River Days

Parks-Pa-Looza

The grandchildren of Arnom and Mary Parks gathered this past weekend at our River House to hang out, have fun, play in the sun, eat good food, laugh, tell stories of our beloved Grandparents, make fun of Danny's random elephant memory and basically have a fabulous time.

Mendy and her family couldn't make it due to prior engagements and Stacy and Charles are anxiously awaiting baby Cade and didn't need to travel. They were certainly missed and we can't wait till we can all be together next year.

Friday night, Danny, Sally, Dana, Richard and Keeley arrived. We took it easy that night and got caught up. We knew we had a big day on Saturday. Our very dear friends Todd and Gayla came by and Gayla was three sheets to the wind and very funny. She is a FABULOUS cook and insisted on cooking dinner for everyone on Saturday night. There was no talking her out of it.

Holly arrived around 11 on Saturday and we barely let her walk through the door before we made her jump in the boat. We had a blast on the water as we watched Tony show us all up on the wakeboard. One of the rules of Parks-Pa-Looza is everyone gets to do as they wish, so Dana, Richard and Keeley opted for naps instead of boating.

Right after we got on the boat, Jackson kept looking at Holly with this wierd face - all scrunched up nose, quizzical expression. Finally - I hear, "You got panties?" Holly's swimsuit bottoms were not visible the way she was sitting and my son had some questions if Holly decided to go commando that day. Not sure why my kid is the panty monitor.

I wakeboarded some, but am not near as much fun to watch as Tony - I don't do flips, that's just crazy. Then I decided I would attempt to Hydrofoil again. This would be my third time. I got up, but immediately launched myself straight into the air only to do a nose dive. It doesn't hurt, the Hyrdofoil takes all the impact, but I could hear them laughing over the sound of the boat. Did this several times, until I decided I would let someone else be the butt of all the laughing.

Then it was Danny's turn. He strapped on a wakeboard and jumped in. He did awesome, but did not master it just yet. After many tries, and one ripped off callus, he decided to give up for the day, but not without HUGE effort. He was sooo close, but after a while, you start getting so tired, it becomes almost impossible.

One of the greatest things was watching my son interact with his cousins. Danny and Sally were fabulous with him, Danny spent most of the day with Jackson in his lap. As usual, Jackson conned them out of an entire bag of gold fish.

Then we went in for lunch with plans to come back out, but then we got to chatting, drinking some beers and enjoying the air conditioning (have I ever told you my window units in the River House keep the house at 67 degrees). As we were getting off the boat, this is when we discovered my Iphone had gotten wet - really wet. I could see moisture in the camera thing. It was super hot and would not turn back on. I was afraid I had fried my phone. Good news is, apparently an Iphone can snorkel, but not swim. Apple store got it working again, but the guy said he had never seen a more beat up phone. Whatever!

Holly, Tony, Jackson and the dogs went for a mule ride and let the dogs swim when we ran into Game Warden Randall. Nice fella, he has never given us any problems, but wise to be cautious when he is on the water. We decided not to go back out at that point.

Beautiful Holly

Todd and Gayla dropped off dinner promptly at 7:00. Cordon Bleu, Baked Potatoes, Salad and sauteed veggies. It was so good!! She wouldn't even let me reimburse her. Kept saying it was my belated birthday dinner.

Right before we ate, I asked Richard to say a prayer and I actually got teary eyed (shocking, I know) as I am so blessed to have the friends and family around me that I do. Every where I turn, I have people who love me and it's a great feeling.

After dinner, we continued to laugh, tell stories and remember our grandparents. It was not sad, but just a tribute to the family they put together and all the memories we all shared. There are many things in my River House that belonged to my grandparents - one being a family photo with Grandma, Grandpa, my dad his senior year in highschool and his brothers, Don and Rex. Everyone really liked seeing that.

You heard me mention earlier about Danny's random elephant memory. That man remembers the strangest random details about things. For instance, he knows he weighed 50 lbs in kindergarten. Who knows that about themself? He remember every kid program that was on when we were kids. When was the last time you even thought about Electric Company. I can't even remember all the weird things he threw out there, but so funny.

