we had a few hours to relax and go back to the hotel
before the evening festivities began.
anissa and chad invited the family back over for dinner
as well as all the officers {all the pilots} in his squadron.
we enjoyed some delicious bbq, a few cocktails,
{my s-i-l taught me how to make a mule drink}, and
meeting his lots of peeps. we were up late but not as late as
chad and his buddies. i think the party ended at 2am?
the next day was filled with lots of family time including
an event to see who would take home The Gerber Cup.
i'm pretty sure i've written about the gerber cup in the past,
but just in case, i'll give a brief description. the gerber cup is
basically the gerber family trophy, which is passed from family
to family upon winning some kind of 'challenge' {always physical,
as this is a family that has 5 brothers almost a year apart}.
silly me forgot to take a photo of the cup {i must ask my s-i-l if she can
shoot it so i can post}. basically, it is a men's athletic cup, painted gold,
and is mounted on a trophy based and has an inscribed nameplate that says
Gerber Family Cup. it's really pretty hideous, which is part of it's charm.
the gerbers are a competitive bunch and the drive to bring the gerber cup
home is strong....very strong.
this year, maya and finn chose the event and they selected an obstacle course
in uncle chad's backyard. it included running {fire drills}, climbing up an
inflatable jump castle, and siding into a pool of water, pushups, a bit of ping pong,
climbing up a child's enclosed slide, a jump down and then tagging a tire swing.
the event was timed and the winner would be the family who completed it in the
shortest time.
because we have such a diverse age range, families divided up the events based on
what adult/child would be best at it. in our family, c did the running, scout did the climb
and water slide, i did the pushups, c and finn did the ping pong and scout did the final leg.
we did very well, but uncle trevor and his family beat us.
{big t did just run a half ironman, a bit hard to compete with that}.
because chad's daughter {chloe} is a bit too young to really compete,
he basically ran the entire gauntlet by himself, minus the ping pong.
his wife joined him for that. he was a competitor but in the end his time
still didn't beat his little brothers. since he'd never had the cup, the boys agreed
to play a game of darts to see who would bring it home. chad won.
for the first time in maybe 15 years, uncle chad and his family have the gerber cup!
the rule is it's supposed to be displayed publicly somewhere in a prominent spot which
wives just love. *grin* {i'd sometimes hide it and c would pull it back out....it was
a little game too}. i will admit, the cup is a great conversation piece.
i smile when i think about this tradition. my hope is it will continue when our kids
are our age and have families of their own.
it was a wonderful weekend..full of fun and family!
gosh, i know I've said it a thousand times, but i feel pretty blessed to be part
of the gerber clan. they are all amazing people...cousins, auntie, uncles and
of course grandma and grandpa.
i'm looking forward to the next gerber reunion which might take
place in minnesota this fall when my niece jordan gets married!
{her big brother luke got married last october}. it's her turn.
~ finn's big 5th grade promotion took place last week and
it couldn't have been more wonderful. we are all excited for his
next step. more to come...
