Cooking for 22

This was our night to be in charge of dinner at the reunion. Yes, I had all 4 burners going at once, with the 4 largest skillets in the house.
David made pesto with fresh basil from the garden. And isn't that full granite backsplash great?

Kayaking

One of the fun things about family reunions on David's side is the kayaking.
We took the nephews and one niece with us down part of the river. I really like this picture of Tanner and me, because you can really see how low we got riding the waves.
We also went upriver, to a run with class II and class III rapids. Here is a class III rapid. (This picture is from 2008--we didn't take a waterproof camera with us this summer.)
And here it is again (also from a 2008 photo).
This is not where I capsized. I capsized on another (also class III) rapid.

I was going down a narrow shoot when I fell in the river. Being the calm person that I am, I reached for my oar. In doing so, I missed my brother-in-law, Aaron, reaching for me. As I came up, I hit the bottom of his kayak and felt my sunglasses sliding off my face. I came up again, and this time grabbed onto another brother-in-law, Steve's, kayak and quickly lifted my legs up to avoid rocks as we continued through the rapids, me holding onto the front of Steve's kayak. (I'm sure I threw off his steering ability with additional weight and drag.)

Once we got to a calmer point in the rapid, I hopped in Steve's kayak and rode out the rest. Miriam (my sister-in-law) probably had the hardest task of riding through the rapid while holding onto a second kayak, which limited her ability to steer. Once through the rapid, I got my kayak back, and we finished out the run.

Here's the waterfall at the end. (Again, this picture is from 2008.)
Only 2 of us made it through the falls without getting our kayaks full of water. I was one. And, of the 4 of us who capsized, mine was the most spectacular. So, it was a good run.

Dairy Farm

We went to a dairy farm with some friends of ours, Mark and Teandra. There were a bunch of these life-sized cow sculptures.
(Here's proof that I was there, too.)
We got to see a calf being born. Here he is, moments after. (The line you see is the seam in the glass wall.)
An hour later, we came back, and his mother was licking his face.
This is such a Bambi moment! We didn't hang around to see him actually get up, but I'm sure he did.
Yes, newborn calves really weigh between 75 and 100 pounds.
Anytime we were near the actual cows, we were separated by glass. They were pretty serious about keeping germs out.

This is a huge turntable where the cows are milked.
They don't give chocolate milk.
We also enjoyed cheese samples made there at the dairy, as well as their ice cream. It was tasty!

Delectable Foods

David enjoys trying out new dishes, and perfecting them to be restaurant quality. This weekend, he added Chicken Parmesan and Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms to his repertoire.

Here's the Chicken Parmesan:
And the Portabella mushroom stuffed with mozzarella cheese, pesto, and sun-dried tomatoes.
David doesn't like mushrooms, so he also made stuffed bell peppers. Here are both stuffed with sausage.
They were delicious! (And there are plenty of leftovers to eat, which means that I don't have to cook for a while.)

Baking Adventures

I made a bunch of goodies for a dessert auction fundraiser. Here I am cooking.
My first cake was a chocolate chip bundt cake. It came out of the oven looking beautiful! The recipe said I should let it cool 10 minutes in the pan, and then turn in out onto a cooling rack. That part didn't go so well.
In retrospect, that's really the best cake for me to have messed up on, because it tasted amazing and David and I got to eat it!

For the next cake, I was super careful about getting it off the pan. I succeeded. (I know, this picture shows it still on the pan, but trust me.)
I was going to make a cheesecake, but cream cheese wasn't on sale and I only had 2 packages. So I tried a no-bake cheesecake recipe, which really had so little cheesecake filling that it was more of a cheese torte. And then I made it look pretty. Here, I needed three hands to hold spatulas to make sure the graham cracker crust didn't break as I moved the torte from the pan to its platter. This dessert created a bidding war.
I also made a moist chocolate cake with fudge filling and whipped cream frosting. It looks pretty plain compared to the other cakes, and consequently sold for a lower amount. Even the lemon bars beat its price.
Here are the lemon bars. I kept them in one piece because it makes for a nicer presentation. This kept sliding around on my "platter," and every time it moved, I could see the grease that was transferred to the paper underneath. Not the most appetizing thing.
All in all, a good contribution to the fundraiser.

Another Baking Story
I made David a cheesecake for our anniversary. (This was when I still had 5 packages of cream cheese in the fridge, so it was a real cheesecake.) I made it the day before, and then washed and put away all the pans that would give away the surprise. I hid the cheesecake under some tortillas in the fridge, where I didn't expect David to look.

I decided to make Sesame Chicken for dinner, which incidentally happens to be the first dish I ever made David. When I pointed this out to him, he jokingly asked, "And is there cheesecake in the fridge, too?" There went my great surprise.

Kevin's Wedding

Kevin and Audrey got married in March, and the whole family went out for it.

Getting Ready
Grandma had to help Bradford with his shoes.
David could put on his shoes without help.
This captures a classic facial expression of my dad's.
A funny story about the guy's ties. All the men were supposed to wear dark blue ties. David forgot to bring a tie, and Derek never got the message about the color, so he brought burnt orange. Kevin didn't approve. Also, Kevin thought Jeff's tie was too light a color. So Kevin, Derek, and David went out shopping for ties the evening before the wedding. They came back with some nice ties, too.

In case you were wondering, I look about the same right when I get up as I do when I'm ready for the day.

Wedding and Reception
This is one of my favorite pictures of Kevin and Audrey. Too bad I caught the glare of the sun. I really like the way the sun hits her hair.
And this is my favorite picture of Kevin. He had that super happy grin on his face the whole day!
Wow, I feel short. This goes youngest to oldest: Janene, Derek, Kevin, Shelly.
Yep, I look short from this angle, too.
But I don't look short here! Brooklyn, Shelly, my mom, me.

Deja vu
It was fun to watch Kevin and Audrey taking pictures, and having some poses just look really familiar . . .
If you just switch the bride and the groom, you can see something like this . . .
Okay, so it's not that close, but the ones that looked more similar weren't as good pictures to begin with.

What everyone else was doing during pictures
Well, I was taking pictures, too. And enjoying it, as you can see.
I filled up my memory card just as the reception started and my mom was asking me to take pictures of the spread of food.
David was walking around with Emma. David is Emma's favorite uncle.
Bradford was running around.
Brooklyn was meandering about, enjoying the stairs.Later, at the reception, Emma just made herself comfortable on the floor.

The Whole Crew
Top row: Derek, Jeff holding Bradford, Audrey, Kevin, Mom, Dad, David.
Next row: Janene, Nicole, Emma, Shelly holding Brooklyn.

A Wind Turbine Blade

This is an actual wind turbine blade. It is 14.5 parking spaces long, and taller than David can reach at the middle. (David is standing in front of the blade, and my dad is right at the edge of the picture.)
It's so big that we don't have space for it in my lab yet. That's why it's still in the parking lot.