Saturday, the Sixth

We thought we would have a nice, relaxing Saturday morning, considering how busy our days had been up to this point, but then somebody had the brilliant idea of taking a mulberry pie to the Boss Fireworks Spectacular that evening....and John and I were signed up for a temple shift all afternoon.

So in throwback form, Ethan and I headed out to do some shopping together with Baby in tow.  We rushed into Meijer, returned some bottles, bought what we needed for pie and for food for the next day....and stopped by Barry Bagel's.  This was one of the only eateries in the area when I was in high school, and my friend, JJ, and I would frequently go there for a pizza bagel.  Now, it's one of the cool, hipster places to go even though it looks like it's stuck in the 80s ;-). My kids haven't had Barry Bagels and John kind of loves them, so we picked up a half dozen (chocolate chip, blueberry and raisin) along with a pound of strawberry, and honey/brown sugar cream cheese, and rushed home.  Meanwhile, John had been picking mulberries in our neighborhood.  When I walked in the door, it was whirling dervish Mama in the kitchen, getting the pie in the oven while ordering everyone around to get the food put away.  I rushed to take my shower, threw some instructions about the dogs at Ethan and Rebecca, and John and I drove like crazy to the temple.

I wasn't very happy to go, because it's my second Saturday working in the office. While I'm a really good worker in an office setting, there's nothing much spiritual about it, and I look longingly at my ordinance worker friends over the swinging half door at the office desk.  However, I had a much better teacher this time (Sister Madsen) who just so happens to live in the Ann Arbor stake and who knew all of the same people I know from my childhood.  And in horror (mine, not hers), she told me, "And I even know your father-in-law!" *cue puking sounds* One crazy turns of events is that she knows a guy I dated in high school--he's been divorced twice and is now living in Ypsilanti.  Not a surprise because he was a total loser, but still kind of sad to hear.  But back to Sister Madsen.  She was a great teacher, and she was super patient and kind, and it made me much happier to spend those four hours with her.

And even better was seeing the babies halfway through my shift.  Rebecca came and did sealings, and then Ethan showed up for an endowment session.  But in the overlap, they were in the temple waiting room, and it was a little piece of heaven.  I brought Sister Pollard out to meet them (Baby mostly), and Baby was just adorable.  In fact, I was so glad that they came because I have always felt the importance of children seeing what the temple means to us adults.  With my own children, we always made temple trips a fun thing, staying overnight in a hotel in Chicago or Frankfurt, and we always spent time on the temple grounds while the other one of us was in a session.  Knowing that Baby was seeing us in our white clothes, and knowing how sensitive she is to her surroundings (especially what people wear), I knew she would remember it in her little mind.  And I just picked her up, sat her down in my lap, and sang "I Love To See The Temple" into her little ear.  She knows both verses to the song, but it felt so appropriate to sing it with her there.  And I was so happy to have my phone with me (one of the perks of being an office worker) so I could snap a selfie.

And even though we don't know the people on the Saturday afternoon shift very well yet, they loved interacting with her while they were waiting to go home.  President Pollard even spoke with her and gave her a temple schedule.  She rehearsed the scriptures that she has memorized for everyone.  She was just the best.

Afterwards, we hurriedly drove to the Boss home for a barbecue, lake fun, and for fireworks.  I love the Bosses.  They are so loving, and kind, and generous, especially to Ethan and Rebecca and the babies.  Like, if I had family, I would want them to be like the Bosses.  There was a huge spread of food, and we had fun in the lake swimming, and paddle boarding, and riding the jet skis, and it was just fun to relax and be together again as a family.

Ethan and Rebecca--it was her first time on a jet ski!

Thankfully, pie isn't a potluck kind of food, so we ate half of it there ourselves, and brought the other half home!

Baby just wants to spend every waking moment with Allison, including watching the fireworks.

And I'm putting this in Kennedy history:  I beat Mark in corn hole THREE FREAKING TIMES.  Yes, I am the champion.

The fireworks were terrific--probably 30 minutes again, and Baby loved them.

One choice moment of the afternoon that must go into the annals of Kennedy history:

Ethan, Rebecca, Mark, Me, and Allison.  Notice the dog?  Once I hit the water, something big hit me, and I assumed it was Mark or Allison, but NO.  It was the DOG!  It jumped in on top of me....

We were out in the lake, just treading water and talking (after cannon-balling off the dock), and Baby wanted to come out with us.  We put her on the giant flamingo floatie and brought her out.  But then somebody came up with the brilliant idea to bring out Brother as well who was on the shore, crying for Rebecca.  So we loaded him up into the flamingo as well, and we headed back out into deep water. No life preservers in sight, of course. But Brother isn't happy just seeing Rebecca, but instead needs to be held by Rebecca.  So there's Rebecca, treading water, having just told us that she's never had a swimming lesson ("I'm self-taught!"), and Brother has decided that he needs to bulldoze himself over the side of the flamingo to be with Rebecca.  Which he did.  And I'm watching this in slow motion.

I grab Brother (while treading water myself) and I could get him into the flamingo, but Rebecca has a death grip on his body....while she is slowly sinking down into the water.  Like, her head was already under water, and her body was sinking--just imagine any horror movie you've seen where people slowly slip under the water and drown--but her arms were extended above the water, keeping Brother afloat.  I didn't know whom to save--Brother or Rebecca!  Meanwhile, we're all screaming at each other to save Brother, Brother is crying, we're all treading water, and I don't know what Baby was doing.  But we get screaming Brother back into the flamingo, and thankfully, Rebecca surfaces again...laughing!  Knowing Rebecca, I expected her to be crying, but nope.  And then we all started laughing.  And we all tried to hide. On the side of the flamingo away from the shore, because we knew if anyone had heard anything, or had eyes, they would have seen the insanity what had just happened.  And you know, people had already been staring at us for the past few hours, being the loud Kennedy group we are (we tell ourselves that they're just jealous of us--not that we're some kind of freakish spectacle, or something).  So we knew that everyone had witnessed what had just happened, and we didn't want to make eye contact with ANY of them!

Pretzel-Butt

At this point, Brother was a mess.  He basically spent the entire night crying because Rebecca wasn't there, or crying because somebody wouldn't give him something he wanted, or crying because they gave him something he didn't want, or crying because he was scared, or crying because he was hungry, and on the way home from the Bosses, Rebecca just cried because he kind of sapped the fun out of everything.  Although it wasn't funny at the moment, Rebecca said to us on the floor of our bedroom, in tears again, that she felt like she should just hibernate for the next year until he learns to behave better.

And then we look at Baby, and her little star self, and it's easy to reassure Rebecca that Brother will have his moment in a couple of years as well.