Keddington Olympics 2012

Once in a blue moon I bemoan the fact that we don’t have cable. Not often. But the last two weeks I pined for the Olympics. Little blips of glory on nbcolympics.com just didn’t cut it. It was anticlimactic every time we had to wait mid-kick, mid-stroke, or mid-sprint for the video to load. We missed a lot.

But as the closing ceremonies wound down last night, I remembered what we did see. Phelps’ 22nd medal, Pistorius off the blocks, Wiggins for the win, Gabby Douglas humbly taking the all-around. The Olympics inspire me, choke me up. All those years of devotion, precise training, and pushing the human body to its farthest limits. It’s remarkable that with each Olympic games new world records are set.

So in the spirit of Olympic greatness, I bring you a few other gold medal winners. And for these events, we had a front seat.

My sister Sarah and her husband Lance planned our very own Olympic games for the Keddington reunion this year. They did an amazing amount of work and pulled off the whole shebang without a hitch.

Every family was asked to create a team flag. I thought we’d knock ours out one evening with a handful of permanent markers. So we drew the Olympic rings, plus two extras to represent our family of seven, then signed our names. Pretty simple.

I should have known the rest of my sisters (and Mom) would pull out their sewing machines and come up with something grand.

My Mom and Dad with their flag.

The rest of the flags. I know. They put ours to shame.

My sister-in-law, Shirlee, ironed on a skyline from every place she and my brother have lived. New Orleans, Boston, Houston, Switzerland, Egypt, Malaysia (can you make out the twin towers in Kuala Lumpur?) and finally back to the states. Impressive. But even more impressive, was her ability to set up home in each of those places.

Lighting the Olympic flame was a preliminary must. So Sarah, our Master of Ceremonies, wisely crafted a hazard-free torch.

Here’s Lizzie, preparing to run the first torch leg.

She passed the torch to Sami, who passed it on, and on, until every cousin had a chance to run paper fire across the grass.

Then we lit the Olympic flame (a stack of kindling and newspaper in the fire pit), where it burned all night long.

A perfect back drop for the evening’s events. And when the coals were just right we made s’mores!

Earlier that day we hiked to Cecret Lake.

No kelty packs for these guys anymore.

So in memory of Grandpa, we introduced a scaled down version of the penny challenge. If the kids could carry five dollars of pennies up to Cecret Lake by themselves, they could keep every cent.

And Spencer? Gold for best hula-hoop runner.

Sarah made each of them feel like a million bucks as they stood there on the podium. The whole weekend was full of priceless memories with family. Something I do not take for granted. I know it is a tremendous blessing to be cared for by this many good individuals. We may not be breaking world records, but we are strengthening family ties, giving our children an extended team of support, and teaching them that family relationships matter. And that inspires me too.

Wow, this post was Olympic in length. Thanks for enduring.