my favorite moment of our reunion

This here is quite possibly my favorite moment from our whole five days together. It was our first shared meal on Friday night at Annika's house, before we went to her town's parade. After dinner Simon started telling us a very detailed joke. He is an awesome storyteller and did not leave out one detail. Mat timed it and the joke was five and a half minutes long. It was like we were right there with the poor guy who was discovered to be a fantastic high diver on the cruise ship he was living on. His final dive was so, so high that when he hit the pool he went through the bottom of the pool, through 1st class, through 2nd class, through the cargo floor, through the boiler rooms and out the bottom of the boat. When he surfaced next to the cruise liner they pulled him up and everyone asked if he was okay and he said, "I have been through many a hard ship."

We laughed so hard. And were so pleasantly surprised that there was an actual punchline after so much story.

Then my dad tried to tell a joke that fell so flat no one knew the joke had ended. He scanned all of our faces to see if we got it and then his face fell and realized his audience was about 30 years too young to remember the song that was the punchline. And I fell to pieces. I laughed so hard because my dad is a master joke-teller and it is rare that a story of his doesn't go over well.

I just love family so much. I love how each person contributes to the personality of your whole family. And we have some awesome personalities in this clan.