Lazy, crazy days of Summer

Ahh those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer have finally come and gone. The days of sun, fun and goofing off were welcomed by most of the members of the Corbett clan (the kids), while the mounting grocery bills, air conditioning bills, and trashing of the house were reviled by the rest (the parents). So as the school buses arrive to pick up the last of our happy children. We smile as they are forcefully dragged inside the bus, clawing and holding on to anything that would prevent their return to school. The screams of, “It’s not fair! Summer can’t be over yet! I’m too young for the 5^th grade!!”, brings a tear to our eye.

While the house is now finally quiet and some semblance of order returns to the clan house, let us reflect on the fun and good times that the summer season had brought.

Being prepared. Well as the summer started off, everyone wanted to make sure that they had all of the essential items needed for survival of the summer. Here we can see that Nate had stockpiled his supplies that would get him through those harsh, hot days. He figured that 20 gallons of Monster ™ drink should see him though just nicely.

Unfortunately, three hours later Nate had completely drained all of his provisions. On the bonus side, he made into the Guinness book of world’s records by having the world’s fastest heart rate of 1,400 while standing still. This smashes the previous record held by the Amazonian humming bird whose natural heart rate is 800. Once we peeled Nate off the ceiling, we decided that a wonderful picnic out by the lake would hit the spot.

Lake time. Here in Nashville, they have a wonderful man-made lake called Percy Priest lake. (Why it’s called that is anyone’s guess. Perhaps a priest named Percy was drowned there?) Anyhow, after packing up some food and bathing suits, we hopped into the van and drove up to the lake. The ride was pleasant enough considering all of the extra room we had since Nate decided to run the 40 mile instead of ride along with us. (Man, those Monsters are really something.) Here we are kicking back and relaxing. Nate wanted to go fishing, which in itself was surprising, but the fact that he wanted to catch fish by swimming after them, disturbed us greatly. (That does it, no more Monsters for that kid.)

Here we see Nate fishing in a more traditional manner. However, some of the effects of the caffeine are still apparent Note: he’s standing in 50’ of water. But still too hyped up to sink. After grueling hours of fishing Nate’s patience was finally rewarded. Here you can see the turtle that was caught. The look of excitement on his face pretty much says it all. (Dad, fishing sucks!)

While Nate kept himself busy fishing, Jeremiah and Rita decided to explore the wonders of one of the many islands the lake possessed. Here we see Jeremiah and Rita taking a relaxing walk through a nature tail. Looking at all of nature’s wonder, one can learn so much. For example, Jeremiah learned to never again wipe himself with poison sumac leaves.

Next we see Jeremiah arrive on the beach just in time to see the last boat of the day leaving for the mainland. (Bye Jere! We’ll come back for you! We promise! No, really we

will! We mean it this time!)

While the boys were having their fun, the girls sat back and enjoyed the sun. After several restraining orders were issued to the girls by the parents of some of the boys, The girls decided it was time to eat. Chasing boys takes up tons of energy! Here we have the lovely Rita mistress of the BBQ grill working up some culinary delights. Yup the best pork –n- beans that money could buy. Well as we all sat down and thoroughly enjoyed the meal, we began to wonder why it was so peaceful. Only the far off echo of a boys cry from some far away island that reminded us. Ahh yes, it was going to be a peaceful dinner indeed. We think Nate ate dinner with us. It was hard to tell if that particular blur was him or not, but the fact that he mentioned something about seeing if he could climb every tree in the forest made us think that it might be him.(Really, that boy has to lay off the caffeine.)

Beech Bend: Later in the season we traveled up to Kentucky to the world famous Beech Bend park. Ok, it’s not really world famous. Actually, I don’t think that it’s even Kentucky famous. Anyhow, We felt that it would be fun to have a day of rides, junk food, and swimming. Note, when I say ‘we’ I really mean ‘the kids’. The adults would not have minded a day of just sitting down and doing something called ‘breathing’. A quaint little park out in the middle of nowhere, Beech Bend has your basic needs for an amusement park; mary-go-rounds, spinning rides, vomit bags, overpriced soda and roller coasters. Here we see our lovely Rita enjoying a peaceful ride with Jeremiah and Haley on the Kentucky Rumbler. News reports stated that 200 miles away, People complained of a noise that sounded vaguely like a 30-something woman screaming, “You ungrateful little brats! I’ll kill you if we survive!”

Mackenzie had fun as well. Here we can see her in what looks like her petting a horse. In actuality, she was demanding that the pony follow her every command or suffer the fate of “ a quick trip to the Elmer’s glue factory”. –Darling little child. (Don’t worry folks. The horse physiatrist says the pony will make a full recovery.)

After being forcefully removed from the petting zoo for issuing threats, Mackenzie sulked for a while until she found a vent for her frustration. Unfortunately, I had been ‘volunteered’ for the position of assistant. What follows next is one of the scariest photos ever taken in the history of the world. Yes, that is correct. Mackenzie behind the wheel of a vehicle. Even though the car was firmly attached to a track and none of the pedals works, she somehow managed to divert the vehicle off-track and mow down 20 people while joyfully screaming “20 points! MuhAhaHa! 30 points for the old lady!!”

Meanwhile, Haley was having the time of her life as well. Riding rides, eating junk food, and even won a “Drama queen” competition. However her fun came to a sudden end when unbeknownst to Haley, Jeremiah covered her bathing suit with rubber cement. She didn’t notice it until it was too late as she was already halfway down the water slide. It took paramedics 2 ½ hours to remove the suit from her tush. (Again, don’t worry. She’ll be fine)

Anyhow, after all was said and done, we thanked God that summer had finally came to a close and our precious little bundles of joy were back where they belonged: behind a desk sleeping the class away with drool coming down their faces. Speaking of sleeping, an interesting note was that on the way back from the lake while Nathan was running along side the car, he suddenly passed out and had slept for 3 days straight. When we were notified by the local highway patrol that we had a passed out son on the highway, they told us that we really needed to pick him up, since he had been there for a day and a half already. They also mentioned that he kept muttering something about needing more ‘Monsters’ .

I leave you with a final token of our summer. Please enjoy this video of Reet enjoying the 'Kentucky Rumbler'