For the past two years C's fraternity brothers (with the addition of the wives/girl friends, of course) have gathered at a lake in Centre Alabama to celebrate a wonderful man, Will Dykes. Will is the person I hold responsible for introducing me to my C and for that I will always be grateful. He, or his parents...however you want to look at it, also funded a vast majority of my college education through his generous tips when I was his bartender. I could go on and on...The group that gathers at the lake could tell "Will Stories" for hours and somehow they never get old. For some reason, God decided to call Will home earlier than any of us would've liked, and although we may never understand why, it's something that we all remember everyday in our own way. Will's Weekend just provides us a chance to remember together for a blessed couple of days and we will be forever grateful to his parents for giving us this opportunity for these past couple of years.
Above and below you might notice the two gentlemen kind enough to take a picture with me...you might even recognize the one above as my beloved C. Funny story, these guys share the same name! First and Last!! Imagine the confusion, so they simply go by 1.0 and 2.0...I married 2.0. Somehow though the discussion always comes up that I have two husbands :) And although that isn't exactly true, I do know that 1.0 plus any of the other boys would be there in a second if I needed them. They truly are a great bunch of guys. Especially Will, if you needed anything that guy would be there in a second ready to move mountains, or at least to try; and should the situation be one that no help could be provided you could always count on him to just simply be there and make you smile. When Will smiled you couldn't help but feel just a little better...even if the rest of the world was falling down. All of these boys carry that trait, so I know that it will never be forgotten and that makes me smile every time I think about it.
If I haven't mentioned it before the Dykes are pretty brave people. They so graciously choose to host this group of about twenty to thirty people once a year at their lakehouse, and while we're there they let the boys fulfill all their watersport dreams. As you can see there are jet ski's and boats and noodles galor! I myself prefer to just sit on a noodle in the water as the water crafts wizz by in the background...never really had the need for speed, you know? The guys are a different story. Last year, Mr. Earl potentially had a little too much fun slinging the guys off the tubes behind the boat! This year we missed him, but I can't say that I blame him as he was on an amazing trip :) Maybe next year, right Mr. Earl? This year Mrs. Mary Beth and her wonderful sister hosted the group, and I think that maybe they prefer the idea of noodling to the speed demon boys! On a serious note...It's my earnest prayer that the family understand how important this gathering is to us. This is one of the few times (aside from weddings, and eventually we'll run out of those) that we all get to gather at a central location. Now that we've all graduated, those times are few and far between and that means so very much. It's also a time that we get to cling to Will, all the memories and stories, and his family. Often, when we do find ourselves together, somehow the stories come up...but there at the lake, it's just different. That's what we're there for, to Celebrate the amazing person that was Will Dykes.
The stories aren't always for the faint of heart. (and I promise no one is actively trying to hit Kelso in the above picture, Neil just wanted to show off his muscles) We learned that this year. If you're new to the group you have to come in with a open mind, and be prepared to judge silently should you feel the need. These boys are no angels, but their Mommas and wifes (or girlfriends) know and don't care. The stories that get told around the above table I'm not repeating here... but they're funny. Colorful and maybe slightly illegal, but hilarious.
(Will, sorry...we've told your Momma everything. I mean everything we could think of...the cat's out of the bag buddy. Oh, and your Daddy also knows what happened to every single car that you said you hit a deer in. We tattled in good fun though, hope you aren't too mad )
And FINALLY, if you made it this far here's your reward. Although it's my first time uploading video and I don't think it's large enough to actually enjoy. Any help from the Blog world with this would be greatly appreciated. Try to watch it and enjoy the beauty that is Peg. No other explanation is out there for this, but just to say there's a reason Peg doesn't have a facebook page...it's so people can't post stuff like this! Happy Wednesday!
Oh and Comment People :) I would love to know anyone out there that's reading this!
