So where was I?

When we finally arrived at the family play-ground, Smud introduced himself with a hearty handshake, and immediately asked about which firearms I'd brought.  Amanda later thought it was odd, but to me, it was jumping right in with conversation on common ground.  It beat the heck out of small talk about the weather.

Amanda's mother introduced herself as Emily (funny, because that's her name) and we chit-chatted about something, probably the weather.  If I knew anything about knitting, I'd have struck up a conversation about it.

I felt instantly at ease and very welcome.  There were friends and family there already, and it's pretty hard to figure out which was which and remember all the names, but I did manage to remember a few and even figure out how some are connected.  The family came in waves all weekend.  This is Uncle So-and-so.  Meet Aunt This-or-that.  Cousin Who.  An Auntie who isn't technically related.  A "challenged" Uncle.  Really a blur of folks.  Everyone nice as can be.  I do need a chart of some sort.  An Abbot and Costello skit comes to mind...

I think I have all the dogs down, although not quite the story on each.  I never understood why people had trouble telling GSP's apart, until I was trying to keep Corgis straight.  Poppy is easy, Amanda's dog.  Never confused with the others.  Poppy doesn't look much different, but acts in a certain way, and looks at me much different than the others.  Poppy is very much "into" the GSP's, where the other Corgis are more a pack.  But the others don't even look much like each other and I had trouble.

Some highlights of the weekend in no particular order:

• Three mile hike with Amanda, Smud and six dogs;
• Breakfast, twice, by Emily with the immediate family;
• Finding a very good hollow log for the fire;
• Pontoon boat tour of the lake;
• The rope swing;
• Being asked to man the grill;
• One perfect pot of coffee brewed in the camper;
• A special gift from Smud;
• Ice cream with Jaimie;
• A little gun-play in the sand pit;
• My dogs ate the Ivory soap (funny and embarrassing);
• Amanda taking care of all the little things all weekend long.

The only thing I didn't care for all weekend was shaving in the lake.  The cool water made it tough and even with the new 5-blade razor from Gillette, I got razor burn.

I told some stories about our first date and the tools I bought for Amanda.  We've got kind of an easy relationship going.  Very comfortable.  I hoped her folks would see that; I suspect they did.  Emily hinted about marriage and kids.  She couldn't have been too appalled.  (It is true that married men live longer than single ones.)

Amanda and I saw this weekend that we nuts didn't fall far from our respective family trees.  Amanda is a wonderful person who is the result of her wonderful family.