We're Back!

So we just spent the week at the Potrie Family Reunion. My family from the Motherland. It was such a blast!! I will post pic's later, haven't had time to download them yet. We ended up coming back a day earlier than scheduled, a lot of people were sick. Some of the younger cousins were finishing up being sick when they got there and then it kinda flew through the group. A lot of people were hit with "rumbly tumbly" as I like to call it. Quite a few of us had almost all night vigil's at the restroom, or were frequently leaving the room to "look at the scenery". I did figure out that I can eat raw garlic, as long as it was diced up on some toast. My family are all about natural healing and my uncle Dan (one of the unfortunate souls making trips to the loo) told about how raw garlic really helps get rid of yucky bacteria you might have in your system. I was pretty sick of being bloat-city so I sucked it up and tried it. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE GARLIC, but more like cooked, not raw. Dan said if you spread it over buttered toast it takes some of the sting out of it. The only garlic we had was my Grandpa's elephant garlic which I found out later is off the charts hot, the upside being since then any garlic I've had pales in comparison to the fire-fest in my mouth from that first sample. But it wasn't too bad, I liked it after I regained my sense of taste back and my ears stopped sweating. It worked so great- my stomach settled right down that night and I was even starting to get a cold and that completely backed off. I made sure to take a couple of doses over the next day, the heat is kinda like hot salsa, you get used to it. Luckily enough of us were eating garlic that we all hung out so we wouldn't stink anybody out. That garlic like sweats through your pores, a lot of people already think I may be Greek (curly hair, robust nose) and add that smell to it and boom, My Big Fat Family Reunion!! (I am not Greek, in case wondering, although I love Greek food--hello feta-- so it would have been a good fit if I was born into that kind of circumstance). After all this stink talk you would think the Reunion was lammo, that was just a small ripe part of it.

The reunion was a couple extra days longer than the usual, which was so great b/c we had more time to just talk and hang out by the campfire instead of sticking to a set schedule. Instead of a talent show we did a Roadshow, with all the topics being stories from when the aunt's and uncle's were little. The result was comedic genius!! Each sibling was in charge of their own skit and theme, and everyone remembers different stories differently so it was so funny to hear everyone Else's point of view. Some of the themes were: fave family dinner, fave FHE, fave hunting story, fave bear story. We had fave family dinner and my MOM did a variation of the Potrie Party Palace were Marcus and I were playing the romantic couple dining out. My mom was the waiter and she ended up doing a cross between a french/spanish accent "oui, oui, madame--fetch their food ondele, ondele--ci, ci" our menus were in code "chokum-bum=slice of cheese, loggers special=toothpick, mellow yellow=mustard" so we kept getting these ridiculous combinations on our plates that my mom made ahead of time. All the while we are getting sick of the lack of food, right when we are about to leave my mom AKA frenchy/mexico waiter insists we get take out, she rushes out with a cloth grocery bag with Olivia peeping out of the top in which case we exclaim "EXACTLY WHAT WE WANTED!" I was very impressed with mom-mad skills in thinking up our skit, it was so fun!!

The auction was the most successful one I have ever bid in. Everyone has to pay for the camping, so to make it more fun everyone brings homemade items of fun that we bid on and the money goes to the camp. So you get to leave with a fun trinket, your paying the money anyway. I scored some awesome matching mom and daughter aprons (the smaller apron won't fit Olivia for while yet) made by aunt Laura. Then I also scored a Christmas book made by cousin Jackeileen which has a special story for everyday leading up to Xmas. One of these books were in the last auction and I got out bid, so I was so happy to get both the things I wanted!! They also had a silent auction which was new, they are trying to downsize some stuff at Grandma and Grandpa's. Instead of Goodwilling it they brought it to the Reunion for silent auction bidding. I got some old story books, another mini apron handmade by either Grandma Potrie or Grandma Zimmerman. The most precious being one of Grandma P's old edition Hymnals. In the old edition they have the Hymn "Come thou Fount" which for some reason is excluded from the hymnals' we have today. It is very well preserved and it felt so good to leaf through it's slightly yellowed pages. I've been playing hymns out of it every chance I get.

We played many ridiculous games by the fire, talked and laughed til it hurt. I was so glad we went!! Pictures to follow soon!!

PS- can anyone guess my ethnic heritage?? I'll give you a clue--I'm not Greek, as aforementioned, nor am I Jewish (another very common guess). If you already know, please keep quiet so as not to give it away. Guess on the comments!! Your reward will be the supreme awesomeness of knowing you are queen of ethnicityness!!