50th Anniversary Weekend

What a whirlwind weekend!  I don’t even know where to begin.

Thursday after work we met my mom at our house and drove to Mitchell. Nothing to exciting that day.

Friday morning we left Mitchell and headed for Rapid City.  It poured most of the way there but those die-hard bikers were still out there!  We stopped at a Kadoka gas station and there were 50 bikes under the gas canopy.  Crazy!  We eventually got to Rapid City and the first thing we did after stopping at the parents’ house is go to Red Lobster with Gary, Tracie, Gerald and Abbie.  It was good.  After that I went with niece, Judy, Ethan and Abbie to Albert’s Ensemble performance at orchestra camp. It was interesting. Some of the small ensembles were good, others hurt my ears.  Albert’s group wasn’t bad. We eventually checked into our room at Terra Sancta Retreat Center.  It was a very nice place. I would stay there again. That evening a group of us went mini golfing…there was close to 20 of us. Eric and I were paired up with Libby, Maggie and Maggie’s boyfriend, Cody.  It made for a long evening.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the retreat center and then family pictures. It wasn’t too bad.  Some melt downs but with a family this large that is bound to happen.  The photographer is a family friend and he has done this before with this family so this was nothing new for him. Here is the best photo my mom could get (click to enlarge):

Immediately following the pictures was the Anniversary Mass.  After that we had lunch…tacos…there was a nice video with lots of pictures of the family.  Elaine looks like Judy did on her wedding day. It is amazing.  We relaxed a bit and then mom and I took Allista for some food and to get a card.  Allista was having a bad day so we thought it would be good to take her along. She didn’t eat the tacos so we bought her and her brother, Joseph (who slept through lunch) some Culvers. Joseph was sharing his hamburger with me. He is a funny kid.  We made our way to the house to help get ready for the potluck picnic.  There was a large spread and it was a very nice picnic.   Some drama but overall it was a nice time. Only a few of us helped to clean up and it was way past 9:30 before we were done getting everything into the house and fridge.  We stayed there until 10:30.  We didn’t get a chance to go to Dan’s after party.

Sunday morning we went to Mass at the Cathedral. 9 of 14 kids were there.  That is quite amazing. The funniest conversation of the day was 9 year old Gerald talking to his mom.  

Tracie: Gerald, we have to go to church.
Gerald: I'm not going, we went yesterday.
Tracie: You have to go.
Gerald: Fine, I'll go but I'm not praying.

Afterwards was Samuil’s baptism. That was probably the largest crowd for a baptism in the family!  I took Eric back to the retreat center so he could work on his paper. I swapped my Mom for Allista.  Mom went with Gary, Tracie and family to paddle boats and Dairy Queen. I took Allista tubing in Hisega with Ade, DJ, Tim, Abbie, Beth, Ethan, Judy and Albert.  We only had a few tubes so we had to take turns. I, of course, popped my tube.  We also went swimming in the deep hole of the creek and jumped off rocks…granted it really wasn’t much of jump off, maybe a foot. But it was fun but the water was freezing!  For dinner Mom and I escaped the insanity of the house and went to Arby’s.  I’m sure glad we did.  We spent the rest of the evening at the house. Eric and DJ were hammering out his paper and I just listened to stories.

Yesterday morning we made the long trip back.  We had breakfast with DJ’s family, Ade, and Elaine. We stopped at the house and were on our way home by 11am.  We pulled into our house a little before 9pm.  Eric spent the rest of the night getting his homework done.   There was so much more I could say but this is a brief summary of the 50th Anniversary Weekend.