Every 10 days or so, we make sure to get an Airbnb with laundry so we can get our clothes clean and bags setup, and it conveniently coincided with our extended stay to visit my sister, niece, and nephew. We stayed up a bit last night getting loads through and wrapped it up this morning. My nephew and his wife smoked several pork butts for pulled pork and said we could come over any time, but we're a bit of a circus so we told them we'd come over after lunch.
We piled a MOUNTAIN of laundry on our bed and sent the younger 4 out to play (with adult supervision, because we're out in bear country) while "A" and "K" made use of our full kitchen and lunch. "B" was quite prickly for no reason, but we all survived through lunch. Mac and cheese, sliced hot dogs (🤢), salad, canteloupe, and mango. We piled into our van and set off.
We took advantage of having the van without its roof bag on, and hit the car wash on the way to my nephew's house, and it was a pretty nice place. I'll be the first to admit that I don't hit up the car wash as often as I probably should, and I recognize that I have pretty low standards, but this was a nice car wash. In addition to the vacuums that are pretty standard, it also had compressed air nozzles for blowing out rubber floor mats, a machine to shake the dirt out of carpeted floor mats, and towels for drying your car if you're not satisfied with the current dryness level. Fancy.
We drove down the road to my nephew's house, and the neighbors must have known we were coming because they all stopped and waved at us as we drove past. We pulled into the driveway and before I could blink, "T" was out of the van and jumping on the trampoline. We gave hugs, did introductions, and the kids were fast friends. In addition to my nephew's 2 daughters ("L" and "J") and my niece's son ("M"), kids from the neighborhood appeared throughout the day to make use of the pool, grab some food, or a bite of ice cream. The kids were great together, and "J" was especially awesome with "C" - she was very caring and doted on her almost the whole time.
It was awesome catching up with family I haven't seen in almost 14 years, and lots of stories were shared. Dinner was incredible, with pulled pork sandwiches, apple pie baked beans (sounds weird, but these were delicious), macaroni salad, potato salad, and all the watermelon you could eat. We topped it off with ice cream sundaes which melted in the hot Georgia sun far faster than I wanted, but it was quite refreshing. After dinner and dessert, the kids kept playing while the adults kept yammering. It truly was a great visit. We even tossed around the possibility of meeting up next summer for a bigger family reunion, which hopefully will come to fruition.
One other thing that came up was wills. I strongly encouraged my sister, niece, and nephew to get a weill, and if you're reading this, you should also have a will. There's really no excuse, forms are available online to do it for free - all it takes is a little time. It's not just for your stuff, but you can (and should) also get a durable power of attorney and a health directive which makes sure your wishes are honored. Don't want to be buried underground to rot away? Don't want to live on life support as a vegetable, draining away your family's savings? Document your desires, get it witnessed and notarized, and you're set! And of course it also helps keep your assets out of probate when you die, ensuring your family has quick access to it. Seriously, get a will.
The sun went down while we flapped our gums, and my nephew set up a fire pit for everyone to roast s'mores over. What's better than eating dessert? Eating 2 desserts. The kids roasted their own marshmallows, with some opting to make charcoal out of theirs, and my sister was stationed with the graham cracker and chocolate, piecing them together. We sat around chatting a bit longer, but it was getting late so we decided that we'd better get a picture of everyone together. We all piled into the kitchen and used my niece's tripod to try to get a picture of everyone, which we managed after only 3 tries!
We started saying our goodbyes when my nephew turned to his wife and asked her to go grab his bottle of Mad Dog for me to try. He had mentioned this earlier in the day, but I think he wanted a little entertainment so he grabbed a tooth pick for me. My oldest, "A" is constantly talking about how spicy things aren't spicy and he's a tough guy, so I decided to rope him into it, but didn't really give him an opportunity to say no. His wife brought out a little tiny bottle that he said cost him about $140 on Amazon of Mad Dog 357 No. 9 Plutonium, which comes in at a hefty 9 million Scoville Heat Units. "A" and I both dipped our tooth pick into the hot sauce (that was really more like a paste - it was quite thick) while my nephew told his wife to grab the ice cream with a big smile across his lips. We counted backwards from 3 and took the plunge.
It's a slow burn and takes a few seconds for the heat to surface, but when it comes, it comes with a vengeance. Less than a minute in and my cheeks were red, I was sweating, and trying to pace myself on the ice cream, knowing that it was going to get worse before it got better. "A" seemed to fare worse than I did, because he decided to kind of scrape it on his lips in the corner of his mouth, so he had a mouth that was on fire and lips that were melting down. That, coupled with the fact that he is nowhere near as heat-tolerant as he projects himself to be, made for a fairly comical scene. About the time I finished my bowl of ice cream, the heat was beginning to subside for me, although it was still very much present. "A" was thrashing around, complaining about his mouth and wanting to rub his lips. We did get him to stop, but he asked for more ice cream. It seemed to intensify for him, and he said he thought he was going to be sick, so he went and locked himself in the bathroom. It was about this time that we found out we were the 3rd and 4th people to try his bottle of Mad Dog, and that no one else in the house, not even himself, had tried it. In retrospect, I probably should have skipped the 3rd dessert, but this trip is about having adventures and making memories, and that's definitely what we accomplished.
We chatted a bit longer before finally REALLY saying our goodbyes, giving hugs, and kicking "A" out of the bathroom. We loaded up the van, with "A" yelling and crying (my favorite complaint of his was that he felt like his tears were literally burning his skin) and drove the 20 or so minutes back to our cabin, trying to console our little crybaby.
We got back to our cabin at about 12:30am and our crew were all exhausted. We hurriedly got everyone into bed and turned our attention to the previously mentioned MOUNTAIN of laundry covering our bed. a week-ish of laundry for 7 people is a lot. Like, a lot a lot. "K" and I worked on folding and separating clothes, and as the pile of unfolded laundry started to dwindle, "K" transitioned to putting our duffel bags of outfits together. I finally gave up at 2am and climbed into bed, while "K" was still going.