Kentucky Part 2

My great-aunt and many of my extended family live in a beautiful part of Kentucky.  Lots of farmland, everything is very green, and this time of year, the evening weather is perfect.  I could have stayed in her backyard all weekend long, staring at her house and barns and just the land surrounding her place.  My neck of the woods has lots of neighbors and driveways and trees and fences, and I loved the open spaces.  I have lots of memories of evenings spent in her backyard, eating pot-luck dinners and home made ice cream, and catching fireflies in jars with all my cousins.  We would try to bring the jars of fireflies home to Texas with us the next morning, and were so disappointed when they died somewhere around Little Rock.  

The old men would always sit outside in the dark and talk, while the women were in the house chatting and cleaning up after dinner.  Not much has changed in that respect.  This year, Dane and Aidan ran around shirtless in the dark, catching fireflies with their cousins.  The menu was vast quantities of my grandfather's spaghetti recipe and Elgin sausage and the requisite home made ice cream with strawberries.  My 90 year old grandmother, along with my dad and a few of his cousins, stayed up till 1 am Friday night catching up on life.  (When you're as old as these people are, catching up takes a LONG time.)The boys played on this hammock all weekend long.
The boys met their cousin Kyra on this trip.  Kyra is 5, and super cute.  Her and Dane played together ALL DAY on Friday.  At one point I went down the hallway to find Dane and Kyra both tucked into my cousin Katie's bed, holding hands.  I love Aidan's face in this picture.  I think he was trying to catch some of the fireflies in his mouth.
Saturday morning, I joined some of my Texas family to go antiquing and we stopped off at a cute little tea room for lunch.  You can tell we're at a tea room because of the teacups in the background.  We leave no room for guessing.  See Andee, on the far right?  Picture her in a wedding dress.  It was her wedding we missed the weekend in March when we were all home with the plague.  See Dana, next to Andee?  Does she look pregnant?  Cuz she is!  Add one more cousin to the roster come January. 
Saturday night was the big post wedding-reunion/birthday party.  What?  Doesn't every family have those?  With matching t-shirts, no less?  The boys met lots and lots of new cousins, but Katie and Jack Alvin were a couple of favorites.  (I don't know how I managed to not get a picture of Katie.)  Jack Alvin took a turn Friday night firefly-gathering with the little kids, and at one point I hear Dane's voice in the dark, "Jack Alvin, I love you."   

More pictures to come.