Meet the Kids

It's so interesting observing siblings and cousins. Of course boys and girls are different, but none of them are alike! Here is a snapshot of what they're like right now. I know they'll change in the years ahead - not just in looks!

Claire is the oldest grandchild. We were thrilled that she received the Holy Ghost this year at Youth Camp and was baptized on Father's Day! She's growing by leaps and bounds, physically, mentally and spiritually. She and I can now share shoes! (Yep, Leesh, "Little Feet" is an appropriate nickname for me!) She told me, "I love taking pictures of flowers." When I downloaded all my pictures, there were lots of flowers in the mix!

Wesley is the oldest Wearing. He's definitely all boy, but he's a thinker, too. I have Sudoku on my iPhone and Claire and Hannah were playing it. Wes had his own solution, "it would be easiest if you could just start with a blank screen."

Hannah is an incredible swimmer, but I was sorry to hear her say, "I don't really like going shopping!!" We're still praying for a conversion!!! She went on to say, "I'm just a homebody like my dad." She is always the first to ask if she can use my camera. I never know what the pictures will be, but she does a great job.
Reece is probably the funniest of the bunch, possibly without meaning to. He doesn't intentionally draw attention, but his quips are hilarious. While Wes was playing football on Saturday, Reece was on the playground with his friends. After about 45 minutes he came to his dad and said, "What I wouldn't give for a drink of water!" I didn't get many pictures of Reece, when I asked his mom if she had any she didn't either and said, "elusive little booger, isn't he?!"

Galina takes a little while to warm up to everyone. I think we can be a bit overwhelming for a 5 year old, all of us aunts, uncles and cousins that she sees only occasionally. But it doesn't take long until she finds my or Monica's lap and makes herself at home. Sunday at breakfast she sat between us and was on one of our laps except when she was eating.

Aleksi will come right to me, no matter how long it has been since we've seen her. She pretends to be camera shy, but really isn't! At breakfast on Saturday, I was asking how old she is. Are you three? four? Her response? "I don't have a number!" This first picture is her attempt at not having her picture taken!

Anniversary Celebration

Before I get into all the details, let me introduce you to all the attendees so you can have a list to refer back to in case you get confused!!

The Parents - Bill and Dolly McElhaney - they have three children, Lance, Les, and Lisa.
Lance, his wife Monica, their two daughters, Claire (age 11) and Hannah (age 8)
Les, his wife (that would be me!)
Lisa, her husband Rick Wearing, their two sons, Wesley (age 10) and Reece (age 7) and their two daughters, Galina (age 5) and Aleksi (age 4).

We started the celebration weekend on Friday evening. We all stayed at the Opryland Hotel (which will get a complete post of its own!)

Rick had to work, so the Wearings were not with us for dinner on Friday evening. The rest of us met at Opry Mills and ate at the Rainforest Cafe. We then wandered around the mall for an hour or so before heading back to the hotel. There were all kinds of mall kiosks, like Gigi's cupcakes but also a very unusual one - the electronic cigarette called "Smoking Everywhere." So cool - NOT!!!

Les and I had walked from the hotel to the mall. Claire and Hannah asked to walk back with us, and as soon as we ditched the parents Uncle Les suggested we stop for ice cream! We three girls did not say no!

By the time we made it back to the hotel the entire clan was there and the kids enjoyed the indoor pool until closing time at 10:00 p.m. All of our nieces and nephews love swimming. Hannah is on a swim team, so she's definitely the strongest swimmer of the bunch, but Aleksi was the only one I saw do a backward summersalt!

We met up Saturday morning and had breakfast at Bob Evans. Dolly had in her possession a tablet that recorded their honeymoon trip 50 years ago! They had written down everywhere they went, how much they spent on gas, food, auto repairs, etc. When we all split up on Sunday, they were heading to Toledo, Ohio, to retrace that same trip. Something tells me they'll spend a bit more this time around.