Todd and Gayla showed up again later that evening and we decided to go jump in Heather and Terry's pool (site of the infamous Mule theft). It was close to 9:30, so I dropped Jackson off with Keeley and off we went. There had been some consumption of beers and wine at this point, so we were all pretty festive.

Heather is a friend at the river who absolutely loves to have people at her house and throw parties. When we arrived (Tony remembered to take the Mule keys), there was about 20 other people there and oddly enough, most of them I did not know. Introductions were made and that still did not help. I asked her who they were and she only know one of them, the rest were that girls friends. Let me tell you people, I have never seen such a large gathering of big boobed women in swim suits that did not fit. There were boobs everywhere. Regretfully, there are not photos.

I then realized I did know the same girl Heather did, her name was Kelly, and we started chatting. She was telling me who everyone was and then came to the phrase, "that girl in the hat is a lesbian wanna be and she's hitting on Lucy (names changed to protect the innocent) who is not a lesbian and any minute , WHAM, POW, RIGHT IN THE SMACKER!" No, I kid you not, I can't make this up.

While I am trying to take all this in, my sister decides to tell us about her fantasy "to do a handstand off the edge of the pool with a double back flip into the "prairie" (otherwise known as the backyard) and flip flop into happily ever after" Again, I can't make this up.

So, we have the attempted lesbian kiss fest and Dana's fantasy of a triple sau-kow off the rock ledge into handsprings through the prairie all going on while dogs (not mine, our hosts) are running amuck humping everything and people from the neighborhood coming and going. The folks I knew that showed up, the look on their faces at all the boobs in the ill-fitting swim-suits was hysterical. The quality of people watching at this particular event was a full 10.

Around 11:30, I had to be the party pooper and remind my hubby, we have a little one who wakes up REALLY early, so we were going to call it an evening. Our crew decided to join us, but would have to make two trips as we would not all fit in the mule. Holly starts looking for her shoes and can only find one. We look and look and finally I decide we would just come back the next day, "one of the humping dogs is having their way with it". Then we find another shoe, but this one is for the left foot, Holly has her right shoe. Yes, we conclude, one of the big boobed women is wearing one of her shoes and one of Holly's. Holly spend the next 10 minutes walking around looking at everyone's feet. All the boobs matched - they all had on a matched set. GAYLA! Todd and Gayla went somewhere and I bet she is the one wearing two different shoes. On the way home, we see them on the road in Todd's pimped out golf cart with custom mags, green ground effect lights, diamond plate pedals, wood grain dash and fuzzy dice. Gayla was barefoot, or so we thought. When they got back to the party, she had put "her" shoes on and was indeed the culprit, wearing two different shoes.

Everyone is home, in bed and Holly gets the pleasure of sleeping with my child who kept rubbing his face on hers all night saying "moooommmmmyyyyeeeee".

Next day, breakfast done, back on the boat. Dana and Richard have to get back to town to take Keeley to work so they left when we put the boat in. More laughter, more water, but this time it's Holly's turn to wakeboard. She too did so good. I am proud they tried something new. It's not easy to just jump in and give something a shot and both her and Danny did a great job. Sally is not a HUGE lake fan, so she stayed in the boat except to cool her off. She likes to see her feet in water and that's not possible in the Brazos. It's pretty murky. I warned them they would feel new muscles and Holly texted me today "and...it hurts". Sorry bout that, no pain, no gain.

Sally & Holly

Tony did his thing, I wakeboarded some and decided to try the Hydrofoil again. This time, Tony tied a zip tie to the foil to keep it in the water so I wouldn't launch myself to the moon each time I managed to get up. After several (lots, many) failed attempts, Tony and I finally figured out how he needed to pull me out of the water with the boat to get me up. VICTORY!! I am up, but then I am down. I have to remember not to look at the ski or I will never keep my balance. Up again, and managed to stay up for a good while. I think I got the hang of getting up, now it's just figuring out the rest.

We went in for lunch and sadly, it's time for everyone to go home. It was such a fun weekend. Jackson was such a good boy, never cried, never fussed, just enjoyed all the extra attention. Danny was wonderful with him, very attentive, and caring, always cleaning up after my little man. Holly kept sneaking him chips:-) so of course, he loved her.

It was so nice to spend time with everyone. Very nice to get to know Sally a little bit better. She is an amazing woman and it warms my heart to know Danny has such a wonderful wife.