The Tonka Man

This past weekend I got to go camping with my fam. It was all of my siblings (though not all for the same amounts of time), my nieces and nephews, the parents, Grandma-ma, and my dad's siblings and their children. I got to fish a lot. Just me, my vest, and my pole in a fishing intertube in the middle of the lake. And my 12-year-old nephew nearby saying in a very high, purposefully obnoxious, and may I say British-sounding, voice "I don't have time for such trivial matters" (think, "Boo-kay residence, lady of the house speaking"). The name of this post is what he used to call himself when he was 3. So this weekend I ended up unhooking all of his fish, because for some reason he can't, but that's what I told him when he tangled up his line. It was his problem, he was and is perfectly capable of dealing with it, and that's where I drew the line. But of course he's a punk, and he had this high pitched laugh/chuckle to go along with the phrase--both of which made me laugh. He's kind of my favorite most days.

So I never manage to go four-wheeling when I camp. I mean, I go on them as a passenger, but I never remember how to drive them. It's like driving a stick, only complicated, and when I never practice the skills once I learn them I forget them right away, every time. I spend too much time fishing with my dad I guess. I love out-fishing him, which I definitely accomplished this weekend.

My nephew ended up staying with us the last night we were there, even though his family went home that afternoon. I love playing card games while camping, and I love playing card games with him in particular, mainly because of this one time when he was ten. We were playing Uno and he kept saying, "I choose Cazelle, the mythical beast, in attack mode!" every time he put down a card (It's some Yu-Gi-Oh! Card or another). He was trying to be annoying, he succeeded in being annoying--even though it was somewhat amusing--and fortunately he's now sufficiently embarrassed about once liking Yu-Gi-Oh! that whenever we play card games I can yell, "I choose Cazelle, the mythical beast, in attack mode!" whenever I put a card down, and I embarrass/annoy him just enough to make him laugh and say something snide to me, which makes me laugh and is my goal. Could I have made a longer sentence? Possibly not.

So while camping I ended up playing Killer Bunnies with him, my little sister, and my now-brother-in-law (That kind of sounds like I don't expect him to be for much longer, but really I'm just saying that because I'm so used to calling him my almost-brother-in-law). It's totally the kind of game they all would like, because of the sheer randomness of it all. It got pretty late pretty fast, and we ended up playing most of it by lantern light. Big drawback: there were moths everywhere. I actually coped quite well with just knowing they were there, but every time one flew near me I screamed bloody murder. My dad wasn't happy, because people were trying to sleep, but it wasn't conscientiously done.

Then I got a lecture from my Grandma about drinking caffiene; much better than her lectures about bare mid-drifts, even though I've never worn anything that would bare my mid-drift...although those conversations are more amusing. My Grandma makes me laugh...not intentionally of course. But she's so worried about things that won't happen. Actually I don't know why the stomach fetish. Anti-fetish maybe? Once she told me I was going to get stomach pneumonia when I tossed one of my 1 year old neices in the air (still holding on of course) and my sweater happened to rise ever so slightly. Oblivious that I am, not only did I not have any idea what she was refering to, but my thoughts were as follow: #1 (which I happened to say)-"I can't get pneumonia; I've had a shot" and #2 (which I thought to myself after I said the first)-'I don't think there is such a thing as stomach pneumonia.' Fortunately my mother was nearby and, after rolling her eyes at my confused expression, she informed me about what I'd missed. It's always interesting with my Grandmother around. She loves to talk, so fortunately I didn't end up driving with her on the way home. I love to hear her talk, but I had homework, and considering we're already the rebel non-BYU family of the bunch, I bet she would have had words about me studying on a Sunday.