Title courtesy of Karl Stuck... One of the totally awesome Swanson cousins... They are too cool for school. Let me count the ways... We rode the train from Sch'tdy to Chicago, and then to St. Paul. Twenty-seven hours... Good thing the train is less stressful, less crowded, and more interesting than the plane. I stayed up half the night listening to Honeydo and the rhythm of the train and the various passengers breathing and talking and snoring... I wrote a lot of character sketches this week haha. Gary Gardeen picked us up in a Gardeenmobile... I totally called it too. It looked like the one from Ecuador when the boys were walking on their hands that one time... Random memories of random family members haha. So the next day we went on a tour of my childhood haha. We went into our old church, Peace Lutheran, because there were people there who knew us, which was superawesome, and then we drove down the hill to the Seminary Apartments. It was pretty crazy seeing all my childhood dreams in real life. Then we stopped at Target and bought me a bigger memory card for my camera, and then to DQ for lunch... Then off to an amazing place called Wisconsin! (In a cute British accent! hahaha) Just in time for dinner. It was awesome, seeing all the cousins and stuff. Me n Alex talked for awhile and then initiated the idea of a bonfire. I got talking to Caleb (random Caleb memory: Story of the Year's "Absolutely" on a rainy day :x) about counting corn and eating marshmallows, and to Krista about class sizes... Then Paula and Pete broke out the guitars and we had a super-camptastic duet of awesome camp songs and oldies... Jay on his "Surfin' USA" hahaha. He is soo awesome... So we rocked out and got eaten alive by bugs... And eventually went to bed after midnight. Since we'd got there late I hadn't been to my cabin and walked right by it, got lost, and had to stop and ask Rapsons for a map. Hahahahahaha. Matt laughed at me for that... And my retainer got locked in Eagle Lodge, like a mile up the hill. Hahahahhaa. BRILLIANT. So the next morning I ate breakfast with the kids and played Straws (Spoons, but with Straws instead hahaha) until pictures, then watched some magic tricks by John and talked to Luke and Alex about "our favorites." hahaa. Crazy Swanson kids... Then me n Alex played frisbee with Ariella, who is gorgeous... After lunch Paula and Luke and David Gardeen jammed on guitars and so did Ariella, and she told me (in English, with a Portuguese accent) how to make toys come real: "You have to love them a LOT for a lonnggggg time, and then she will come to life and you could keep it or she will run away and maybe she will come back." And she had this Bunny and she loved it to death - or to life, in this case. I think it might really have been alive... Then we played family games - I learned to golf and our WallySwanson relay team was hot. Haha. Weird... I don't WANT to know where they came up with these "hit the ball with the orange hanging in a sock between your legs" game. Haha. We cleaned up with Uncle Jeff pushing Angela in the wheelchair with Natalia on her lap, and the balloon between them. HOT. Me n Matt did pretty well too, we got along fabulously this week. Then we went to the lake cuz it was reallly hot... All the other girl cousins were in T-shirts and shorts but me being me I don't swim like that, so I was in my regular old bikini, cousins or no cousins, haha, and we played King of the Hill and tried to tip the raft and, well... The clasp popped open. But it's all good, I don't think anybody saw anything haha. Krista and me n Steph get along fabulously with the guys, Andrew, Karl, Jay, Stephen, Ryan, Chris, Brian, Mark, Thomas, and Matt... We rocked that raft haha. Queens of the Hill. Well OK that's enough of that. White lies. Haha. We held our own though... Andrew has a swimmer's back, and I came in second after the California Cousins for tannest. Hott. Then the Square Dance. It was superfun; we did the Hokey Pokey, the Paddle Dance, Square Dance, and Virginia Reel, for which Brian Dobbins was my partner... Alex got stuck with Grampy twice haha, and he had absolutely NO idea what he was doing but he had a great time... And Rachel pushed Angela and they both had a blast, with Matt as their partner, and we were all laughing because our line took SO long but we all had a great time so it's all good. Then we hitched a ride down to the fire pit and played Mafia until Steph went to bed, and then Paula put the guitar away... We told a few semi-scary stories, and then Andrew hit the coals and they exploded haha, and the fire died so we all lay in a star and talked, stargazing. "I just think it's funny that King Tut's Tomb has TICKETS!" And we all wished on a ton of shooting stars, there are no lights out there and the sky is absolutely GORGEOUS. We all wished on this one star and then realized it was a firefly. Hahahaha. Back to the cabin around 12:30, 12:45. And that afternoon we'd killed the water haha, so we had none until about then. Next morning I ate breakfast with the