Roadtrip!

Paul and I took a roadtrip to Milwaukee on Sunday. WE LEFT THE BOYS HOME ALONE! Everything was just fine, despite my worrying.

We went to Milwaukee for my Aunt and Uncle's fiftieth wedding anniversary. Think of that! (They don't even look 50 years old, how can they have been married 50 years?) This was a celebration of pure joy and thanksgiving for all their blessings. This is a picture of my cousin Tracy and me. Tracy is Darlene and Richard's second oldest. See the family resemblance?

My brother Erik and his wife came to the party. If you recall, Erik is recently home from Iraq. I love this picture. You can see how much Renee loves him. I am looking forward to their 50th anniversary. Maybe Erik will wear that grass skirt again.

I was glad to find out that the 50% divorce rate is an invalid statistic. It has been repeated so often that we thought it was true. I can't wait until I can go to a golden anniversary of a wedding that I actually attended.


Here Richard and Darlene cut their cake. This part of the celebration was held at their son Mike and his wife Brenda's
house. Brenda deserves to go to bed for a week after all her hostessing duties. Every member of the extended family worked their hardest to make this weekend a success. It was all well organized and fun. They should write a book!

One nice thing was to have all the family photo albums out to look through. You know you are with family when you find pictures of yourself in their albums! I always feel so loved here.

Another nice thing was that they wanted to share their good fortune by having guests bring items for the parish food pantry. Darlene said, "We have everything we need and more, let's help someone else."




My cousin Tana is on the left, my sister-in-law Nicole is on the right. All three of my brothers were able to make the trip so our family was well represented. We were sorry that our mother (Richard's sister) was not able to come due to her healing hip.









This is my brother Chris and our Grandmother Louise. Louise, Aunt Necie and Uncle Don came from North Dakota for the occasion. It was great to see them all looking so well. People came from at least 4 states for this weekend. It is important to celebrate the good things, don't you think?














As the night wore on, some of the guys played "Texas Hold 'em". My brother Gene, (on the right) was the big winner. That is Paul in the (new, periwinkle) shirt. Paul has been a member of our family for over 20 years. He knows most of the family legends. I heard him telling Erik and Gene (who were too young to have been there) about the time Tracy hid in our car when we left to go home to Minnesota after a visit. We tried that every time our families got together. This time (we were about 10) the grown-ups forgot to check for a stowaway. We got scared and confessed before we drove too far!

This is "Hermit Crab Land" at the mall by our hotel. Paul needed a new shirt, he had gotten jelly (a lot of jelly) on the only shirt he had brought with. The clerk said, "You can dress them up, but you can't take them anywhere, can you?" The hermit crabs reminded me of the time my family went for a Milwaukee visit and brought all the cousins hermit crabs. Unfortunately, the crabs did not survive the trip, as they were in the unheated trunk of the car. Not such a nice gift.



When I was a kid we went to Milwaukee to visit these cousins every other Easter. (They came to us the other years). I always looked forward to spending time with them because I learned a lot from them, especially how not to be such a big GEEK! This was especially important during the crucial Junior high years. I took notes! I tried to dress and be athletic like Tracy, and studied the music choices and friendships of all the cousins. Then, back at my own school, I would practice being non-geeky. It helped, and they are still worth emulating today.

My mom would always make these sandwiches for a roadtrip. We loved to crank the food grinder and grind up the ingredients. Sometimes she would add stuff from the refrigerator so it wouldn't go to waste. I swear one time she added green beans! Paul says where he comes from, this is called "funeral spread".

Spam sandwich spread

1 can of Spam
1 small onion (or half a medium one)
1 hard boiled egg (no shell)
Pickles to taste
(optional ingredients include olives, cheese, and any leftovers you want to get rid of.)
1/3 - 1/2 cup miracle whip, depending on the optionals and how squishy you like your sandwiches

Put all ingredients except miracle whip through a food grinder or in a food processor, until it is chopped up into pretty small pieces, add the miracle whip to make a spreading consistancy and make sandwiches. We always used white bread.