More family stories

Time for round two! I may find these more amusing than you do, but I'm going to write it all out anyway.

We went to Alabama last summer. My mom, my brother, Glenda and her kids, Brenda, and me. There was a family reunion and we were the "ones from California." There were lots of little things going on during the trip.

When we got into Alabama we rented a van and drove down to Greenville (where grandpa lives). Seven people and all their luggage (packed for almost a week) crammed into a van. But it worked. I think one of my butt cheeks went numb at one point, but we were good. We played movie quote games to kill time. We commented on how dark and woodsy it was on the route we took. Which prompted Micah to laugh about what her dad told them before they left. He told Glenda, "No shortcuts. You saw The Hills Have Eyes. You know what will happen." We got a good laugh out of that.

Then there were the hundred trips to Wal-Mart. I'm not kidding. We went three times in one day. I thought the greeters would be on a first name basis with us by the end of the trip.

On one trip we decided to go find some alcohol. Grandpa doesn't just not drink, he disapproves of it. So we couldn't drink at his house. But mom, Glenda, Micah and I were staying at a hotel so we could have alcohol. Brenda was jealous (she stayed at grandpa's) so she got a bottle of wine during one of our trips. And had my brother sneak it into the house in his backpack. We were laughing so hard. Especially when she told us the next day that she hid in her room and drank the whole bottle already. Then she had to sneak it out to the trash. I almost peed my pants laughing right there.

My brother and Carson (Micah's brother, Glenda's son) spontaneously burst out into song or scenes from Will Ferrell movies. They do it all the time. But in Alabama they were cracking us up. Whenever we went anywhere we had to cram eight people into the van because we took grandpa with us. Yes, eight people in a van for seven. Carson sat on the floor. So one of their random songs was about how "Mexican" we are by putting too many people in the van. I wish we could have recorded them singing it. They ad lib everything. They should have a TV show.

I was constantly trying to steal Micah's peanut butter m&m's. Constantly. We had a little war going, it was great.

Oh, and I have to mention the GINORMOUS cockroaches! Yeah. Grossness. But Brenda totally freaked out about them. And we laughed. In fact, one night she screamed bloody murder and scolded Nick and Carson for not "coming to her rescue." Yeah, we teased her relentlessly for that one...

At the reunion we met cousins I didn't know I had. I loved them. And my cousin Angie gets a couple honorable mentions here...

Angie was reading the last Harry Potter book. Just sitting there, not paying attention to anything else, nose to the book. Micah and I had finished it and she looked at me and said, "How mean would it be if we walked by and talked about how depressed we are that Harry died?" I laughed, but there's no way we would actually do it.

Then later, Angie's mom was talking to my mom. I walked over and Angie was standing there. She looked at me and said, "Y'all are from California?" In her adorable Southern twang. I nodded and she got this look like she was meeting someone who's been to outer space and asked, "What's it like?" I died right there at the cuteness. I tell her on myspace all the time that she needs to convince her mom that they need to visit. It's looking like that may be a possibility next summer. Yay!

So Alabama was an interesting time for my family. There are tons more stories to tell (like the video store that was also a tanning salon), but this is what you get today.

Look for part three coming another day.