...watch out for those stairs.

Well....  I'm not the prolific blogger like Patrick (who, as we all know, is blogging ALL the time), but I do have a few things to say.  I was telling a friend about the trip today and I said, "I like these people so much I'd be their friends in real life."  True story. I didn't feel like the new guy at all.  It was all so easy and comfortable.  Something unexpected, but at the same time something I've learned to expect since I met Misti.

Thank you all so much for such a wonderful time together and I look forward to many more adventures in the future!

P.S.  My butt STILL hurts.  Stupid stairs...

What Fresh Hell Is This?

No half and half? 

No beautiful glass like lake? 

No Jerome cooked seventy course meal? 

The voice of Matt Lauer in place of the laughter that was my custom morning wake up? 

I actually have to put on real clothes and real makeup and go work on real things that do not include a plan to attack a water park? 

The only thing about this that isn't total bullshit is the bed I'm in right now. 

It's not on the floor. It's not a thinly covered pad to a futon. It's got box springs and sheets and fits two people comfortably. 

I guess I will get up and get to work....where I can start researching things to do in Branson next year. 

Home

After a long day and very long wait for the bus in SD we are home

When it became a thing we've always done

This was the best time ever.

I have never been around this many people for this many days where everyone just stayed in a good mood.  In spite of sleeping poorly and exhausting ourselves to the bone everyone just rolled with the punches, laughed, and appreciated each other.

I have always known how much I missed you all individually but I now understand how much I missed us collectively.  When we get together we are something special.

I think we are all in agreement that Cousinpalooza is now a regular thing.  In fact, I am already thinking about the next one.

Love you all.

Diary of one crazy cousin (warning lots of words and no pics)

Last year Toni and I were lucky enough to be surrounded by friends and family for our entire wedding weekend. I for one was a bit apprehensive, I don't like being the center of attention, not even a little.  Then it ended up being the best weekend possible. I laugh all the time (really, all of the time), at everything (whether appropriate or not) and i think our wedding weekend broke new laughing records. When it was all said and done, and we were off on our honeymoon, I think Toni and I both had a bit of post wedding depression.  It was great to be together and on an awesome vacation, but the reality hit us that its unlikely we will ever have both our families and friends gathered in one place like that again. It's a sad thought.  We decided that we would start using our vacation days and funds to see family rather than just going somewhere by ourselves. It could mean spending an extra weekend in Palm Springs with Silver, a holiday in Alisa Viejo with Angelina and Jon, a trip to Granite,OK to see Meme, etc. 

And then.... Cousinpalooza happened. I took credit for planning it with Meme but really it was the result of a lot of coordination and planning by Steph, Misti, and Taryn (and probably everyone except myself). However, I would appreciate it if no one let Meme know that I stretched the truth. 

Living in CA I don't see family other than my parents very often. We are fortunate enough to live a short drive from Toni's mom and one of her sisters but I only see my sister and brother once a year. The rest of you it's more like every 5 years and typically for less than ideal circumstances. 

It's funny how we have all grown up, and changed so much, yet not changed at all. Maybe we just revert to the way things were when we are together. I half expect to blink and be back on the ski bob singing songs with Taryn so we won't be scared of the waves with Papa and all the other cousins in the boat laughing. Oh we can all laugh. 

Ok that's all I got. Next year I will see you all in Branson (or maybe grand lake). I'm also hoping Toni and I can make it back to Granite again sometime later this year as well so maybe we can see some of you then. 

I'm now done blogging for awhile. This is probably shocking to most since I'm always blogging. Toni will post pictures once we get home and she can get them organized. 

Maeby we should go for a ride

Maeby! 

So tired

Cousinpalooza's favorite one-liners

"Fun-noodle in your pants!"- while Patrick had a fun-noodle through his swim trucks.

"Yeah, yeah, there's the Sac-n-Pac and the ice place. . . Why didn't we ever go to the Dollar General?!"- Patrick while we were on the completely wrong road trying  to get back to the house.

"Aaaaustin!!!" - whenever the frisbee was out of reach, or anything for that matter. Usually immediately followed by a less enthusiastic response of "I'll get it. . ."

"Miiiistiiiii!!!!!"

"No one needs dishes that clean" -misti rushing out in her unmentionables to turn off the industrial sounding dish washer.

"It's like I'm in the Xbox!" - Holden after a water slide at Schlitterbaun. 

"Ants in your pants! Ants in your pants!"- Momma Misti brushing the ants off the chair no one wanted to sit in.

The final morning

Yesterday consisted of cleaning up the lake house , saying goodbye to the Arkansas gang, making Patricks Cracker Barrel beans and greens wish come true. We headed to Stephanie's most delightful apartment and alllllll fell in love with Maeby the Dog. 

