July 18, 2007
Family Reunion News
Nikki and I just got back from a family reunion. We left a week ago (Tuesday, July 10) and got back yesterday (Tuesday, July 17). The reunion itself was from Thursday the 12th to Monday the 16th. This was a Leatherwood/Hill family reunion—my grandmother and her four sisters form the “Hill family.” The Leatherwoods are probably the largest numerical contingent. The reunion was in Oklahoma at the Pine Lodge Restort, which is actually quite a nice place.
Some of my relatives own boats and so we were able to get out on the water nearly every day. I got to try my luck at tubing and wake-boarding. Wake-boarding in particular was challenging; the biggest trick is learning to stand as the boat drags you through the water. As my uncle Robert observed, it really is a matter of technique and not strength or brute force. You are not stronger than the boat; any attempt at trying to challenge it to a tug of war will lead to a swift, humiliating submersion. It took a number of tries and a couple of days to get the hang of it, but eventually I was able to stand each time and stay up for a few minutes before tumbling into the water.
Best of all, my parents and siblings were there. They just returned from Iraq; they’ll be here in the States for quite a few months, though much of them will be spent traveling. My twin brothers are going to start their last year of Bible college in Canada this year, and my sister is going to attend a missions training course for the next year. I’ll get to see my parents again in a few more weeks when they visit the Pacific northwest, but I hadn’t seen my mother and sister since my wedding, nearly three years ago. It was sweet to see them all again.
Naturally, it was also delightful to show off my gorgeous wife to my relatives. Most of them had been able to attend the wedding, but this is the first family reunion I’d been able to bring her to, and I reveled in her reflected glory. :-D
Of course, then I had to come home and start digging myself out from under the pile of e-mail and reports that have accumulated at my job at Microsoft. Granted, I’m not important enough there to be completely swamped, but it was the work of a few hours to read all the e-mail. I’ve finished my first pass through the documents and am continuing to study them to see what all has changed in the week I’m away.
There. I did it. I was newsy :-D ... a rare and unusual occurrence for me. Granted, there’s a lot more to tell you ... it’s news to many of you that I’m working at Microsoft and that my parents are in the States, but I figure a little news is better than none.
