Finally, the pics you've all been waiting for!
So, we spent our last weekend of my spring break down in FL with Gabriel's family and friends. Most of you blog readers are probably quite familiar with their Ides of March get-togethers every year, so I won't explain it again, except to say that it's a good time to get together midway between Thankgivings, so they do!
We took advantage of the beautiful warmish-coolish weather to spend a lot of time playing outside, including a new Survivor-like challenge game. It was different than our Amazing Race-like game, since there was no running involved (Sam thought of it with us preggers ladies in mind). It was a lot of fun, and it reminded me of how much I love to play in the woods and just don't do it enough!
I also got a surprise baby shower from Janice, who is also pregnant, I might remind you. It was really sweet and nice to do something with "just the girls" in such a male dominated family (no offense, guys). She did it beneath the "wedding oaks" which are the trees under which Gabriel and I had our wedding. It was very special.
Without further ado...las fotos!
-Shirin
David and Clayton "helping" Gabriel gather sticks for our bon fire (that never happened, sad to say).
David dug the pit for the fire, however. Maybe we can use it next year. Gabriel and my tent, in the background, is where we slept Friday night, since I wanted a last camping trip before Cyrus arrives (we were only 100 feet from Sam's house, but still). Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that 7 month pregnant women aren't meant to lie on the hard ground, even with pads and fluffy sleeping bags beneath them. We moved inside Saturday night for a much more comfortable night.
A cut throat game of Scrabble among the youngest and oldest in the family. I'm not sure who won..I think it might have been Nicole who didn't want to be included in this picture.
Casey telling Gabriel all about his first DJing experience with the arena football team, the Tampa Storm. He's been DJing in clubs for years, but DJing for a whole stadium at a football game is a whole other experience. It's exciting stuff though (he's on TV)!
The men hanging out waiting for the women to prepare their breakfast (Gabriel is there too and just couldn't fit into the picture).
Casey took this picture with my camera...yes, there is a LOT of meat there.
One of the illustrious chefs. (Notice the cute baby belly on her!) Janice is 2 months behind me and doing great! She looks very healthy and happy.
Sam explaining the challenge and demonstrating home-made weaponry.
So, the survivor game: we were in teams of 3 or 4; the situation is post-apocalyptic, and we needed to build a shelter, weapons, and prepare an ambush for enemies. We were judged on concealment of shelter (to avoid confrontations), ability of weapons to be used from approx. 20 feet away, and plausibility of an ambush. We could only use the objects/materials found in the woods (there were some man-made objects here and there).
This is the shelter Clayton and I made. It's so well concealed, you can barely see the awesome roof, made of palmetto fronds, lichens, sticks, and grass. It's leaning from the top right to the bottom left. Below is the "bed" where Clayton, Gabriel, and I would sleep. The Spanish moss seemed soft and cushy, but Sam said we'd be eaten up by chiggers if we actually slept on it. I guess some things we'd learn the hard way!
We put our shelter behind a little hill, so we won on the concealment point. Here we are waiting for our enemies to walk by.
The enemy approaches...(Gene was the judge). They look a little nervous, don't they?
AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Take that!!!! Gabriel was the weapon-maker and provided Clayton and I with spears and himself with a bow and arrow.
The next team's shelter, weapons, and ambush. Sam called them "food" and "slaves." Ha ha.
Yikes...this was Nicole and David's ambush. She has a brick tied to a string that is quite intimidating!
David had a big spear made half out of sharpened wood, half out of a metal pole.
Nicole and David's shelter was pretty good, but couldn't hold a candle to mine, Gabriel, and Clayton's! (No bias from the author, I swear!) :) They did end up winning the whole competition, though, b/c their ambush and weaponry was just a bit better than ours. Darn! We countered that we'd never actually have to fight, because our shelter was so hidden, so we didn't need the weaponry that they did. I guess the judges had their final say...oh well.
Now, moving from the most manly of activities to the most womenly of ones...my surprise baby shower!!! I couldn't have imagined a more beautiful spot...of course, it is where Gabriel and I said our vows 2 years ago. The weather cooperated and was just lovely.
Janice is an excellent chef and used to be vegetarian, so she's an expert at making me food I love! She also helped Rita obtain some fake chicken, so she could make her delicious curried "chicken" salad with red grapes and green onions. It was served in little endives. There was also spinach dip with pita wedges, apples and caramel, and Rita's egg salad sandwiches. Sometimes, the men really lose out! Oh yeah, and delicious lemon cupcakes with sprinkles! YUM!
Janice explaining a game we played.
Presents!!!!
A clay mold so we can make Cyrus' hand print one day. How cute!
Meanwhile, the rest of the family was playing a pick-up game of flag football.
Now, on to trivia! Here, the trivia master is getting ready to challenge and boggle our minds! He spent a LOT of time on making this trivia game, and it turned out super well.
This was the question we got to work on the entire time and got points for at the end. Can anyone name them all? FYI: E has caramel and marshmellowy stuff and F just has the marshmellowy stuff. B has peanuts, caramel, and nougat (?). Oh, and C and D were full of coconut. I don't know anything about A.
To make it as fair as possible (and because he felt like it), Gabriel actually wrote a computer program with Clayton to optimize the teams' equality and skill. We all thought the team on the right with Gene, David, Rita, and Nicole had an advantage. Since they won, we might've been right, but it was still a fairly even matching.
I was on the team on the left with Mamaw, Casey, Clayton, and Michelle (Janice's sister).
Then, it was poker time and guess who won? That's right...yours truly! Gabriel's created a monster!
Well, we did it again. We're trying so hard to be rid of all our foster cats, but we picked this girl up in Sam's yard when we realized she wasn't (really) wanted by his neighbor who technically owned her. She was too sweet to leave behind in that situation, so we carted her all the way home. We've already had her tested, dewormed, vaccinated, and spayed and she's doing great! Anyone want a cat?