girls, Krista, Steph, and Hillary, and that was fun... Then we played Straws 'til church. After church we stuffed FIFTEEN PEOPLE in Stucks' Ford Excursion and drove down to the Chalet, the game room, and played Around the World ping pong. Hotttt... "I feel kind of Mexican." haha. We got picked up just before lunch, and Hillary tried coffee and Stephen and me sadly outweighed ours with various creamers and sugars. So it was pretty much cream and sugar, how I always drink it... I was off the wall... We headed down to the lake, again with millions in the truck, picked up my brother, and went to the lake. Everybody went out in the canoe and flipped it while me, Ryan, Matt, and Thomas sat on the edge of the raft seeing how far we could tip it before we fell off, hahaha... Then gradually as they hauled the canoe into shore other people started coming on... (I think we broke it the day before because it was super-unsteady hahaahaha) and then eventually we got it tipped so high that Stephen was hanging off the top with his hand and pushed off... and it FLIPPED OVER!!!! Yeah... the myth that lake rafts can't flip? BUSTED. hahaa. So we came up with a super plan to flip it back and went to go get a wrench and Paula told the guy why we needed one and he had maintenance come down and tell us what to do... And killed it. We totally schooled their nonideaism. Haha. So after that we had to stay off the raft and pretty much in the shallow section, so me n Alex went running and then we headed back up to play cards, but we got sidetracked and played volleyball with Coombses instead, and afterwards me, Andrew, Alex, Jay, and Robyn sat and talked for awhile; Jay left and then Robyn, and Andrew and Alex and me didn't feel like moving so we sat there and talked for about two hours, until dinner when we had to get up... "Ever feel so relaxed you think you could die of forgetting to breathe?" Heck yes. It was AWESOME. After dinner was sharing time, with crazy slide shows and stories and stuff, and then we went to the game room and played some more ping pong, and I talked to Ben Post about India and that was neat... Then we got kicked into the game and after that one we went and built another fire. GOTCHA'd and made s'mores and talked, me n Andrew talked about traveling and the ocean and all kinds of awesome stuff... Funny how tight we clicked because random memory was being annoyed by him in 2000. Haha. Before that I didn't even know he existed even though in every picture since we were born we're right next to each other. Haha. Life is a curious thing! And we got Tom spitting out random facts. ROBIN LEE GRAHAM ATE DINNER AT PEGGY CARLEY'S HOUSE!! AND IF THEY HAVE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF "DOVE" SHE SAID SHE'D SEND IT TO ME!! AND THEY HAVE PHOTOS!!! ok I'm done gushing now haha. I think I'm choosing a veg diet at Woodstock next year :-p Monday was goodbye... We collected addresses and hung out in everybody else's cabin, played some BS and talked and took pictures, and goofed off... We did some armwrestling. "You're gonna WASTE me! Just because you're older. But I'm taller than you... And I have brown hair..." Haha. And Chris wrestled Hillary with two fingers. Andrew and Karl ate soap and we all drank out of a communal water pitcher and argued over pronunciation of words (I picked up a Calisotan twang hahahaha, it's suite...) and which sandals are "in" in various parts of the country. Haha. And feet. After lunch we all hung off the dock looking at frogs and stalling for time... It was really cool how we all clicked and bonded and stuff. It's really cool having close family like that... Before we left me n Andrew sat on the hearth talking while I stalled, and then Aunt Lisa gave me her wedding party earrings and we left... Now that I've said goodbye to my cousins for five years I feel better prepared to say goodbye to my friends for one year. We also went back to the lake to see if the raft was still flipped and it was, and there was a sign that said "Please stay off the raft" but it looked like the "please" was crossed out hahaha... The maintenance guy was stalking us for the rest of the weekend :x Oh. And baby Jiancarlo is sooo cute... Aunt Lisa gave him to me while she ate lunch one day and said to walk him if he got fussy, so I did and he fell asleep almost immediately so I sat down and held him and everybody was like "Isn't it the greatest feeling to hold a sleeping child in your arms?" and I was like heck yes it is!!! Haha. I love my cousins, they are all gorgeous and awesome. And supportive. So anyways, got back today on the train, and cleaned up my clothes and swept the kitchen and then went to Fariello's with Ben... It felt like starting all over again. Weird. Party tomorrow, I'm excited!!! I'd better get to bed now though... Awesome week. It's got me all sorted out now haha. Almost. "I don't care. I have a positive outlook on life." "If home is where the heart is then I'm an earthworm, leaving my five aortic arches scattered across the globe..." GOTCHA!!!!!! hehe