The family reunion

In the late 1700s, Kalina's great, great, great, great (great? great? I lost track.) grandparents on her mommy's side settled in southern Virginia. They were farmers, as would be pretty much every generation after them until her grandpa's (however, rumor has it that her daddy would love to pick up the tradition someday). At least one became a prominent citizen in the area, while others moved to Nebraska.

Being a Carolina girl herself, Kalina was pleased and proud that her extended family chose to trek all the way from the Midwest and Louisiana to this relatively nearby area of Virginia recently for a family reunion. (The reunion was also celebrating her grandpa's retirement, the highlight of which was a Nebraska/VA Tech football game where the family chose to ignore their true roots and cheer wholeheartedly for Nebraska, but Kalina doesn't tune into such things.)

Kalina was thrilled to meet her great uncle Jim and great Aunt Jo, but not quite thrilled enough to show any interest in being held by them. As they temporarily headed off in a different direction, she piled back into the car with Uncle Tom, Aunt Nancy, cousin Poky (of the four-footed variety), Grandpa and Mommy to tour some of the family landmarks, on what Uncle Tom had mistakenly assured us was a 10-minute drive.

Twenty minutes later after the initial excitement revolving around "the doggy is coming?!? there's a doggy in the car with us!!!" had worn off and we were halfway there, Mommy finally brought out the really cool toys and wish she'd thought to pack more snacks. Fifteen minutes after that, Kalina was at her wit's (do they have one wit or more at this age?) end and letting us know it, and five minutes later we arrived at the cemetery that holds a dozen or so of her ancestors.

Elated to be out of the car, Kalina pretty much just wanted to run around through the grass, but I made her stand still for some pictures. Then, we piled back into the car to drive past the old fireplace foundation that is probably where our ancestors cooked and warmed their hands and yanked their toddlers away from circa 1800, and then we drove back to the hotel. Overall, a very cool little jaunt, antsy baby notwithstanding.

Soon, it was time for dinner, where my antsy baby had used up her "sitting still" capabilities for the day. My cousin and his wife, outnumbered by their four children (two of which were foster children) ages 17 months to 5, pleasantly sat and ate while their kids pleasantly sat and ate. My child was only happy if she was playing "chase" around the room with me or her Aunt Nancy. We left early, and I faced the challenge of putting Kalina to bed in a strange place.

She did better than I thought, and better yet, Daddy had finally arrived. We spent the evening in a dark hotel room trying not to make any noise whatsoever, as Kalina woke up and cried every half hour or so for a while. We gave up the grandiose idea of flipping through cable channels, found the bathroom not too comfy to hang out in, and headed to bed early.

The next day, Kalina decided she didn't like her shoes which are, admittedly a bit stinky. However, we still managed to have a good time. We visited the campground where a lot of Hanks's were staying, took a long nap, snagged a Blizzard at a nearby Dairy Queen (which Kalina refused in favor of Cheerios) and played at a huge park before having to leave Shoney's early due to the fact that Kalina wanted nothing to do with her high chair and only wanted to--you guessed it--play chase around the tables. *sigh* Even after a solid two hours of park play. Mommy skipped dinner that night, as all good mommies must every so often.

The next morning, Kalina finally tolerated the high chair a little better, for a limited time, at Grandpa's official retirement party. And then we played chase around the tables.

The rest of the family reunion was spent back on Kalina's home turf, touring around various sites, enjoying excellent barbecue in Uncle Jim and Aunt Jo's RV, and playing hostess until she was too exhausted to twirl or or cat-whap any longer.



Photos: #1: Family--Uncle Jim, Aunt Jo, Cousin Ed and wife Julie, and their four kids. #2: The very old cemetery where lots of our ancestors are buried.

Video: Kalina the cat trainer, taken about a month ago (we're finally playing catchup with some of our videos--can you tell?)