Saturday, June 7, 2008

The Hargis Family Reunion - Memorial Day


In order to reach a compromise between various blog readers, I will attempt to provide 2 updates at a time - one from Australia (for those interested) and one more current (for Will and Bill). If you are not interested in reading about Australia anymore, then you don't have to, but if you are interested in learning about the rest of our trip, that will be provided also.

Memorial Day weekend, Rachel and I headed to Fall Creek Falls State Park near Cookeville for a weekend of rest and relaxation with the Hargis family. We stayed in cabins along the water, which was really cool. Family members came in from Tennessee, Wisconsin (a large contingent), Michigan, Kentucky and Utah.

These are Rachel's first cousins. I posted a picture from Christmas documenting this wiley bunch. Neil, second from right, finished his BS at Union University and begins seminary this fall. Daniel, 2nd from left, is a student at Western Kentucky and is an active Youth Director in his church. Jonathan, far right, is Daniel's younger brother and will be attending Vol State this fall. Patrick, far left, is Neil's younger brother and is a student at Union University.

Rachel's older cousin Brian and his wife Suzanne brought a COOL Harley Davidson with them. They live in Kentucky, outside of Cincinatti and have two very nice kids that will be pictured later, Tucker and Lauren (who is in a cast due to a freak sledding accident). Brian was my "Bags" partner, as we took the Hargis cornhole title this year. Living in the north for the past few years, I have really refined my "bags" technique. We are considering adding a bags kit to our tailgating equipment for the fall.
This is a picture of Sarah Jane (3rd oldest of Rachel's first cousin's Leigh's kids), Jonathan, Brandon (Brian's and Suzanne's oldest) and Tucker (Leigh's and Clay's oldest).

This is Rachel's Dad, Mack, with his first cousin Brenda and her daughter, Rhonda.

On Sunday, several of us hiked the Fall Creek Falls Trail. Ron and Nick are two of Rachel's Dad's cousins that came down from Wisconsin. They are a hoot. Here, they are wearing nice UT hats because of a friendly family wager. The Wisconsin crew lost the bet, along with the Bowl Game and were thus forced to wear the opposing team's colors for most of the reunion.
This picture is of Russel (Mack's first cousin - Susie's son) and Lauren (mentioned earlier) fishing along the bank. These kids have way more patience than I do, as they fished most of the afternoon.










Sunday night, Mack's best friend, Marcus Horton, catered the Hargis Family Reunion with his world famous bar-b-que. Marcus competes in bar-b-que tournaments, with quite a bit of success. I must say that I enjoyed his bar-b-que very much. It was probably the best bar-b-que I have ever had (and I'm not just saying that now that I don't have access to good bar-b-que). Mack and I were drafted to assist with serving and were rewarded with Horton Bar-b-que aprons.

Fishing

Rachel has always been a bigger fisherman than I have. I just don't have the patience to fish. Fishing is something that she has always enjoyed doing with her dad. We both fished some off of the deck of our cabin. I caught my first fish that was not already being held in captivity (Cross-eyed Cricket does not count in my book). I still lost, as Rachel caught the biggest fish of any family member.

My "bags" partner (Brian) insulted me when he found out it was the first fish I had ever caught, to which he replied, "What are you... 3?"



7 comments:

Steve said...

Now we have something else in common. I too caught my first fish near Cookeville. Guess I should also mention that Cookeville is my hometown. Fall Creek Falls is Awesome; hope you guys had a great time.

Bill said...

Hard to believe you lived in East Tennessee all those years and never caught a fish. Always knew there was something not right about you Stephen.

Congrats on the Hargis Bags Title. Maybe we can see you championship form in Atlanta.

Will said...

You might wish to rethink the sentence "Rachel has always been a bigger fisherman than me." My wife would kick my tail if I typed that. Might I suggest "Rachel has always enjoyed fishing more than me." Hmmm. That sentence could be true on 2 fronts. First, it could be interpreted that she prefers fishing over you. Second, it could be interpreted that her passion for fishing exceeds your passion for fishing.

On another front, have you tried Blongoball? It's a much more tailgate - friendly game.

Mark said...

Cute fish. Did you catch that with your Snoopy pole? Ha!

Lisa Renfro said...

Does anyone have an e-mail address for Brian or Suzanne Hargis? I'm an old friend from Texas. Please let them know the Renfros are looking for them!

BTW, NICE LEGS, BRIAN!

zcbh6 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
zcbh6 said...

Just wondering if anyone knows a Hargis that lives at 3006 Keller Bend Rd. in Knoxville, TN. Their phone number is 865-694-8454. On 6/8/2011 at 4:13pm I received a call from this number and someone told me they found my golf disc and they were going to keep it. I said ok and then just asked a couple of questions to figure out which disc they were talking about. When I did this, they said, "I told you I am keeping the disc you fucking ass hole." It sounded like some stoned, high school or college kid. Just though I would let you all know what was happening at the house.