the fam reunion...

right after i flew back from SF, i got to go home for a night and then get up and drive to egg harbor (door county), wi to meet my parents, brother, aunts/uncles, cousins on my mom's side. to say i was looking forward to it was a bit of a stretch, but that's ok. with my night home, i snuggled otis, reassured him i didn't abandon him and made a bunch of cds for the 5ish hour drive. i needed sing along music...

i woke up fairly early and was on the road by 815ish... i got there about 1230ish. i made pretty good time and there wasn't much traffic. i drank an energy drink, ate the red hots leslie had given me, and sang at the top of my lungs to pass the time. it wasn't horrible, but i was so ready to get out of the car.

upon getting to the resort, i found i had no cell reception. awesome. so i went to the front desk and asked them to ring my parents' room hoping they'd be there. i got mom and she and my dad walked up to the front to get me since there were several buildings and it was rather confusing to explain. we got to the room where my mom promptly told me that the room was, um, interesting and she was not happy about how much this crappy resort was costing us. my aunt had booked it and my mom was definitely not thrilled. they were all condos that individuals had decorated themselves and they were all different sizes. ours happen to be old looking and decorated with crappy fugly furniture. and while it had 1.5 bathrooms, they were quite interestingly arranged. as in, the toilets faced eachother. i have a picture to show you guys b/c well, hunh?! who the f designed this thing. as my mom said, we could go to the pot together and open the sliding door and chat instead of reading a magazine solo. really?! yes, that's my mom's sense of humor! there was a view of the lake, but mom was disappointed b/c the lake was so far away and we couldn't walk to it. oh well.

who the heck designed this place?! it was hard to photograph, but there you go... you can tell there are two potties facing each other. awesome!
my aunts & cousin (my aunt anne and her partner, sue, and anne's son, vinney, had a much bigger and nicer room although they had a view of the parking lot. pretty much we used this room as home base for breakfast, dessert, and hanging out. my aunt rita, my uncle, tim, and their daughter, erica, also had their own room. my uncle, john, and his wife couldn't make it as he had been super sick and in the hospital that week before. i must admit i am not a fan of sue anne his wife b/c she talks. a lot. about herself. and repeats stories. and she is fat and has diabetes and still eats like shit and refuses to exercise. her diabetes is causing her to go blind and yet she won't do anything about it which i just don't understand. and john... well, john is an interesting guy. as in he has a lot of issues. he isn't my favorite either. should i be writing this?! just being honest... anyways... back to the reunion.

mom, dad and i headed over to anne & sue's room and met up with everyone there for some lunch. after lunch, we went in to town and fish creek to do some shopping and looking around. mom bought stuff, i did not. we saw lots of errrr, interesting things there. this here, is just for you sarah!! and i LOVED this license plate... really?! it's so midwest...

cute scene from fish creek

that evening i took a quick (ok, long) nap. and then we all got ready to go to dinner. i think it was called the lodge or something. it was huge. and a wedding reception was going on. only the room was wide open and not private and we could hear their music. i thought that was a crappy place... sorry, i don't want random people eating dinner just across the way staring at my party! weird. before going to dinner, my mom had come back and told me that all the women were going to wear these plastic pumpkin necklaces that flashed and lite up. oh dear lord. yes, they wore them all thru dinner. i refused to wear mine. sorry... i just don't wear those tacky things. but all the rest of the girls did.

everyone at dinner: it's a shame you can't see those necklaces!

anyways, long story short that night ended in tears and anger between me and mom b/c she accused me of embarrassing her in front of her sisters and then i accused her of making me feel like i was too good to be part of the family and so then we both felt like shit and by the end of it we both apologized and said we'd try harder. apparently her sister, rita, had said something to her about my eye rolling and apparent rude tone with my mother. maybe i was. i dunno. i did roll my eyes but not b/c i was embarrassed b/c they were being so freaking hokey and it was driving me crazy. and the way my mom reacted was to make me feel like i thought i was better than everyone else and didn't want to be a part of things. my mom's side of the family is just, well, not sure how to say this without sounding terrible - it's just they are very midwest... very liberal, loud, and large. i don't think i am better than them, but that's the way i felt my mom was trying to make me feel. sorry if i'm more country club and they are more square dance... i can square dance too. it's just in all honesty, i don't know them that well. last time i saw them was my grandpa's funeral 3 years before. and before that, who knows. so that was a greeeeeeeeeat night. sorry, i was tired. and had driven/flown too much without much sleep.

so. the next day. we went over to washington island which is what rita wanted to do. so we all drove over... it was about 30 mins there and then a 30ish min ferry ride. once on the very remote island, we went to this replica church from the vikings. it was lovely. then we drove to this beach. wow, this was gorgeous. the sun was out, the water was crystal clear, and it was entirely flat rocks. apparently there are only 4 beaches in the entire world with this type of rock beach. so that was cool. we all tried skipping rocks. only my dad and tim were any good at it. from there we all went to lunch. i forget the name of the place, but it was hoppin... probably b/c it was about the only place in town to eat! by then, the weather had picked up with wind and rain and so we headed back to the ferry b/c we definitely did not want to get stuck on the island. rita was apparently mad b/c she had wanted to go to the ostrich farm and we hadn't had the time. oh well. the ferry ride back was rather bumpy so i stayed in the car, laid down, and closed the eyes and prayed for the ride to end quickly. finally got to the other side and started the drive home. we made a couple of stops at antique stores which is a favorite thing of my parents to do, but we didn't find anything worth buying. we then all headed back to the resort where we had dinner at the room and then a delicious raspberry pie. yum. and then it was time for bed, a quick breakfast in the morning, and then goodbye. my parents to the airport and me on my 5 hour drive home. i was exhausted when i got home, but i still managed to make it to my body pump class! talk about dedication... or maybe b/c i ate way too much crap over the weekend and past week of travel....

rita, her daughter erica, my brother andrew, and & anne on the ferry

me and my momma

me and my dad

mom's attempt at skipping a rock...

hanging out on the rock beach. so pretty!

the replica viking church: my aunt anne & her son: my cousin vinney (yes, i really do have a cousin vinney!)

the brave folks who sat on top of the ferry for the ride home. they were all trying to get a signal on their iphones. ohhhh technology!