Ruttger's is a historic resort which dates back to the 1930's. It consists of a of Lodge (which we stayed in) and also many lake-side cabins, some of which were the first cabins on Lake Bemidji. The grounds are beautiful with it's lush flowers, sandy beaches and panoramic views of the lake.
What would be a family reunion without the two people who started it all? My Grandpa Dale and Grandma Florence (Grammy Flo) were, of course, our guests of honor. Without these two, none of us would be here.
Of family's journey started loooong ago. Their love story is something out of a novel. It goes a little something like this . . .
Boy is a phenomenal high school basketball player and lives is South Dakota.
Boy's high school coach accepts a new coaching position in Grand Forks, ND.
Boy's coach can't coach a team without boy . . . so boy moves to Grand Forks with coach so he can play on his team.
Boy's coach moves across the street from Girl.
Boy meets Girl.
Girl thinks that Boy is over-confident and tells her friend that she can have him.
Boy eventually talks Girl into a date.
Boy and Girl fall in love.
Boy and Girl get married.
Boy enlists in the Army, becomes a Darby's Ranger, and heads off to war.
Girl goes to church every day to pray for Boy's safety.
Boy meets The Pope after a huge victory in WWII.
Boy truly believes that it was his Girl's praying that saved his life.
Boy returns from WWII a hero.
Boy and Girl have 6 daughters and live happily ever after.
**nobody can write a novel with this material. I've got dibs.
The CoupleThe reunion started off on Wednesday night with a BBQ at my mom's cabin. There was to be no hamburgers and hot dogs at this BBQ. Chef Denny prepared Ribs and Walleye on the grill, along with incredible side dishes prepared by my mother, topped off with home-made brownies made from my Grandma Flo's recipe. Delicious.
The next morning we all enjoyed breakfast at the Lodge, and then headed off to the beach. That evening was the big family dinner with a talent show to follow . . . oh yeah, we do it up right!
This is my Aunt Judy. She is all kinds of Fabulous!
3 out of the 4 Bruschwein BoysScott, Mark and Mike
The 6 beautiful and talented Youngern daughters(This is not in any age order . . . I am sure they would have wanted to specify this)
Terri, Judy, Margo, MaryDale, Jan and Nancy (my mom)
My sister Ali, and cousin Heidi BruschweinAfter our cocktail hour (every Youngern dinner starts out with an extensive Cocktail Hour), my Grandpa Dale started out the meal by welcoming everybody, and telling an "Ole and Lena" joke. This is tradition.
We feasted on Steak, Chicken, and Walleye. It was fantastic. Claire opted for just a dinner roll.
After dinner, we sat back to watch the many talents of the Youngern Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren. My Ella started off the show with a BANG as she preformed a ballet number to "Pixie Dust". She nailed it.
She beamed as her audience roared with cheers! When we left to change into her next costume, she told me, "Mom, I love when people clap and cheer for me. That was my favorite part.".Next, my cousin Katy and her son Elliot wowed the audience with his batting ability. Watch out Joe Mauer!
My Uncle Dean kept the performance going with a little stand-up comedy. He and Grandpa could do pretty well on the Stand-Up Tour!
My niece Daysha and cousin Lauren danced beautifully to a new version of Ave Maria
Then after a quick change, Daysha joined my Jocie and Ella for the "Country Kid" number. It was stinkin' adorable.
After her dance number, Jocie turned up the serious-factor and read the essay she wrote about her Great-Grandpa Dale. She wrote about his Ranger days in WWII which had won a Veteran's Day Essay contest last Fall.
When she finished reading, she got a standing ovation, loud cheers and soft tears from her audience . . . especially from the Man of Honor. So sweet.
After that we had a short mingling break before our big finish.
Terri and Grandpa
Claire needed a sand-toy break
How do you top an award-winning essay written by a Great-Granddaughter you may ask??
With Zumba.
That's right! My Cousin Brady's beautiful (Brazilian) wife Cristiane is a Zumba instructor. Her talent got some Youngerns off their seat to work off all the food they just ate. I kid you not.
As you could imagine, it was pretty fun to watch . . .
Work it, Todd.
I don't know what mom was doing, but it certainly wasn't Zumba.Whatever it was, she made it look GOOD!
After the Zumba lesson, everyone was pretty reved up. What do Youngern's do when we are reved up? We turn on a little Michael Jackson and do The Thriller.
After all the dancing, we decided to go to the bar (weird).
My sister Jessie and her beau Jeremy.
We took over all the Bar games and played . . .
Darts
and Foosball
The Sisters
Needless to say, a little fun was had by all.
The next few days were spent at the beach.
Ruttger's is also the home of very tame ducks that love to be fed. This worked out very well for us since Claire LOVES ducks. If you ask Claire what the ducks says, she says, "Duck. Duck. Duck". Close enough.
Our beach days were full of tubbing and jet skiing . . .
building things in the sand . . .
lounging . . .
kayaking . . .
playing peek-a-boo . . .
more playing in the sand . . .
my cousin Hannah posed next to the Sand Kingdom she helped create
wake boarding . . .
pontooning . . .
more dancing . . .
boating . . .
water-skiing . . .
more jet skiing . . .
Hannah driving the pontoon 60 miles an hour . . .
. . . just kidding.
more sand building . . .
and just plain having a good time.Because of Grammy's dementia, she wasn't able to be at all the events. But she did come to the ones that mattered, and I could tell she knew she was surrounded by love.
Grandpa Dale and Dean discussing the golf scores for the day
Denny and Dean
We held the Awards Ceremony on Saturday night, at the Bruschwein's cabin.
The Awards Ceremony usually only focuses on the Golf Tournement, but this year, my Grandpa decided to give a couple of shout-outs to the Chairman (my cousin, Mark Hansen)
and his Co-Chairwomen (my cousins Heidi and Heather)
Before handing out the Golf trophies, Grandpa read a golf poem witten by Arnold Palmer. Then he passed out a copy of that poem to each one of the golfers . . . a nice touch, I thought.
The speakers of the evening, my cousin Lauren and Aunt Jan
And the 3rd place team was . . . Scott and Mark Bruschwein!
The 2nd place team was . . . Carl and Todd!
they were a little excited
and proud!
The Medalist of the Tourney was . . . Mike Bruschwein!Way to go, Mikey!
And (drum roll please), the champions of the 2010 Youngern Family Reunion Golf Tournement was . . .
Ali and Grandpa Dale (big shocker)
These two have dominated every family golf tournement thus far . . . nothing can stop this team!
The reunion was full of laughter, dancing, coacktails, music, beach dwelling, eating, and just being together. I love my family for it's many fassetts of awesomeness. Thanks for the memories and see you in two years!
Since we were in Bemidji, we had to go see Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox before we left.
I think it is a right of passage for every Minnesota kid to get their picture taken with these two.
Just one more stop was made before going back to Big Lake. One of our missions for the week was to get Jocie up on water skis. She tried so hard while at Ruttger's but just couldn't get it. My Uncle Jim insisted we bring Jocie to their lake place on Long Lake so we could get her up. We took him up on the offer!
There were many starts, many falls, many skiis that fell off . . .
After a few hours of trying, trying, trying, Jocie (and Jim) succeeded!
Yay Jocie!!! Your determanation has paid off once again!
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