Forced Family Time

**Hey friends! Last night after my husband's band played their gig in Houston, they went to eat. While they were eating their van was broken into and all of their bags were stolen (laptops, ipods, some wallets, you know... all that personal information!!) Anyways, please just say a little prayer that they get what is necessary to replace what was lost! Thanks guys!**

When we were growing up we ate pretty much all of our dinners together at home. Mom would cook and then Josh and I would take turns cleaning the kitchen... and I don't think we did that great of a job now that I think back on it. Well when we got into junior high and high school, we spent more and more time away from home doing whatever so when we were home, my parents established what I like to refer to as "forced family time."

I remember being in my room, minding my own business, Josh would be in his room, minding his own business, and I'm not sure where Amy was... but anyway, we would be in our various corners of the house and it would get close to around 7:00 I would hear my dad yell, "AMANDA! JOSH! Get in here!" And then after that happened a couple of times, Josh and I would drag ourselves out of our rooms and go sit in the living room.

That's it.

We would have to go sit in the living room with my parents and watch them watch TV. I would get so annoyed at this. I could not believe that they would make me leave the comforts of my favorite room and come literally SIT in the same room with them just to do nothing! *I would always just pretend that I didn't like whatever they were watching even though I really did, and would just sit with this look of disgust on my face. haha...*

My parents just wanted us to be in the same room as them because they loved us. So forced family time it was.

Well now I'm all grown up (haha) and make Eli and Judah come sit with me all the time and I know that I will continue to do that for many years to come!

So my parents invite Wes and I to dinner at their house with Amy and her boyfriend. They tell us they are cooking out and they have a fun activity planned for us. oh great...what in the world could this possible be?? We are always up for a free meal and hanging out with my folks so we went over there not having any idea what this "activity" was going to be.

We eat a delicious meal, have crazy good dessert, and then it's time for the activity to commence. My dad tells us that it is a game and that he is the MC. I roll my eyes thinking, oh no... this game will last forever!! haha... We make our way into the living room and my parents read us the rules. It's a game about how much we know about our family. You know, like random facts, where people were born, who they worked for, favorite colors, stuff like that. I LOVE this whole idea and I am beyond excited! It's Wes and I against Amy and Eric and we get $1 for every correct answer. Brilliant!

Amy and Eric get $4 to start off with because Eric hasn't been around that long and so they thought it wasn't fair to them. whatever :)

The game goes on, it is so much fun, dad asks really good questions and then some ridiculous questions and then it ends with my team with $10 and Amy's with $13 (let's not forget their $4 head start).

After that there is a part 2. A treasure hunt with 5 clues leading up to a prize. If any of you know my father, who wrote the clues, he is kind of long winded... especially in writing. So clue after clue was prefaced with about 3 sentences of encouragement and big words before you actually made it to the actual clue.

It was an absolute blast and ended with a gift card to the movies (YES!) and my parents house being slightly destroyed due to my sister's aggressiveness. :)

I loved every minute of it. It was the best "forced family time" yet. We missed you Josh!