It's been a while since I posted anything - reason being that it would be a huge post. I went to my family reunion. There are now 129 people in the Durtschi clan. My grandma had nine kids and they all came, and most of their children and spouses and their children came as well, so there were loads of Durtschi's running around. Sadly, Paul could not come. He started his residency, which kinda means he fell of the planet and into hospital hell. So I packed up the kids and we flew to Jackson Hole. They were fantastic on the flights and layover. I was pleasantly surprised. The first thing the kids did was play on the new 'playground' with Pappy.
At my family reunions we camp. Thankfully my dad pitched the tent for us. I was worried the kids wouldn't do well in the tent, but once again, pleasantly surprised. They were tuckered out every night and slept like rocks.
It was a lot colder in the mountains of Wyoming than in humid Nashville. It got down in the 50's at night, so thank goodness for my mom's stockpile of bedding.
This years theme was 'Survivor'. We divided into teams; every team got a colorful bandanna and had to name themselves and make a cheer. Axel's team was 'Mellow Yellow', and Axel danced during their performance of the cheer.
One of the challenges was to make a sculpture of Grandma using only what you could find in nature. This was my team's:
On the second day, Heidi came! I haven't seen her since Christmas and now she's 5 months pregnant. So I was REALY excited to see her, and so were the kids.
Every year Driggs has a 4th of July parade where every politician politicizes and every good float throws candy. Axel and Maggie caught on pretty quickly. After about 10 pieces of candy I told the kids no more eating and that we would save the candy for later. Maggie, however tried to get uncle Ralph to open some for her when I wasn't looking.
That day we had a canoe trip, and I didn't take a camera, so no pics, but it was beautiful and eventful. The water was much higher and faster this year and we probably should have all stayed home. But, we were anxious to relive one of our favorite family memories. So this year we made new memories, when 10 of our 14 canoes tipped over. It was pretty scary actually, but everyone made it back in one piece with my cousin Rick as everybody's hero.
Doesn't he look heroic!?
My Dad got sick and had to sit out a lot of the reunion. Terrible. Your whole, huge family gets together that you are so excited to see and you get sick and can't bond. Terrible. I felt sad for him and wished that he was there, so that night when we had our family auction I bought Dad a present. It was a shirt that said, "Don't be so open minded, your brains might fall out." Dad and I frequently disagree about politics with me being the more liberal one and Dad being more conservative. I tell him I'm not liberal (I really don't see myself that way) I'm open minded. So I thought this would be a funny present. He loved it, and wore it the next three days in a row. Love ya, Dad!
Last Day of the Reunion - everybody packed up their tents and left. I was sad. The last reunion I came to was 4 years ago, and there were so many new people in my family since then. Lots of new spouses and children. Plus some of the cousins I hadn't known very well because they were older than me. Well now that we're all adults the age difference doesn't seem so big and I got to know them for the first time. I really love my family. Here's a few pics of the Durtschi's:
Dad and Jim.
Uncle Ralph and Heidi.
Zach (Melissa's husband), Brain, Melissa, (Zach's brother, sorry don't remember your name), Whittney.
Cousin Amy. Beautiful, even in blurry.
Mike, Sandy, and Olivia inside.
Lots of cousins to run with.
Camping babies.
Cousin Sam and his family. His wife's name is Alisha Dawn Durtschi. Which used to be my name exactly. Crazy. His kids are Tristan and Grace.
Reynolds + Durtschi
When I was a missionary in Ukraine, I fell in love with the food. Delicious, earthy, healthy food. One of my all time favorites was their black bread - round rye bread. I knew someone who worked in a factory where they made the bread (you could buy this delicious treat at nearly every corner). He told me how to do it, but the recipe seemed too simple to me. It seemed there was a secret he wasn't telling me. Well, when I got home, I made my family a Ukrainian dinner and tried out the rye bread. Not the same at all. I searched the internet and tried two different recipes, both were sadly disapointing. Not even close. Really, not even close.
I love it with sour cream. This bread is the perfect accompaniment to borscht.
And a little side post: Paul made smoothies. The kids can't drink them without the mustache and we thought that the smoothie probably tastes better with a 'stache, so we tried it. The kids had it right all along.