My phone devices are dead or dying so photos will be posted later. 

It was 106 in the shade yesterday so we opted for a movie in a cold theatre, followed by the most delicious burgers and cocktails in the world. The long-ish line provided most delightful photo ops.

We left there and headed down to Congress bridge to see the bats! So. Many. Bats. Seriously cool. We laughed, we sweated, we laughed more.

As we got to our cars we decided to call it a night. The promise of showers and ral beds were too tempting to keep us together any more. 

Mark and I are staying downtown at the doubletree and we got a few beers and came to our room and sat on the balcony and under the lights of this fabulous Capitol city, reviewed the week and our places in it. 

What a great great time. I love this family , and I love how they have opened their arms to him. 

All is well with my soul. 

The difference between now and then

"We will be buying a blow up mattress today. We are too old to sleep poorly for the whole vacation. That's the difference between now and then."

We sure would have felt dumb when we found that extra bed if we had followed through and bought those air mattresses.  

One last night

Taryn and co leave bright and early to or row, the rest of us are out of here by ten am and heading back I to Austin. Jerome flys out at one, and the rest of us are hanging out, shopping, maybe Barton Springs, and seeing the bats tomorrow night. We are all so so tired. The day was spent mostly in the lake, with some naps, so e rest, lots of great food. We we t to Buc-ees tonight for a field trip. 

Good times. Good times indeed. 

I cannot wait for a real bed tomorrow night. 

Grateful

As I sit here enjoying the sounds of the cicadas, fighting off the mayflies I realize how blessed I am to have married into such a fun, life loving family! Such a great addition to my already wonderful family :) 

Sleeping in a zoo next to the airport

Last night the exhaustion level was a notch above "full day on the lake" and/or "full day snowboarding". When the living room cousins (myself. Toni, Steph, and Jrome) started to settle town things took a turn. We made beds, took various sleeping aids quieted down then realized. ... The dishwasher in this place is in the decibel ball park of a 737 at take off. I called out to cousin Misti who by some miracle could actually hear me over all the racquet. Misti saved the day! "No dishes need to be clean that bad"

We're up now and shuffling around as best as we can. Coffee, cousins, and my glow stick of a wife on the patio by the river. 

And me in the shadows. When I'm not blogging I'm lurking. Always lurking. 

I really needed this vacation from work and life in general but we do miss our buster. 

inside out exhausted

there is nothing quite like the tired that you feel after an entire day of being on the water.

it's a bone weary kind of tired.

but if you combine that tired with a group of your favorite people, add in some adventure and awesome water rides, then seriously. it is a damn good day.

today we floated. we swam. we went down the master blaster. yeah...that's the ride that the travel channel talks about all the dang time. it took about an hour to get through the line, bjut it was totally worth it. we all thought it was a good one.

by the end of the day at Schlitterbaun, we had chowed down on awesome cold meat and cheese sandwiches on white bread,

consumed handfuls of cold peanut m&ms, laughed at the swimsuit misshaps that occurred within the current, rested, walked eleventy million miles, ate more, laughed even more and after 6pm we finally called it a day.

one car went to the grocery store and just got the best provisions for supper that one could ever buy, the rest of us, just inside out tired, came home to our lake house and...

immediately jumped into the lake. we tested out our floating devices. we tested out the rope swing. we found the lights we procured some outside music...and seriously...life began. . . again.

we were in the lake.

Holden was in his life jacket and immediately started swimming like a fish.

Hayden jumped off of the rope swing and eventually got the cahones up to jump off of the upper deck. we were all in the lake and in a blink of an eye we were 11, 9, 5, 4, 3 8, 15 all of us were kids. we actually looked at the house and the land to catch the eyes of our parents, we laughed, we swam towards the cold spots, we jumped and floated and it was almost physically evident...

souls refreshed. life returned.

we were happy and we were smiling and our kiddos were swimming and smiling and we could almost see the circle of life just connecting within itself.

our plans for the big ole river float for tomorrow went down the drain and we revised and planned a day at home. on the water. eating our own food, napping, swimming and we're even thinking about renting a jet ski or two.

while we were cooking I just ran around and touched each cousin, saying I love you to each one.

my heart is full

my shoulders are red as all damned shit hell. we had some sunscreen failures today, but for a dozen people in the sun all day long? I'm happy to say no one is ruint.

we are so tired.

and cannot possibly wait to start again tomorrow.

if I forget to tell anyone next week...watermelon dripping off of our chins, kids with the reddest most tired eyes still running circles around each other...

