28 July 2007

Hosting the Massman Family Reunion!

As you can probably tell from this blog, we always have things going on, particularly in the summer. However, there was one event this year that stood out from the rest: The Massman Family Reunion. Hosted at our house. The reaction we get from people when we would tell them that we're hosting 30+ members of Corinne's mother's family at our house for 5 days was fairly consistent: wide eyes of disbelief. You're doing what?

Preparations
We spent quite a lot of time organizing and preparing for the event. In February we checked out the Trout Lake lodging options so that we could make recommendations first-hand. (We were NOT going to have 30+ people stay in our house for 5 days; we're not that crazy.) We put together a list of possible activities and made plans for a few group events, such as a White Salmon rafting trip. We hired a professional photographer to capture the event. We tried to get as many details nailed down ahead of time as possible so that when the event arrived, we could enjoy the weekend.

Lodging
Trout Lake has more lodging options that I would have expected, considering its size; the heavy summer tourism season must have something to do with that. But the summer books early. Thankfully there were still enough rooms at the Trout Lake Motel, Serenity's, and several other B&Bs to house everyone. We also had 1-2 campers parked in the yard over the course of the weekend, and a Port-A-John tucked away between the trees (to save our septic system!)

Activities

There is a lot to do in our area, and we knew better than to try to make a schedule of events to cover every day. Instead we organized a few key events throughout the weekend, and provided information on other local activities that people could do as they pleased. The scheduled events included a White Salmon rafting trip, a photo-shoot with a professional photographer, and an "all-hands" home-cooked dinner each night. People took good advantage of the outdoor opportunities, including horseback-riding, biking, and wine tasting, as well as croquet, horseshoes, bocci, and late night card games at home.


Food
While there are a plethora of places to stay while in Trout Lake, there is really only one restaurant. So Corinne decided that we should take a bold approach: cook all of the dinners in our kitchen. The two of us weren't about to do all of the meals ourselves, though, so each dinner was assigned 4 meal preparers and 2 cleaners. I thought it would be a bit of a challenge for everyone to come up with a meal that could feed 35 people but still be prepared and cooked in our normal-sized kitchen, but everything worked out perfectly. Over the 5 days we had fabulous meals: curried chicken and rice; spicy breaded fish sandwiches; baked meatballs; and pasta with peppers and onions. And on the days when you weren't cooking, all you did was show up and eat!

Photos
We hired professional photographer Michael Peterson for a few hours to take photos of the reunion. He took both posed portraits and lots of fun photos. Between Michael's professional shots and the photos from the cameras of the attendees, we ended up with about 3.5G of photos! Needless to say, we couldn't post them all here. A sampling of some of Michael's candids is below. We particularly liked the ones of us running through the neighbors field (thanks, Carl!) and the "kids" jumping off of our rail fence (which now needs a post replaced - oops).



But alas, soon the weekend was over and everyone was traveling home. After a trip to the dump and some cleaning, we returned to our normal lives. How boring.



- Mike (& Corinne)

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