Butterfly Funeral and Flying Logs

My brother came to visit this week, and boy did we have fun.  He's a 6'7" man-child with really big feet.  He teaches my kids insanely inappropriate things, which is fine, because I can't be expected to cover that arena alone.  This visit included lots of sword fights, gun wars, playstationing (that's a word), and only one neighborhood kid in tears.  The tears happened shortly after this:

But you know what they say - Don't dish it out if you can't take it.  We didn't want stinking neighborhood kids infringing on our Joel Time anyhow.

The best part of Joel's visit for me was the day that we all, including my sisters and their families, spent at Moultan Falls in the Battle Ground, Washington area.  Bit of a drive for us Oregonians, but we spent a lot of time there as kids, so it was a must.

I'll spare you the boring details of our day, but there were two parts that are worth mentioning.  The first is the Butterfly Funeral.

Joel found a butterfly that was mostly dead.  I suggested that Joel build a raft to float it down the river on, because surely the butterfly would appreciate a river burial.  Here's what he came up with:

Impressive, right?  By the time Joel finished the coffin-raft the butterfly was completely dead, so it was ok that we lit the raft on fire to add a little Jedi flair to the funeral.  (Potential forest fires be damned, we were in mourning.)  And now, I give you - The Butterfly Funeral.  Please keep in mind that Andrew was completely sober when he was laughing like a maniac, and that the entire service would have lost its hilarity if Matt had not thought to sing the theme song to Reading Rainbow.  I freaking love my family.

My second favorite part of the day was the idiotic game that the adults played, but with which the men never tired.  We all stood in the ice-cold water and threw logs at each other.  Good game, right?  This created tidal wave type splashes that made the men's "little boys" run for cover in their body cavities.  That water was dang cold.  

Most impressive was how the men all took turns without fighting and how they never realized how stupid this game was.  Not that it wasn't strangely fun.  (P.S.  I could barely lift that big log as high as my belly button without crapping my pants.  That sucker was water-logged and very heavy.)

Joel can come for a visit ANYTIME.  He's super fun.  :)