Father's Day

When I was younger, my family (immediate and extended) used to have an annual Father's Day picnic near Thousand Islands (Canadian side)
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It was a celebration of the patriarch of my family, my grandfather Joe. We would all get together, play games, swim in the lake and just dote on my grandfather. After he got sick, back in '94, we stopped having the picnic. It's been 9 years since he passed away, and our family has slowly forgotten about all the fun we used to have on those hot summer days by the lake. This year was different; it was decided that we would have a revival! My family is pretty big (there are 14 cousins on my mother's side; she's got 7 brothers and sisters), so including relatives and family friends there ended up being 60 of us "partying it up" in remembrance of my grandfather. We played all of the games that we used to play when we were younger, the kind of games that involve running backwards, carrying eggs in a relay, or some other form of useless embarrassment. We had a blast! Even the grownups (read: old fogies) participated, in spite of the pain that it would surely cause them in the days to follow. Case in point:

My poor uncle was practically maimed in the completion of the male "backwards" race. All the men were running backwards; my cousin's boyfriend was ahead of the pack, but tripped over a divot in the grass. He fell and started in motion a domino effect of tumbling. Mark was next to go down, followed by my uncle. At this point Mike (the first to fall) had gotten up, dusted himself off and was courageously preparing to complete the race. He turned backwards and began to run again, unaware that my uncle was blocking his trajectory. Just as he began to pick up speed, his right foot connected with my uncle's head and Mike fell hard. It all sounds rather painful and I'm guessing by the look on my uncle's face, it was. The thing is, once we saw that he was OK; everyone ,including my uncle, laughed until we cried.

  The day and the games continued with much cheer. Everyone had such a good time that when it was finally time to make the two and a half hour trek home, we were all satisfied and had smiles on our faces. All we could think about was getting some rest and preparing for next year's festivities. We'll definitely do this again. Oh... and next year I'm going to win the trophy for most athletic female! (I'd better start training now; my family is extremely competitive.)