Wesley's first flag football game of the season was Saturday morning and since Rick is one of the coaches they didn't want to miss it. Les, Bill, and Reece traveled with them to Cookeville and Wes' team won!

Saturday afternoon we had a photoshoot scheduled. Photographer and fellow blogger, Tammy Batson, met us at the hotel and proceeded to shoot us all! We wore matching khaki bottoms and light colored tops. I didn't even attempt to take any formal group shots since Tammy was doing this. I don't think I could have gotten all 14 of us to stand still for a single picture, much less an entire shoot.

Saturday night we went to Germantown Cafe and the food was de-lish! We had a fabulous waiter. There was lots of talking, eating, and laughter. The card shown at the top of this post was made by Claire and all the grandkids signed it.

Sunday morning we met for breakfast at Cracker Barrel (you knew that was coming, didn't you?!) Shortly after breakfast the clan started breaking up. Bill and Dolly were heading to Toledo, while Rick and Lisa were heading to Georgia. Lance and his crew were also heading to Georgia, but they ended up staying a few more hours with us and we enjoyed roaming the incredible grounds of the Opryland Hotel. Claire and Hannah took over 100 pictures with my camera and I'm amazed at many of them.

Les and I finally said goodbye to the Lance McElhaneys and headed to Doug and Lori Long's. We attended First Church in Nashville Sunday night and the service was awesome. The sign team did "Holy Thou Art God." Bro. David Bryan preached "My God is Bigger Than That!" We finished the evening with Doug and Lori and Jerry, Allison, and Sophie Barlar at Cracker Barrel!

As usual we packed a ton in a little time, but we fully enjoyed ourselves!

Airline Antedotes

We made it home safely yesterday. Our weekend was wonderful! I have so many pictures - the majority taken by Claire and Hannah! Those girls love taking pictures and I love the surprises I see when I get home and look at them! Once I've sorted through the pictures, I'll give a full report of our time together. For now, here are a few of the fun things we experienced during our travel time:



Meltdowns
It's not unusual for a child to have a meltdown during travel, but we saw a grown man have one that topped all the kids combined! We were checking in Friday morning around 6:00. Ahead of us in line was a couple with a luggage cart stacked sky high. One of the Southwest employees said, "Sir, you can't have that cart in that line, you need to go to the other line." That's all she said. She wasn't rude or disrespectful or throwing her authority around. Well this fella lost it!! He started yelling at her - "what do you mean? where's the sign? I can't believe this!!" on and on he went. Including some profanity directed at the employee. We fellow travelers were thinking, "hope he's not on my flight!" The employee called security since he was making such a scene. At that point he decided it was time to drop it. Except he's idea of "dropping it" was to yell further - "I said we're done!" He ended up dragging all his luggage and ditching the cart. But I wonder how he felt about himself or how his wife was feeling.

Mothballs
We were in the "A" group, so we got great seats - about row 5 or 6. A fellow passenger walked by and all you could smell were mothballs. Les said, "Hmmm... wonder when he wore those clothes last?"


Slot Machines
We had to change planes in Las Vegas. Nothing like slot machines in the airport. At 7:45 a.m.!


Early Morning Bump
We had a very early flight home yesterday - 6:55 am Nashville time. We were up at 4:30 Nashville time - that's 2:30 California time! I was wondering why we even went to bed. While we were sitting at our gate waiting to board our flight to Las Vegas an announcement was made that our flight was overbooked. Anyone willing to take the 9:10 non-stop flight to Los Angeles would be compensated the price of their flight plus $200. I told Les, "GO!!" He was the first in line and was able to score $358 in flight vouchers! They thought they would need two people, but only needed one. They did go ahead and put me on the later flight with Les. It worked out great - our original flight got in LAX at 11:00, the flight we took got in at 11:20. Since we'd already checked our bags, they were on the earlier flight and were waiting for us when we arrived. We grabbed our bags and headed out to wait for our shuttle.

It was a great trip, but it's always great to sleep in your own bed! Of course we're already thinking of our next adventure!