Thanksgiving with the Junkins

 The thanksgiving week begins with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and perhaps that's a good sponsorship, as I was in the Galleria today, and Ruby was so excited to go into a Macy's.   We did not buy anything, but she knew who they were.   We began our visit at Nanny's where she had some amazing food that we had to be careful not to each to much of and not get any of Granny's good food.  After our visit with Nanny, we started the Honda Odyssey parking lot at Grannys house, and moved all our luggage upstairs as we would be spending two nights here.  

After a fun meal and some outdoor playtime, we sat around the table and played some games.   The first game (Codename) we played required your team to figure out words based on a person saying ONE WORD.   It was pretty fun, and very new to me.   I learned quickly that when Colby says Patrick, that should not jump you immediately to a Spongebob reference and guess STAR, but instead to a move GHOST reference.   Hahaha, in hindsight, this was a good hint, but on this night, my brain was not in sync with Colby's.  It was a pretty neat game, and I am sure will return.  

We followed this with Poetry for Neanderthals.  Melissa always amazes me with her command of the Neanderthal language.   But Katie is the hardest to judge because so many of her one syllable words are pronounced with two.   I don't think anything as crazy as crustacean was used, but I know I got hit with the word "little", and sam got hit with the word "water".  It was a fun night for most folks, but those guys were frustrating for others.   Before going to bed that night, we got out the air mattress for the girls, but I then realized I left the pump in our downstairs den...and the mattress has a built in pump, but we had no batteries for it.   So Katie had a pump, but it was only for use in a car.   So me and Davis went outside in the rain to pump up an air mattress next to the van.  

The next morning, all of the girls went out shopping.   One day they will learn that Magan is at a whole other level of shopping.   But I think they are learning to just enjoy the times where they sit and wait.  It sounded like a bunch of laughs from the stories that were shared, and from the sheer number of selfies taken, I think it was indicative of a good girl day.  So because I was not there and these stories are not mine, I will play some codenames with  ONE or TWO WORDS.   Each of these words seems to spark a laugh in my wife, and perhaps will help generate memories and stories one day...LIONEL RITCHIE, GIFT CARD, SWEET TEA, KARMA COFFEE.  

So what did the boys do on this day?   We went to play frisbee golf as Heritage Park.   The weather was perfect, much warmer than I thought it would be, leading to me sharing with my brothers and nephews the skill to take off an undershirt, without taking off the overshirt.  The course was much shorter this time than last we played, but regardless, our throws were rather terrible.  So many trees were hit this day.   We played the first round, and Sam ended up winning the singles round, then we paired up based on the singles scores...Sam and Davis, Ben and me, Colby and John.   John cracked us all up by smacking a sign with his frisbee make a super loud noise on hole one.   We jokingly pointed out an even worse sign to hit on hole 2, and sure enough, he tagged that one as well.   On the group round, it was mainly me and Ben keeping a small lead until right at the end when Colby and John came back and tied us up in the end.  We decided to just play closest to the hole to decide the winner, and my shot bounced off of two trees to land closest.  I'll take a lucky win any day.   

After our disc golf, we hit the pizza buffet and we hit it well.   SO much pizza, then so much cinnamon rolls.   A cheap pizza buffet is one of the best places in all of America.   So wonderful.   I almost slapped Colby when I saw him at the salad area, but then realized he was just getting peppers for his pizza.  I think we left all basically on the verge of puking.  Altho I felt bad for the girls when I got back to Grannys.   They had fun, but had not gotten to go out, so we went and got some snacks at Dollar General and some fun drinks at mcdonalds.  

That evening there were more games, and a good full round of "Paper" where I remember Laney being referred to as the sweet little baby, and Ivey getting pegged for a screaming baby for this day.  Crazy stuff like Norvel Blackstock were in this list.   I was pointed at for being weird and anytime a musical needed named.  Grandaddy's infamous "ONE" was mentioned a couple of times.   And at some point it became pavlovian to just scream "REBA" when anyone pointed to Katie.  There was later some games of farkle, a game of nines, and a late night finale with Hearts.   I surprised even myself with a no-pass run at the end to pull in all hearts and win the game on the final hand.  

And then it was morning, and coffee was drunk, food was warmed for the Ratcliff gathering, and it was time to go.  I tend to joke with many people that I am not a big fan of family gatherings, but this one restored my love of it.   Probably just my reclusive nature that must be snatched out of the hole of my house by my socialite wife, but I am glad she does.   It was really fun.   And sad to wave goodbye to the family, then again wave goodbye to the family, and then again to wave goodbye to the family...

Family Pictures

 There is so much work that goes into preparation for these pictures, and Magan does an awesome job.   The kids all laugh at the horrors these have been in the past...we talk about Sam's crazy smiles as a kid...Davis' dramatics at anything not going his way...Dad's fake smiles...the girls overly smiley smiles...and Magan always mentioning something that she wanted to tell the photographer...AFTER we were done.  Now that the kids are older, the smiles come a little easier, Dad has to do no more threatening of children.   And with the lack of threatening, perhaps Dad has even found a place of zen in these pictures.  In this place of zen, he writes in the third person often.   So many moments of ours have been captured on pictures, but these are the ones below that will feed into the next set of planning of frames and sizes for our living room.  

We love our mom and her endless list of chores.   We love our super busy mom, that loves to start a movie for the family at 9:30 at night.  She puts the beauty in every picture, and there would not be near the smiles without her laughter.   We do these pictures for her, but because of how much she does for each one of us.  Our little Sam has grown up and will soon move away...and these family pictures will change.   But I know that each one of them...Sam, Davis, Belle, and Ruby...will take these memories and times of togetherness with them.   And I hope I am able to see their families in pictures like this one day.   

