antioch, il

They managed to drag me away from my harp for long enough to go to the family reunion for my Dad's side of the family. (You start worrying about your psychology when you freak out with excitement upon receiving your order of strings and new *exercise books* in the mail.) So, this weekend we're all up in Antioch, IL, which is a small town on the Wisconsin border. Antioch has that Great-Lakes-area no-worries feel to it. Relaxed. A little run-down. Nice to be out-doors.

This morning we made our way out of the house leisurely. Mom had me and Noah bring in the new rug that she brought home to try out in the living room. That is one really heavy roll of carpet! We moved all the furniture out of the way and then moved it back on top of the rug. It's a nice piece: black and gold, with geometric maze patterns in a grid. I bet we'll end up buying it. Little cousin Xander passed his approval by bouncing all over it and following the maze patterns with his finger.
My grandma, Aunt Audrey, and 5-year-old cousin Xander have been visiting us this week. They have been good house guests. I gave up my room so it could be a guest room, and I've been sleeping on the living-room floor, but that's been okay actually. Xander is really cute, and the most precocious small child I've visited this summer. He talks a mile a minute, but always with fully-formed, well-pronounced sentences, and he's been brought up to be very well-behaved. We took him for a hike on the bike trail and then into the woods the other night. I thought we would wear him out quickly, because he's so small, but he ended up all-out running full speed for an hour and half until it was dark and we were all muddy.

Anyway, after the rug, we all piled into two cars to drive to the family reunion. Noah drove the Saab, I rode with him in the front, and Aunt Audrey and Xander rode in the back so she could give him cereal and picture books if he got restless. He was amazingly quiet on the ride there. The rest of us got into a lively discussion about economics and ended up on the topic of Medieval-period power structures and the heirarchy of lords and vassals and kings, which was great because Aunt Audrey happens to be something of an expert on Medieval and Renaissance history. I learned a lot in just that hour that we had to talk in the car.
In the other car, Dad drove, April listened to music, Mom slept, and Grandma talked about various gossip items and bits of news. Our car was undoubtedly cooler.

Now we're here, and we had a high-energy evening with favorite cousins Brad and Scott, playing games of corn-hole, jumping on the trampoline, eating at Culvers, and being eaten by mosquitos. Favorite cousin Julie, we miss you!!!!

In other news, I bought a one-way ticket to Paris yesterday. My departure date is September 5th. :)