Series of Unfortunate Events

What happens when you stuff 16 people into our basement due to a tornado warning?

and

Can you find the missing nuk?

Nothing ever seems to go smoothly when Jenny, Dacia, Megan, Andrea, and I–or any combination from here on out, usually it involves Jenny and this time Andrea was not with us–get together (with or without our families).  Either with all of us or just some of us, you can count on a memory to be made.  And by memory,  I mean something that is quite HORRIBLE at the time but makes for a good story later.  And by good story I mean something that makes one of us squirm and the rest of us laugh. (And usually it has to do with someone throwing up)

This time did not disappoint–and so far no one has thrown up, but seriously?  I am not holding my breath.  By the end of the week, I’m sure someone will have thrown up.

It all started when Brad and Jenny moved to Brainerd in 2004.  Okay, no.  I won’t make you go back that far.

Let me start again.

So Brad and Jenny needed to come down to the cities to have their IMac looked at.  So they let everyone know so we could get together.  Chris and I decided we could host dinner at our house and grill!  The planning went smoothly.  Dacia and I figured out food and since I was working, she made sure to contact everyone. No problem.  Nic and Megan decided not to go camping and stayed in town just to come over to our house.  The Kordatzky house was able to be picked up a little and the mound of dishes done so I felt good about that. 

However, the day arrived, and the unfortunate events began to occur (some unbeknownst to me). 

Let’s begin with the unfortunate events.

Brad and Jenny took their computer to an IMac Genius and in 5 minutes, he unclicked the box that was the cause to all their problems and VOILA!  Brad felt very sheepish.

At 4:30, Dacia was pulling EVERYONE at her house out of bed from their naps because everyone fell asleep, except her oldest who fell asleep in the van on the way to our house.  By this point everyone else was already here.  Then, they took Highway 10 and hit HORRIBLE-parking-lot traffic.  She called us to see if we knew anything and Megan said, “Oh, don’t take 10!”  To which Dacia replied, “THAT would have been nice to know 5 minutes ago.”  (No animosity, just truth)

As each family was arriving, it started to rain.  There were going to be 22 people at our house.  TWENTY-TWO!   Fourteen of them were age 11 and under.  We needed to be outside.

The rain stopped!  YEEHAW!  We sent everyone outside and 5 minutes later, Andy came in with his 2nd oldest saying, “She may have been stung by a bee.”

I went outside to see what Chris thought.  He was shaking his arm in pain.  He had just been stung.

I went back inside and heard Princess Pea saying, “‘A’ got stung on her finger.”  Lo and behold, A came in and showed Megan her finger because she had been stung, too.

Then, Nic and Chris found wasp’s nest under our tree house steps.  We couldn’t play in the tree house OR the family fun center (aka the huge blow up swimming pool we have) since it was uncomfortably close to the tree house.

Dinner went fairly well.

After dinner, Megan and Nic’s son was so busy playing (read riding a bicycle through the adults’ chairs as fast as he could) that he didn’t take a caramel bar for dessert.  By the time he remembered, they were all gone!

Megan and Nic left to go home and Brad and Jenny were working on it when suddenly the sirens started to blow.  And after MUCH discussion, we were able to convince Brad and Jenny to stay at our house until the storm blew over.  So we piled ALL of the remaining people at our house into our basement.

The phone rang.  It was Megan telling us to not go anywhere because it was really bad.  Roger that! We got it covered.  They made it home 1 or 2 minutes before the tornado touched down on their route home.

The power went out.  It was hot and humid and sticky and we were all smashed on the couches and floor.
Chris could find one flashlight.  It was a pen light that we have in our bathroom–aren’t we the prepared ones?

The storm finally blew over and now we have remnants from every family who came to dinner since it was still pitch black when the rest of the crew left.

This truly is the stuff memories are made of, right?