Corky's Cake

We spent the weekend at my family reunion for my dad's side of the crazies, and it was a BLAST!!  We were exhausted when we got home, and Madison was SO disappointed when she woke up today and found out we weren't going back to "the cabin" to play with all her cousins.  We're going camping again this weekend on our mountain and I think she's going to be a bit sad that all her new friends aren't going to be there.  But totally getting off track here!  You are probably wondering who on earth Corky is and what she was doing with a cake... well, meet Corky.

See her name tag?  This is Corky.  She was the main chef who catered for our reunion.  {We rented this awesome place with 13 cabins that each slept 11, 2 bath houses, an open ramada, a flat for softball, a volleyball court, and a dining/rec hall.  It was SO fun!  And they cater all the food so you don't have to worry about ANY of it.  Plus, they had snacks and drinks all day and night.  Paradise!!}  She asked my dad if there was any reason that she could bake a cake for our family.  Anything at all, and my dad mentioned our anniversary.  She was SO excited and spent the whole afternoon working on, basically, a wedding cake for us.

Wasn't it beautiful?  When I thanked her, I told her that we hadn't had a big, fancy cake like that at our wedding {my aunt made one out of styrofoam and frosted/decorated it for display, but we had sheet cakes instead for one reception.  For my hometown open house we had a really pretty but small cake, and then in Clint's hometown we had this absolutely delicious cheesecake that actually Safeway ended up carrying because so many people here kept asking them if they did!  Such trend setters!!  LOL}, Corky started crying and told me, "well then REALLY Happy Anniversary!!"

My Uncle Cory brought us up in front and made us stand there while everyone sang "Happy Anniversary to You" {so embarrassing!}.  It was SO GOOD!  Vanilla cake with strawberries between the layers and a really light whip cream frosting.  Yum!

The rest of the reunion was such a treat and I'm so sad that it's over.  My family is pretty spread out, so we only have reunions every 3 years.  It's hard to say goodbye after JUST getting re-acquainted.  And this is the FUN side of the family too!  The side that gets out and plays sports and card games...  One of the things my grandma did was a fish pond for all the kids.  She spent hours and hours and hours and hours {give you a sense of how much time went into it?} sewing prizes, and Madi was fortunate enough to get the ONLY Raggedy Ann doll {I'll post a pic later}.  None of the kids understood the sentimentality behind that doll, but all my cousins did and I got a LOT of "Oh!  I wish my daughter had gotten a Raggedy Ann doll sewn by Grandma!", half because it's a Raggedy Ann doll and half because it's made by Grandma.  What a treasure for Madison... if we can keep it out of Maelee's mouth!!