A Visit from My Auntie Nannie and Magnificent Cousins

After touring my (messy) house and sipping glasses of ice water, we decided to take a little adventure down that great hiking trail near my house that you are probably so tired of seeing pictures of.  (I am not yet tired of taking pictures of that hiking path!  You'll just have to manage).  Later in the evening I drove them around just a bit to show them were a few fun things were to visit, which was also a blast.  And I didn't even crash the car.  Even though I was laughing a lot.  

This is my Auntie Nannie, who was my math and social studies teacher for six years.  She was a good teacher, too, the perfect blend of sheer goofiness mixed in with enough demand that we learned a lot.  I'm not saying that just because she's my aunt.  She put up with a lot from us:  sticking toilet plungers on her blackboard, and plotting to put cottage cheese in her malox bottle that she guzzled from daily during our geometry class (maybe that says something about our natural mathmatical ability?) but more than any teacher in the school, she had things laid out for us to learn and we learned them,in between her waltzing around her classroom with a broom because none of the guys would dance with her.  She was terrific about bringing in manipulatives and fun extra projects and activities to make things interesting for us.  

She's also my aunt.  And she's quite possibly certifiably crazy.  When she's in a good mood she is amazingly goofy.  

Meet my gallant, genius cousin Brian.  I used to force him to wear dresses when he was little.  We played house and I threatened to beat him up if he didn't pretend to be Melba.  My mom never knew.  

I also tried and tried to teach him to do carthwheels.  I liked to pretend to be a gymnastic teacher and order him around on lawn.  He didn't like that very much.  I was a bossy big cousin, who was terribly jealous of the fact that Brian had a summer birthday that the entire extended family attended.  I used to snitch pieces of the frosting off his birthday cake and greatly assisted him in opening up all his presents to make up for my December brithday.  I got in trouble for ordering him around while he was opening presents, and that made me grouchy.  

My favorite memory of Brian is the day he was playing his trombone in band on the stage in high school.  He came up to the front where I was sitting in the clarinet row.  We were in the middle of a song, and before he could ask the band teacher his question, he somehow lost his balance.  I remember looking up from my music and seeing an arm fly into the air, a leg sail above my head, and a trombone, airborne along with my cousin, who crashed three feet down to the gym floor.  I don't remember if there was a mat on the floor or not, but he didn't break any bones at least.  He's about as coordinated as I am.  

Anyway, my cousin Brian was so kind to carry my camera bag all throughout the hike, since I often had The Banana on my back.  He's terribly witty, too.  I laughed a lot.  

I have more to tell you about my cousin Lisa tomorrow.  Stay tuned.