I had the damndest best time of my whole life this week.

and I'm so glad we still have tomorrow.

Off to Schlitterbaun!!!!

All dressed up and somewhere to go!

The first morning

Last night was just full of talking and eating and laughing and trying to shake the road weariness off. We all settled into our respective spots and crashed sometime after midnight. There are several "beds" but Pat and Toni as well as Jerome decided to just put their mattresses on the floor. mark and I were on a futon 

I work up to find Jerome in the other room due to the Snoreapalooza going on with us...then Mark woke up to go to the bathroom and then fell done the stairs. That's gonna hurt. We will be buying a blow up mattress today. We are too old to sleep poorly for the whole vacation. That's the difference between now and then. 

We are mostly all awake sitting in one of our decks having coffee, and it is lovely. 

It is just lovely. 

Arrivals, snacks and always blogging

40 Miles from Austin

Am I referring to the city or the cousin? I guess we'll find out in 90 minutes. 

I'm good at blogs guys

Patrick The Blogger

Look I'm a blogger. I'm always blogging. 

Hello Texas!

The Baby Pryors are en route!

Austin posted this in our Facebook group so I thought I'd put it here for all it's glory to shine. Taryn and her boys have blown past us and are in Texas already. We had to stop for a snack and potty break so we are behind.

Pre-palooza adventure

So Patrick and I did some pre-palooza partying in Granite with Meme. Saw Hawstack Mountain, the lake and a lot of awesome old pics of the family. P and I tried to recreate one of Meme and Papa after learning that apparently he never smiled for photographs. 

And here is another side by side of this cute lil butterball:

And now. . . On to Cousinpalooza!

En route!

Ready!

The car is packed and Jerome is on the plane. Just trying to get the last of my work done before I head to the airport to pick him up and then head down to New Braunfels.

Party Like It's 1995!

Oh Yeah.

It's on.

It's time to party like it's 1995.


Thankfully. . .

None of us are the age we were in 1995. 

New Things and The Waiting Game

It's been years since I've had my blog on Blogger. Things have changed around here. Probably if I wanted to or just had the time to take I could find a tutorial or figure the new stuff out and get my sea legs back. As it is, I'm a pretty intuitive learner...I'll just jump in and we'll see where we land.

I haven't even written much at Misti Ridiculous the past few weeks. . . seriously where has the time gone? Change, death, travel, moving, jobs, all of it seem to have just sucked the first month of Summer out of our grasp. Next week is the 4 of July. . . where does it go? I'm going to figure out an RSS feed button thingy so that the family can just get alerts to new posts. That may or may not happen this week. But it's on my list. On my list.

Tonight Toni and Patrick arrive at my house. I'm so excited, they've never been here before and are getting in pretty late (for a school night) and though it isn't late for their time zone, it'd be kind of a wreck to drive to MeMe's after they land. So they're getting their rental car and making their way towards Brokedown Palace for the night. Tomorrow I'll be at work at 8am for day two of staff development, they'll head to Granite and we'll be one day closer to Cousinpalooza.

Tomorrow night, Brett, Taryn & the boys arrive. I've got so many things to do after work, first and formost I must get to State Beauty Supply and buy color and product to do Taryn's hair at some point this trip. I've just now started packing. I'm not too stressed. I'm of the mindset that what I don't get there with, I can buy. I've got the cats lined up with someone to feed and water. The raccoons come in and drain their water and food bowls so they're left without...jackass raccoons.

Wednesday I'll work until 12:30 then haul ass home. Load the car (which needs gas and a cleaning) go to the airport to meet Patrick & Toni as they return their rental, and head to Norman where we'll get Mark, settle last minute things from that house and begin the trek to New Braunfels.

Steph sent our list of do's and don'ts and we've worked up a grocery list just for Wednesday night and Thursday morning breakfast. We'll shop for the rest of the week from there. Check in is after 3pm, and we're suspecting Autumn and Austin to be the first to arrive.

At this point, the only thing I'm really worried about is that our koozies are en route and I hope they get here in time.

In The Beginning

The countdown is on until our inaugural Pryor/Skaggs Cousin Trip. As of right now we're sitting at 5 days 6 hours and 48 minutes. As I sit at my desk and much on some out of date microwave popcorn and wait till the clock is close enough to 6pm so that I can go get a pedicure, I thought I'd kill some time and start our travel blog.

This will be our place to mark the trips we will take, not only next week, but in the future. We'll tell stories and post pictures. It'll be almost like you're right there with us.

I'm betting you'll be a little dialed down on the laughter, but we'll work hard to keep that part intact too.

I have a conference call in a few minutes.

But look ya'll!

WE HAVE A BLOG!