Labor Day/Family Olympics

This Labor Day weekend was a blast. We headed to North Platte to visit my family and stayed with my brother. We got a late start on Friday night because I had to attend a retirement party of a co-worker of mine. I felt bad for Sarah, she sat in a quiet car trying to let the kids sleep, and I was listening to Tony Kornheiser on my Ipod. Side note....I don't think there is anyone more entertaining to me that Tony. I could listen to that guy for hours without getting bored (or sleepy). Maybe I will blog on the T K man from DC town at a later date. Anyway, we got into town around 12:30 a.m., put the kids to bed and hit the hay ourselves. The next morning Sarah got a tour of their new home, I mowed the yard (about 3/4-1 acre) did basic party preparations, etc.... Sounds like a lot of fun doesn't it? Well it was, I like to keep busy, and it was a good time to hang out. Everyone showed up at about 1:00. We watched the first half of the Husker game on a fuzzy channel (which was okay, and kind of reminded me of times before we had cable....I am spoiled). At half time of the game we began the Family Olympics. There were four teams: My family, my brothers, my sisters, and my sister in laws parents and grandmother. There were a number of events and points for win place and show. Each family member had to sign up for different events up to a maximum of five. The games were: Horseshoes, Golf (chipping), Badminton, Bocce, Soccer, Old Maid, UNO, Hi Ho Cherry'O, Let's go Fishing, Scrabble, and team events of a relay and Paper Tower (build a tower as high as you can with 10 sheets of printer paper with no tape). It should go without saying that my family dominated! But that wasn't the fun part, and isn't what was important. You see, although it is fun to win, and fun to tease, it is even more fun to see the reaction of the rest of my family. I have a very competitive family, and times like these bring us closer together. We can talk and communicate much better when we are doing something than when we are doing nothing. I think that is why I get uncomfortable in social settings, because nothing is getting done. I am a doer and feel better doing. I suppose some would say that is no way to relate, and that you cannot get to deep issues that way. That is fine for them, but we can get to plenty of issues this way too. The MVP of the Olympics was Sarah. She won 4 of the 5 individual events that she entered. Peter did great getting a first place, a couple of seconds, and a third. And I didn't do too bad myself. We scored points in every event entered and took home the trophy. Yes there was a trophy and a trophy presentation with acceptance speech. I wish we could have video tapped it for you all. It was a great moment for my family and me. Peter loved the trophy and wanted to hold it. He almost didn't question that it was for Girls Basketball. We came home late Sunday night around 12:30 a.m. again. Monday was a resting day with the whole family taking good long naps. In all I couldn't have asked for a better long weekend.