Pensacola Air Show with the Boy Scouts

Our last boy scout air show campout was scheduled for April of 2020, and that never happened, so the boys were very excited to finally get to go to an airshow, and especially as this would be the homecoming show in Pensacola for the Blue Angels.  Sam's friend Brandon has taken him to some air shows before, but I think this was a first for me and Davis.  As friday of this weekend was Veterans Day, and the kids were already out of school, we were able to leave with some daylight left, and arrive at the campsite before midnight.   Apparently Sam got his BREAL (I think this is the app the kids like right now) picture with Cole and Brandon in the car.  

When we arrived to the campsite, we found that there were also 300 other scouts there, including some girl scouts and cub scouts in a large field.  So the adults scattered trying to find enough room for our group of 45 people and tents.  And we found a large area that worked, but it was not part of the scout area, so we decided to pitch the tents anyway and deal with it in the morning.  Seeing as this was a military campground, that may not have been the best choice but it worked out.  Setting up a tent in the dark is now the norm, so that was not an issues, and the weather was in the 50s, so the temperature was amazing as well.  Davis was picking on me for making him bring his cold weather gear for the nights, but he was not picking on me the following night.  

The next morning we had eggs in a bag for breakfast, which is easy cooking with hardly any cleanup.  Davis found out that it took a little more time to get his hard boiled eggs than originally thought, as his runny boiled egg had to be dropped back into the water.  I don't know why all the boys decided to stand on the blue tarp, apparently that was a Foster thing.  

The campground welcome center was closed when we left to get into the long line onto the base for the air show, so I left a message that we had camped in one of the primitive spots, hope that was ok, we will pay whatever the fee is for those areas.  Then as soon as we arrived at the parking area, they called back that we were not supposed to camp there, it is only for military ID.   With some back and forth, and as much charm as I could muster, I finally convinced them to let us stay for another night without breaking down our camp...maybe it helped that we had Army and Navy veterans as part of our dads there.   So again, another case of asking for forgiveness sometimes beats asking for permission.  

The parking lot was a LONG WALK from the airshow, but I had read where wagons were allowed, so I brought our fold up wagon, and immediately had about 20 folding chairs from the boys in it.  The air show did not allow any outside food or drink...which made for an expensive lunch, but since the airshow was free, I guess it was not a big deal.  My plan was to go over to the museum on base, but it was a bus ride away, and I figured I should probably just enjoy the airshow since it was my first one.  

I did find out that plane and air shows are really great...but it is very similar to jazz music...it is really cool for the first few minutes, but then it all just seems to run together and be the same.  I did enjoy the show, and getting to periodically hang out with the boys.  I did not capture a picture of the lines for food that day, but it was ridiculous.   There had to be about 40,000 people there, so the food tents were probably a little over whelmed.   So, yes, I did wait about 45 minutes for a hot dog, but got extras so that Sam could have one without waiting.   Davis did not want one so he had his own wait.   

Prior to the Blue Angels show as the highlight, they had some World War 2 song singers provide a show...and yes, Davis has a picture of me completely asleep during that portion.   I did not have that pic, but perhaps his whole montage of dad sleeping pics will one day be its own blog.   We also all cracked up at Cason sitting on the handle of our folding chair and it completely falling apart.  It was already falling apart, but was pretty funny seeing him falling to the ground in it.  Our seats were also directly behind a set of porta potties, but ones we could not use, as they were in a roped off area for paid ticket areas.   Oh well.  The Blue Angels show was well worth it, they were amazing flying together.   A couple of my favorite pictures of them flying are below.  As the airshow ended, the wind was picking up, and cold coming in.  Our long walk back to the car was through a fierce chilly wind that stung as we all only had on t-shirts.   And apparently the base is not equipped to get 40,000 people out of the parking lot (one of the runways)...we waited at our car for over an hour before cars finally started moving.   We also found out later, that our friend Timmy from church was at the air show and saw us walk by his car, but we never connected while down there.  

Back at camp, we began plans for dinner.   The boys had some pretty good meals.  Davis helped his patrol cook pasta and meatballs (this was a first for their patrol).   Sam and the leadership patrol grilled some chicken and had some amazing chicken quesadillas.   But Bob Brown was with the adults and when the treasurer is the adult grubmaster, the food is pretty good.   He brought both steak and chicken and shrimp kabobs...and we had some cheesy rice and bread on the side.   One of the other dads is a chef at Alexanders, and he cooked everything perfectly.   It was cold that night, but a meal like that certainly helps.   

The next morning, we woke up to a 35 degree chill, and Davis thanked me for reminding him to bring his cold gear.  Hot Hands in the bottom of a sleeping bag do wonders.  Davis showed me his knife injury from the night before...hopefully nothing was tainted in the meal he was preparing.  Max gave a really short devotion.   We asked him later, and he said he prepped a longer one, but the cold made him call an audible.  Sam and I wished we had some discs for this golf course that ran right next to our campground.  Davis rode home with the Kirbys, but my car has a tendency to always pull off at Priester's Pecans on the way back from Florida.  But this time, I had Brandon Brown in my car, who is very allergic to all nuts.   We got a picture of Sam and Cole standing over his dead body.   And last time I was here, it was me and Davis only, so I grabbed a pic of me and Sam at the Priesters truck.   Inside, we made sure Brandon walked away from all the nuts to the restroom, and kept him away from any of the samples.   His dad later asked "YOU TOOK HIM WHERE?"  All made it home safe.   It was a really cool campout, as I have heard from many of these young guys telling me about it in their Board of Reviews.