Tuesday and I went home for Easter last weekend, which I think we don’t traditionally do… I can’t recall for sure, but I’m assuming we don’t because we decided to travel on Good Friday, and I think if we had any prior experience with this, we would have known that was a wretched idea. What usually takes 3.5 hours took 5 whole stupid hours. Seriously, it was like people prepared for the resurrection celebration by just pitching their vehicles into the air. We saw no fewer than 5 accidents along our little piece of I-35 purgatory…but of course when we were passing by some type of reenactment in Waco, Texas, traffic was flowing nicely. That’s the type of thing I’m interested in staring at for a while… but at 70 mph, it’s difficult to wake up your sister in time to get her to look to the right and see three 30 ft tall crosses complete with (plaster?) crucified Jesus’s being examined by men in brightly colored costumes that I can really only describe as pope-like. I’m assuming it was some sort of Holy Trinity representation, but that’s a very basic pop-culture assumption I’m making as religion is not a thing I’ve invested much time in reading about.

We eventually made it home and spent the rest of the weekend hanging around with the family and laughing at the things the 3-year-old niece and almost 2-year-old nephew say and do.

We spent the first night hanging out on the dock that my dad built last summer. It’s a wonderful little place to spend time, and one of the only positive things I know of from the horrible drought Texas has had the last couple of years… meaning the water level was low enough for him to build it. Anyway, one of my biggest laughs from the weekend came when we asked the kids to show us a hook ’em horns. At three years old, Reese basically has it down. It takes her a bit of time and she has to use her other hand to pin down those pesky middle fingers, but once she gets it, she’s good. Hudson, on the other hand, is only about 22 months old, so he’s stuck with remedial hand signs that look a lot more like trying to get your guns up. An additional dock experience involved the second night we were home when Casie, along with her rocking chair and small son, fell into the pond. However, it was one of those moments that I’m not sure words can adequately capture, so I’ll just say it was equal parts terrifying and hilarious.

Mom and dad had the snake toss we made a few years ago set up out in the backyard. Hudson just kept walking closer and closer until he was close enough to just lay the golf balls directly on the ladder. He’s little, so we give him that remedial pass.

This is Reese the Niece. She’s a legit tiny crazy person. That little scar you see on her forehead is from this time that she leaped into a Kohl’s dressing room mirror, leaving her mother standing there stunned in a dress she didn’t own with a child gushing blood. Clearly, I wasn’t there, but from the way my sister tells the story, I think it must have been quite dramatic… and I only share that story because it’s sort of the image I think of every time I picture this kid. Just flinging her tiny being around, causing ultimate chaos.

One of my favorite moments from the weekend involved watching Lord of the Rings with her. It was a Gollum/Smeagol scene and she was totally engrossed, and then when the scene ends, she looks over her shoulder at the rest of us and says, “That monkey is sooo mean.” It never occurred to me to think of what non-middle-earth being Gollum might be, so it just really cracked me up to hear that. Then, during a battle scene, I told her it was too violent so maybe she should close her eyes… and she says, “No, I know it’s a good movie.” She was very matter of fact, like, despite my opinions of what she should or shouldn’t be seeing, she was prepared to make that decision herself. I hope she never loses that sense of self. The idea that she alone is responsible for what is or isn’t right for her.

On Saturday, we made this water pillow. Seen on pinterest via The Mommies Made Me Do It. It did not last very long, I think mainly because the only thing Reese did was jump stomp it… but it was enough fun to be worth the 15 to 20 minutes and few dollars it took to put it together.

This picture doesn’t have a story behind it, it just makes me laugh. I think it epitomizes children and how they are often anti-whatever-you-are-trying-to-accomplish. Oh, are you trying to take my picture? Well, then how about I put your lens’ cap back on for you. You lose, lady.

Apparently kids go through very brief, but intense phases with the things they do. Hudson decided his new thing would be to tuck his top lip into his bottom lip, Grumpy Old Men style. He would just wander around like that for stretches of time. Kids are so damn weird.

And then of course it was Easter weekend, so there were eggs to be hunted. We went to my Aunt Nelda and Uncle Tommy’s house. There was a crazy storm, but after it passed, a bunch of kids ran out and scooped up lifetimes worth of sugar. Reese is pretty hung up on the color pink, so for the first 30 seconds or so, she was only looking for pink eggs, but she’s a smart little monster, so she quickly abandoned her aesthetic preferences for cold, hard logic and made out like an Easter bandit. Hudson did alright, too. It was a really good weekend.