Family Reunion

As you can see from the photos, not only did we manage to survive my family reunion, I think we actually enjoyed it. Soon after Tim discovered my family did not, in fact, hate him or wish him any immediate harm, he discovered a true ally in my sister's husband, John. I think the two of them spent more time hanging out and bitching about how slobby we Podolny girls are than anything else. I think it was a great comfort to Tim to know that I am not the only one who turned out to be such a pig (I think this is because my parents are the most anally clean people you will ever meet, so we all rebelled by becoming slobs :) Caitlyn also had a blast. Most of my cousins are around her age, on account of my mom's sisters being 15 years younger than her, so she had lots of playmates. Caitlyn also learned to fish (and caught her 1st one!), which was a big thrill for her. The only big drawback was the accomodations. Now I've been camping plenty of times before, and I don't mind a few bugs, but this was really ridiculous. First of all, we were staying in a cabin, so I expected less bugs than you would find out in the open. Not so! Our first night there we walked in to find my sister's room full of tiny black flies just everywhere. They were on the walls, the light, the bed, and crawling all over her 4-month old baby. Not only was it disgusting, but you have to be worried with all those reports about the different diseases mosquitos carry. After a not-so-helpful brush off from the campsite manager, Stef and John chose to take Yelena to the only hotel in town (we were in nowhere Minnesota) to spend the night. We, meanwhile, tried to brave the night by turning off all the lights and pretending we couldn't feel the bugs crawling on us in the dark. Between that and Caitlyn's waking up three times because of the heat and mosquitos, we didn't get much rest that night. So, after one whole night in a Minnesota cabin, we city-folk decided we couldn't take it anymore and moved over to the hotel with my sister and John. My brave, brave parents stayed (as did my sister Lexi and the rest of the extended family) and claimed the bugs got much better after we left (maybe they were attracted to Tim's stinky feet?). We were just greatful for the air conditioning and relief from mosquitos, which came out in force as the sun fell. In the meantime, we enjoyed the company of my relatives (many of whom I hadn't seen in 10+ years and some of my cousins I hadn't even met before) and the fabulous food prepared by my wonderful father, my cousin Renee Michelle, and their young protege, my cousin Jenny (3 generations of cooks). Sadly, it was over far too quickly and before we knew it, we were headed back on the long, long trip home.