Elbingfest 2008 Recap

This past weekend I had the pleasure of going up north for my family reunion. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that everyone that was there had a really good time, and we are all looking forward to the next chance we get to spent time together. Thanks to Bob and Laurie for letting us use their cottage and doing a great job of organizing everything. For those that were and weren’t there I’ll give an overview from my perspective of the reunion.

Friday
Dem and I left in the afternoon and made really good time getting up there (besides the 30 minutes it took to get 10 miles from Ann Arbor. When we arrived up there we had dinner (fajitas and ham sandwiches) and then just relaxed out by the lake. Dem and I watched the sunset from the end of their dock and took the picture below.

Sunset over Lake Charlevoix

Nothing too eventful happened that first night…just chatting and catching up with various family members. We then went back to our cabin for the night and I decided to sleep on the pull out coach in the living room. Lets just say that there were some problems with that and the big one being that the temperature dropped to around 50 degrees and I had no blankets. I did however have a fire and try to warm myself during the night by slowly rotating in front of it.

My heat source for the first night

Saturday
On Saturday we went back to the lake and had lunch (brats and burgers) before starting the Elbing Olympic Games. These were really fun and I think everyone enjoyed themselves, but it was really exhausting. Games included badminton, horseshoes, washer toss, bags (a.k.a. corn hole), bocce ball, croquet, riding jet skis, riding the boat, petting or playing fetch with the dog, and balloon toss. There was a point system setup, but was never really used (Vicky was named the winner for winning everything). However, the participation by everyone and their enthusiasm was what made the Olympic Games just so much fun. Partners were selected at random. Dem and I never actual ended up being partners the entire day, but Dem said she had fun and felt really welcome the entire day (thanks family). The balloon toss was delayed until after dark, but in the spirit of the Games we held it even in the dark. We even upped the difficult level by trying to toss two balloons simultaneously. Most of the balloons weren't actually used for the balloon toss, but to randomly hit family members when they weren't looking throughout the day. I got my cousin Jess really good right in the face…though she did get me back later in the evening.

Elbing Olympic Games: (clockwise from top left) badminton, bocce ball, balloon toss (sort of), washer toss, and bags.

As the Games were coming to an end we had a surprise birthday party for my 2nd cousin (I think that’s right) Sue.

Sue’s 60th Birthday Cake

Then after dinner (spaghetti and salad) we had the awards banquet for Olympic Games. My cousins Dustin and Ryan did a really good job of organizing the Games and coming up with awards for everyone that competed. I won the "most romantic" award for my multiple walks with Dem to the end of the dock and my constant hand holding…I got it without them even knowing about the Gerber Daisies I got Dem when I picked her up to go to the reunion.

Gerber Daises I got Dem

Dem got “my long game is better than my fiancés/when is the date” award for her skills on the bocce ball court (is it a court?). Dem overall did really well in the Games and won the majority of games she played…she’ll say that it was all her partners but I’m not believing it.

Also one of the fun moments of the evening was everyone attempting to get a splinter out of my toe. I think over a half a dozen people tried to get it out at the lake and couldn’t. We decided at that point the best idea was to clean it out and let the body get it out on its own. There was no rubbing alcohol there but I said there was plenty of alcohol and we decided to soak my foot in whiskey to clean it out. (This is a better idea then pepper in a cut at least).

Liquor selection for the reunion/disinfecting my toe.

Soaking my foot in whiskey

We then went back to our cabin and my brother-in-law Tom managed to get the splinter out of my toe…thanks Tom you came through for me this weekend.

Sunday
We got up and went to a brunch to finish the reunion. Basically it was just everyone getting together one last time and saying goodbyes. We did have a few nice things to end the reunion. There was the passing off of the banner from Laurie and Bob (who had the banner made) to the Wisconsin Elbings for the next reunion, a family picture with our centennial farm sign, and Laurie and Bob giving everyone bags with our names on them.

The handing off of the new Elbing Family Reunion banner

Me, my uncle Gerald, and my dad sporting our “man bags”

Then my parents, Rey and Tom, and Dem and I drove to Grayling where we met up with Dem’s parents and had lunch (I had a Philly steak sandwich…others had something else). This was the first time that Dem and my parents met each other. Dem and I thought it went pretty well, though I think all of us from the reunion were so tired that we were quieter then normal.