ago today we had our last outing with the Dutton Day Camp. It was a very stressful ending to a very fun summer. We went to the Track family fun park, which proved to be quite a challenge with such a large group. We had all 17 of the Duttons plus my two boys that day. Though it was chaotic, the kids seemed to have fun and behaved themselves for the most part. The summer really did go by quickly, but it does feel like time to move on to school for the boys and a less busy schedule for me. I've started a blog called "Branson Kids on the Go" (www.bransonkidsonthego.blogspot.com) to display some of the pictures and details about the day camp. I am posting one here of our visit to the Branson fire station. I am still working at the Dutton Inn three days per week, and I will be babysitting the 4 pre-schoolers on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This time they will just come to my house rather than trying to run all over town with them. I am glad I will still have some regular contact with these little cuties. I am very thankful to have been able to spend so much time doing fun things with my boys this summer because of Dutton Day Camp. They had a blast being a part of such a fun group. Wonderful Memories! I hope we can make some more memories next summer.

8/05/2010

My Super Cousin Jerie

Note from Jeanie: We just returned from an amazing family reunion trip to Quincy and Nauvoo, IL about which I will write more later. For now, I wanted to share this post from my "super cousin" Jerie. (I think I just created a new super hero character "Super Cousin") Here is a beautiful summary from Jerie as to why these reunions must go on! Thanks Jerie for putting into words that which I feel but often don't take the time to express.

Second Cousin Once Removed

If Jozianne lived next door to me, we would be best friends. As it is, we see each other every two years. Our intermittent, bi-annual conversation picks up where we left off without awkward silences. I'm not sure when we got heart-close like this. Over the 47 year span of my life, we've spent maybe six weeks total, a mere handful of days, together. Second cousins--it sounds more distant than it feels.

2010. An even year. That means a Boyack Family reunion--my mom's side. Boyack was never my name. Before I became a Jacobs, I was a Sandholtz. But spending a few days with my extraordinary kin last week confirmed that Boyack runs deep in me. It's not just the blue eyes, exact mirrors of my own, that surround me at reunions. It's good humor and generosity, deep commitment to faith and family, the propensity to spin a yarn. Wherever we assemble, it feels like coming home.

Jozianne's daughter,Jane, played cards with us and we laughed into the wee hours of the morning. Second-cousin-once-removed hardly describes the way we fit. I met Darren and Chrissie, pretty much for the first time, and felt like I had always known them. Jeanie and Merrilyn, my first-cousins-who-feel-like-sisters, planned our three day convergence with sufficient care to create a sweet sliver of what heaven must hold in store.

At the end of every Boyack reunion we meet to discuss the future of these mad, glorious events. The logistics are daunting. Try finding a venue for a couple of hundred Scots who talk a lot and eat a lot and stay up all night because they don't want to sleep through a minute of their time together. "Can this possibly continue?" we ask. Honestly, it is sheer insanity.

Hurrah for my crazy cousins who decide, time and again, to go forward. Thank heaven for old-school lunacy that favors face-to-face conversation over Facebook; that drives or flies 1,500 miles to catch-up with family instead of just catching their Twitter; that doesn't settle for an extensive Contact list in lieu of actual contact. I have no fear that the sad irony of living in a hyper-connected world and yet feeling disconnected from real people will ever overtake the Boyacks. No. We'll do what it takes to find ourselves in a room together, wearing goofy Boyack t-shirts and laughing out loud, drawn by the singular delight of coming home.

About Me

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This blog has been inactive for five years, and I am attempting to get it going again. We now live in Woodstock, IL and the boys are growing way too fast. Life is good.