Making memories

On Memorial Day weekend, we enjoyed a trip to Duncan to visit Grandma and Granddaddy Smith. And as luck would have it, all eight of the Smith kids had made the same plans: to enjoy a day or two at home with the family-swimming, cooking out, and spending time together.

With all of Randy’s brothers and sisters visiting, and all but one of the 11 grandkids present, it was a moment that doesn’t happen too often in a large family: having everyone back at home at the same time. It makes for a full house, a constantly-running dish washer, and a crazy bunch of kids. But it also makes great memories.

At seven, Tyler is the oldest of the grandchildren. He’s the most loved and the ring leader of the grandkids. He’s smart and brave and the most acrobatic child I’ve ever met. I just know one of these days Cooper is going to break a bone trying to climb a tree as high as his big cousin Tyler.

Mattie is the second oldest at six. She’s daring and dramatic and isn’t afraid to get dirty. Give this girl a pile of dirt and a water hose and she’ll take a head-to-toe mud bath that will have her skin healthier than any supermodel in six states. Just don’t talk her into trying to pull a loose tooth till it’s ready. Her screams could wake the dead.

Cooper comes next at five and a half. He’s the child who just wants to have fun, like all the other cousins, jumping on the trampoline or running through the yard in his bare feet. Unfortunately, he’s stuck with the mother that drags him off the trampoline every time he gets on, and forces him to wear shoes whenever he goes outside. You wouldn’t believe the size of the pine needles in southern Oklahoma.

Haley was the only cousin missing from our holiday weekend. She just turned five, and she falls in with the three older kids just fine. Don’t let anyone tell her she’s too little to do something, cause she’ll try it anyway, and most likely be the best of the bunch. She’s the closest thing to a twin Cooper will ever have, and we all missed seeing her last weekend.

Next come the killer B’s: Brady and Brisco. They are both four years old, only six weeks apart. They share a closeness that all parents wish for their children to find in a friend. Brady is sweet and shy and a stickler for the rules. Brisco is decidedly his polar opposite; but the two of them love one another as if they were the same. They were a powerful force in the pool this weekend, bombing aunt Becca from every angle.

Joe is number seven; he’ll be four in October. He’s a true adventurer. He has been found on top of stoves and underneath porches; there is nothing this boy is afraid of. He has a smile and a laugh that will knock your socks off. Unfortunately, for him, he knocked the top off of a hornet’s nest this weekend, suffering a bite or two around the neck. Of course that didn’t keep him down long. I could swear those were his little buns I found on my camera card when I got home on Monday night.

Aubrey is three, and the oldest of the trifecta of little girls who come next. She is a princess and a beauty queen, and a new big sister. She swims like a fish and her easy, golden tan is the envy of all of her aunties. Mollie and Jenna are the last girls in the bunch. At two and a half and almost two, these three girls together can clean out a toy box and make an hour of dress up seem like a trip to Macy’s.

Little baby Caleb is the newest of our crew. At seven weeks old, he definitely stole the show, giving all the aunts and grandmas a sweet reminder of how small and snuggly our little monsters used to be.

Whether it was roasting marshmallows, playing in the tent, or finding “poo” in the pool, you can bet the weekend with the cousins created lasting memories for everyone in our family, and brought a lifetime of recollections back to both sets of grandparents who were present.

How time does fly when we’re raising kids. It must have seemed like only yesterday that the grandparents were making biscuits and gravy for their own children, or enjoying a cool, summer evening on the back porch, under a blanket of stars, singing and laughing and enjoying just being together.

Yes, time moves too quickly, but thank goodness for long, holiday weekends and for big families who are able and adept at creating memories that last.

And that’s All in a day’s work!