Groutfest 2012



Many divergent activities at Groutfest 2012



Fun at the fair!

Girl cousins--- sharp shooters

It is more or less inexplicable why the best times are with family. I believe, in part, it's an event that resonates with all the most delicious fun and laughter. We revel in each others quirks and idiosyncrasies [did you ever notice that if you hyphenated that word it could be 'idio-sin-crazies', good name for our band]. Though, to tell you the truth, I am exhausted from all the days of entertaining the hoards, mind you, it's a good exhaustion, one that makes you sink onto the couch and smile with the memories.

Here are a some of those memories.  J, our seven year old grandson, on one of those very hot nights awakened Mr. G at 5 AM. Mr. G-"J, what is it?" J- "Papa I can't sleep because of the lines.' Mr. G- "What lines J?" J- "Here, I'll show you". So he goes into his bedroom and J shows him that there is a tiny bit of light coming in from the curtain that's pushed aside to let air in. Mr. G- "J is this what you mean??" J- "YES!" So, he pushed the curtain tight thereby cutting off any chance of air circulation, creating a sauna. Another time J complained that the girls, who were sleeping across the way in the guest house, were keeping him awake. Mr. G -"J, how can that be, you have curtains to block the light". J- "Well, if you stand on this chair and pull the curtain back you can see the light!"

The mainstay of Groutfest

Then there is our seven year old granddaughter, who takes every opportunity to cartwheel, do back-bends into a kick over, endlessly. She is devoted to our 14 year old cat and carries him everywhere. Our eight year old grandson, S with his skinny arms was able to ring the bell in the carnival game, first try, and won a prize. Our ten year old granddaughter, La, is such a good sport, she loves being with her older cousins and yet is a good natured about being with the younger kids with nary a complaint. My older son helped fix up a rusty old bike of mine so that La and I could take what I thought would be a short ride down our road. This was not to be. We went out to a main road, up several hills and down several miles to a small lake where we put our feet in the water. It wasn't until we got back home that I found out La had only one workable gear on my old bike. As I said, a good, uncomplaining sport.

A winner of the first heat, the long narrow car named, 'boardwalk'.

The zucchini is on top of a red shoe, and they named this entry, 'shoefly'.

We don't do anything extravagant, we BBQ, play games, talk, talk and eat. When I'm more physically able we hike, this time it was hot for the NW and so we went swimming instead and, of course to the fair. Our boys entered their creations in the 'Zucchini 500'. Yes, each of the cars has a zucchini on top of it. They had a blast racing their 'cars'. We only wished we'd squashed the competition. S came close.

My parents hosted many a family reunion and my father famously said, "I love to see you all come and I love to see you go." I didn't get it then, but I do now. Good exhaustion is still exhaustion. My Mom said after our get togethers when she was in her 70's and 80's, "I'd stay in bed the entire day after you all left." We aren't that bad yet. We went to the fair Saturday, yet again, to hear our niece and nephew in law's band and even rode our bikes. So, see, while we still have our relative 'youth', and by next year I'll have that shiny new hip. Do come to Groutfest 2013, you're invited. It's a ball!

susansmagicfeather copyright 2012 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved