Pittl Reunion

It had been 17 years since the last time I visited Dayton and was so excited to hear of a reunion this summer!  Uncle Bill and Aunt Carrie were the wonderful hosts.  My grandma had 11 children and my grandpa had a few more on the side.  We have had reunions in the past with around 300 people in attendance.  This was a smaller affair but still sweet!

Uncle Bill & Aunt Carrie's fam.

My cousin Billy and his boys.

My family representing for my dad.

Uncle John's family.

Aunt Barbara's fam.

The siblings and their spouses that were able to attend-

Uncle Bill, Aunt Barb, Mr. Overs, Aunt Karla (this was my first time meeting her as she is my grandpa's daughter- I feel bad I didn't learn her husband's first name), Aunt Mary, Aunt Carolyn (who celebrated her 75th birthday this day), and Aunt Carrie.

Some of my dad's cousins on the Fink side.

Some more of his cousins on the Pittl side.

Cousin Nancy and her grandkids.  Noé and Patricia hit it off well and they didn't even know they are 3rd cousins.

I have about 45 cousins on the Pittl side, but these were my only girl cousins at the reunion.  I was so happy to see them!

I hope we can have another reunion soon!

Dayton

My parents grew up in Dayton, Ohio and I lived there for a short time between my first and second birthdays.  Since we moved out west I've only been able to visit 5 times.  The first time back was Christmas 1984 and it felt just like being in the movie "Back to the Future" as I got to see the neighborhoods my parents had called home.  My mom's brother moved back to Dayton shortly after I graduated from high school.  So our first stop was to visit him and his wife.

It was so nice to see you Aunt Launa and Uncle John!

This school has been recently renovated, but this is where my mother went to school and was a cheerleader at.

St. Mary's has been the church for many generations of my family.  My dad went to Catholic school here too.

Next we went to visit Aunt Ginny.  We also got to see my cousins Deni and Angie, and Angie's kids Lauren and John.

My favorite house on Corwin Street!  This house is over 100 years old and has been in the family for about 60 of those.  My grandparents bought it when my dad was just a toddler.  After my grandma retired, my Aunt Tina lived in it.  Now my Aunt Barbara and cousin Allen do. 

It was so lovely to visit with Aunt Barb, Allen, and Aunt Mary.  Next we've got to visit Aunt Mary in Boston!

My sweet fam building memories here.

That evening we went out to my cousin Anita's house to spend the night.  I like our van parked out front!  The house across the street was for sale.  I would love to  move in!

Their house was so beautiful and the basement was the best!  The kids were so excited that they got to eat breakfast in the 50's diner.  The basement also had a cool billiards room and home theater.  Ooh la la!

Anita, Bill, and Drew were gracious hosts.  Their older son Alex and his wife live out of state now.

I love my cousins!

My fam all ready to head to the family reunion!

2,000 Miles in 6 Days!



On a Thursday night we picked Leonard up from work and drove straight to Rochester, New York to spend the night.

On Friday we drove through Pennsylvania...

 ...and most of Ohio to reach our destination in Dayton.  We visited with some of our Barlow fam, then on Saturday went to a big Pittl reunion.

We spent Sunday in Indiana (where I was born) visiting with more of our beloved family!

 

On Monday we returned to Ohio to visit some historical sites of our church in Kirtland.  That night we also drove back through Pennsylvania and New York and finally reached our destination...

...Niagara Falls, Ontario.  We spent Tuesday enjoying the falls then drove back home to Ottawa.  Whoosh!  I'll do individual posts for each event from our big road trip!

 

Moustache, Mustache, Mustachio

One morning Kaleb made 4 mustaches out of his origami paper for himself and his brothers.

Hiram was still sleeping so Noé decided she wanted to sport one!

BOOT Camp

I went to YW Camp all 6 years in my youth, but this year was my first time having the privilege as going as a leader.  It was great!  The General theme was:  Stand Ye in Holy Places and Be Not Moved; the Stake theme was:  BOOT camp (Building On Our Testimonies); and our Ward theme was:  Girl on Fire.  Here the girls are in the early morning ready to drive 4 hours to our lovely campsite!  Two of my fourth years were already up there for their overnight hike/canoe trip and another of my girls was in summer school and came up late.  One of my poor girls was extremely sick and had to stay home- boo!  After the pleasant drive we got to work setting up our tents and getting unpacked and getting to know the ladies from the other wards.

The second day was filled with 4 different classes.  One was canoe adventuring.  I was so impressed with how fearless the girls were at trying new things.  I went out in a kayak for a little while and felt entirely intimidated.  The instructors asked for volunteers to capsize so they could demonstrate the rescue procedure.  My girls- Megan and Ladawn accepted their challenge.  Way to go girls!

Look what I found amongst the seaweed!  Just a lovely little water lily.

Another class was on fire building.  The first years were the fastest group to burn their teepee down- woo hoo!

That night we performed our skit "Girl on Fire".

These girls are on fire with their testimonies.  I am truly impressed with each one of them!

Kestrel models the cute shirts we made a la Pinterest.

They turned out so cute and were so easy!  You just need a black shirt, piece of cardboard, some stencils, and a spray bottle of bleach.  Voila!

On the second day I went to classes with the second years.  Go Emma!  You shoot that arrow!  This was also my first time using a real bow & arrow.  "Nerf" doesn't count out in the wild, ha!

I found this little friend way up high in a tree.  Can you see that Mr. Porcupine was waving at me?

For this class the girls turned into blue Smurfs, green Zombies, or plastic Barbies.  Ha ha, gotta love facials in the woods!

I found these beauties on our edible plants hike.  This is what the instructor said, "Only eat mushrooms that you get at the grocery store.  Even professionals have made fatal mistakes with wild mushrooms."  Sounds like good advice to me!

Friday was Ladawn's birthday.  We celebrated with birthday cake- for breakfast!

Our last full day at camp was all about competition.  Each ward had to prepare a meal with a limited, random assortment of ingredients.  Kestrel, Anngela, and Emilee were hard at work on our main course, which we won- chicken fried rice, yum!

Our dessert was pretty tasty too.  Ladawn, Emma, and Megan cooked cake batter like mini pancakes, then made sandwiches out of them with chocolate pudding filling.

 

We also had the prettiest table setting, thanks to Tasha and Gaelle (who also kept the fire just right for our potato skin appetizers).

It was so nice for me to visit with Catherine and all of the other leaders from our ward and stake!

After the cook off, we had lots of field games.  Note:  It's probably best NOT to let girls run blind-folded near woods.  Yep, one of our poor Junior Staff ran straight into a tree and got a huge goose egg.

The highlight of the competition was canoe arm wrestling.  I want a turn!

We are warriors!  Go Ottawa Stake!

We had a fun award ceremony followed by a beautiful testimony meeting on the last night.  The next morning as soon as we were up we took down camp and hit the road for home as fast as we could.  I gave each of my girls some gumballs, since I had such a "ball" with them!

I got some goodies too- my boot camp shirt, some fun crafts (duct tape flower pen, bottle cap necklace, and fabric flower headband), and my award- Swedish berries for being so sweet even in some sour situations (yes, there was a major drama and unfortunately a girl from another ward had to go home).  I forgot to mention that during free time each day the girls could make crafts, go swimming or canoeing, go hiking, or ride the zipline- and yes I did ride it!  Next year, Noé is going to have such a wonderful time!!