Vying for Favoritism

In our quest to be The Best Aunt and Uncle in the World (Yes, it will be capitalized.  And, we will probably require people to bow when they greet us.), Shawn and I entertained the four children in our care this weekend like we were a couple of dancing monkeys.

We started Saturday with a trip to the Ranching Heritage Center.  We tried to make amends for the mild case of heat exhaustion by allowing everyone to buy copious amounts of goodies from the gift shop.

Down in front!

Next we went to Main Event where we were joined by Nanny, Pop and Miss 'Cilla.  We let them eat lunch, play arcade games, take pictures in the photo booth and choose whether they wanted to bowl or play miniature golf.  Truly, our own children were looking at us like, "Who are you people?"

We finished the day-o-activity by attending Nanny's Saturday evening church service where all the "big" kids served as acolytes.

Ahh.  Look.  They even look slightly angelic.

After we all had dinner and put the kids to bed, Shawn and I snuck away to crash the final event of my sisters' 20-year reunion - a concert by the Spazmatics.  So.  much.  fun.  (I don't have any stories to tell you from this event because they are all very self-incriminating.  But, some pictures may have snuck onto Facebook...  Go be a "fan" of my page and you can see everything I haven't erased yet.)  But, I will leave you with this thought: When your friends have been drinking, it is not in your best interest to hand them drumsticks and let them beat upon a cowbell while you hold it.  There is about a 50/50 shot for whether they'll hit the cowbell... or your thumbs.

Sunday we took the kids out to the lake where Nanny and Pop live.  Shawn and I joined together as a united force to pull them around the lake in an inner tube with a jetski no fewer than 7,034 times.  (Points were deducted from our overall score, though, when I committed a rookie mistake and failed to get the slack out of the rope before I took off pulling the inner tube.  Our younger niece shot out of that thing like a slingshot.  Not my proudest moment.  And, it's possibly more proof that I shouldn't be unsupervised - much less be doing the supervising!)  But, points were added back to our score when we helped our oldest niece learn how to get up on water skis.  What a rockstar!

After we took them to dinner at a pizza parlour, we let them come home and decorate their own cupcakes for dessert.  We're not above bribery by sugar.

(Honest to goodness, you have no idea how close I came to making the next picture black and white so you wouldn't see how sunburned her cheeks are!  But, Uncle Shawn and Aunt Ali were not in charge of her sunscreen application, so I, therefore, do not think this should be held against us in consideration of our award eligibility.)

So we send them home today.  We will miss them.  But, we're exhausted.  It'll be nice to be able to get back to neglecting our own children.  That's the status quo around here and it takes much less effort.