Warning:  This post is going to be a long one 🙂

 

Heading to Michigan

After finally packing, Brian and I hit the road to Fort Wayne to drop my car off at home, and then all the way to Michigan.

I packed some healthy snacks for the road since we were driving for 6ish hours.

Brian was the navigator with the GPS and I actually drove the majority of the way (that never happens).  Since Brian has his first exam of the semester in dental school, I thought I would be nice and let him study.

The driving went surprisingly quick and smooth and the next thing we knew we were at the Kettunen Center in Tustin, MI.

We were greeted by family and tasty snacks made by Mom and Grandma!

And boxed wine 🙂

I decided to call this kettle corn “crack corn” because at the end of the two day reunion….

Nothing was left!  It was the perfect combination of sweet and salty.

The room was decorated with Norwegian family decorations.

My sister and I’s favorite family decoration.  Lutefisk is apparently not very tasty and is a type of dried cod….we have never tried it, but I think it sounds kind of good!

For the rest of Friday night we just visited and mingled with family before heading to bed to prepare for the next day.

Saturday Reunion

Grandma started off the morning with a Norwegian cooking lesson of the dish called lefse (pronounced l-ehf-suh).  It is kind of like a Norwegian crepe made from left over mashed potatoes and flour.

Grandma had so many great stories to share, and allowed for crowd participation!

Grandpa was a great little helper 🙂

I even got to make one!

One of the stories explained how lefse came to be, and mentioned that the Irish played an important role…it just so happens that Brian is Irish!  Looks like we were meant to be together 🙂

Grandpa was the expert lefse turner.

I then topped the lefse with various toppings such as cinnamon and sugar (my favorite), a Norwegian goat cheese, ham and mustard, and lingonberry jam and cut them into little pieces for everyone to sample.  They were all so tasty!

After the cooking demonstration, I set up my station in the auction room allowing family members to sample my products before deciding to bid in the auction.

Brian, Mom, and me at lunch.

After lunch, everyone browsed the auction room deciding what they wanted to bid for.

Roberta and Melanie are two of my relatives that have been the auctioneers the past couple of years.

There job included modeling some of the merchandise this year.  Last reunion, Brenna and I were the models but this year we just wanted to enjoy the show!

Brenna got something!

 

We all got “redneck wine glasses” which were wine glasses made from Ball jars!  Super cute!

After the auction, Brian had to head back to Indianapolis so that he could have a full day of studying before his exam on Monday.

 

 

My grandparents are HUGE card players, so after hanging out around a bonfire by the water we all came in to play a game of hand and foot! My family is slightly competitive….

We formed teams:  Mom, Dad, and Grandma vs. Brenna, Tara, and Granpa (aka BTG)…needless to say, BTG dominated.

The Trip Home

After packing up everything and attending a short family prayer service, we hit the road.  The car ride home was veerrry interesting for several reasons.  #1.  We no longer have a van and now have a regular sized car.  #2.  There were 4 adults driving in a car for 6 hours.  #3.  We brought our two huge dogs.  We all survived, but it was a little rough at first.

We stopped at Subway for lunch, and I got a veggie delite salad!  Spinach on the bottom topped with cucumbers, tomatoes, banana peppers, black olives, red onion, and extra extra pickles.   (My family loves pickles)

We finally arrived home, and I knew that I needed to run because I had been sitting in a car for a million hours and because Sundays are my long run days.  Today, I was scheduled to run 8 miles, and Mom thought she had the perfect route for me that she usually bikes…well, I ran the route and got done in just over an hour.  I knew that I hadn’t run 8 miles…and I was right!  Mom miscalculated, and I only ran 6.5…so tomorrow I will be running the FULL 8 🙂

A couple of things went wrong while running, my shorts began to chafe mid run (so if you know of any non-chafing remedies…please pass them on!) I tripped 3 times, and I needed water.  Hopefully these problems are solved tomorrow.

Will this help with chafing?
Will this help with chafing?

Mom made an uhhhhmazing dinner, salmon with steamed zucchini from the garden, steamed broccoli, and tomato and cucumber salad from the garden.  It tasted like pure summer and totally hit the spot after my hot and sweaty run.

Brenna then trimmed my hair.  It sure does pay to have a hair stylist as a sister!

She also taught me how to round brush 🙂

 

Now, I’m watching Next Food Network Star with mom.  Hope your weekend was amazing!!

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