A Three-part Trip

 

A trip is exciting all by itself, but one that has three parts to it? Well, that's triple the fun!

Part One: A Wedding in Minnesota

Our niece Marita (daughter of Ken's sister Laurel and Verlynn) married her good man Wes on July 24. Attending their wedding meant traveling to States whilst the pandemic is still very much a thing, going by the regulations which are still firmly in place, anyway. Planning this trip involved much iffiness right up to the last days before departure. Ken ended up flying from Toronto to O'Hare Airport in Chicago. Kerra and I crossed the border by land and drove our van to Chicago to pick him up. God orchestrated our airport curbside meeting into a perfectly-timed event! 

We arrived at the church on Friday in time to help with set-up, to do a bit of decorating on some cheesecakes, and to join the singing group for practicing our wedding music. 

Yvonne put her steady and creative hands to good use in applying the finishing touches to the cheesecakes. She, the main decorator of wedding desserts, happens to also be one of my first cousins! I was amazed at all the connections I was able to make among my relatives at a wedding on Ken's side of the family. 

Because Marita taught school in the Hayward, Wisconsin area where my parents and half of my siblings live, she got to know some of my tribe quite well and she invited them to her wedding. One of my brothers arranged for a group of us to have breakfast together at a restaurant near the church on the morning of the wedding. 

Our singing group of 12 gathered in the church balcony for some of our practices, for the rehearsal on Friday evening and for singing our eight songs during the wedding service. It was a great group to sing with - and to have fun with. As my SIL Danae Schrock put it, "you should always have a singing group that knows how to laugh together as well as sing". I guess when your group involves a Yoder, some Schrocks, some Martins, and a Schrock-Martin, you'll get the laughter, alright. 

Reuniting with our friend Bear again at the wedding was special enough to, as they say, put a tear in one's eye. (This is how it affected the dear man, literally)

Photo Credit: Janet Brubacher

The variety and delectability in the array of desserts at the wedding reception was astounding. Marita and her mom made all of the cheesecakes, as well as the other types of cakes. They had help from Yvonne and others with the decorating and garnishing. It all came together in one very gorgeous display.  

We really enjoyed being with Laurel and Verlynn's family after the wedding, too. They showed us the house where Wes & Marita were going to live, allowed us to hang out at their house for relaxing while rehashing the day after the wedding, and invited us & the other Martin relatives to join them and a few of Verlynn's relatives for a meal and fellowship on Sunday afternoon. Marita's younger (and only) sister Katrina was an excellent tour guide during our stroll over their park-like grounds after lunch.

Part Two: Visiting Relatives in Wisconsin

We stayed with my parents while we visited the Hayward relations. Mom and Dad go on daily walks, and we were happy to join them in that activity. One time as we walked along a back street of their country-ish neighborhood, I spied some ripe blackberries dotting wild brambles beside the road. It was highly nostalgic for me to pick a handful of the dark, plump berries, and to taste those pieces of juicy summertime on my tongue.

One afternoon we paid a visit to my nephew Tyler, who was in a hospital bed at home recuperating from a spine injury he sustained in a tree-climbing accident. (He fell 20-some feet to the ground when the overhanging trunk to which he was clinging, broke off.) While we were chatting, someone brought him the day's mail. He chuckled over the contents of a package from his sister who evidently thought the t-shirt saying was appropriate for his situation. 

Photo Credit: Kerra Martin

A visit to Hayward in the summer calls for a little rendezvous at the EOP (End of Peninsula) in Round Lake, the spot where Ken and I got engaged many years ago. We had Kerra take some photos of us two while we were there, and she took one before we were quite ready, or was it between poses when Ken was goofing off and got me giggling? At any rate, the pic was not as I envisioned, but I'm posting it anyway because it reminds me somewhat of our marriage - not always exactly as expected or hoped for, but funny sometimes, and fun, and always close beside this man with whom I am so privileged to do life.

It is always a treat to be invited to my brother Todd and his wife Sharon's place for a meal. Todd did this beef in his smoker/BBQ (? ask him for the proper name) and it was a marvelous addition to the feast Sharon spread for us. I loved the back yard tour Sharon gave me after supper, as well. Her beautiful hens free ranged on the lawn while I admired her luscious garden bordered by calla lilies the most delicious shade of yellow you ever laid eyes on.

From Todd's place, we went directly to my nephew Austin and Sonn's property which is just a hop, skip and a jump down the road. The Haywardite segment of our Schrock family had gathered there for food and fellowship around a campfire. Our together time got cut a little shorter than planned due to an approaching rainstorm. 

One day we, along with Mom and Dad, enjoyed a delicious chicken quesadilla lunch at my bro Eric and Julia's place. We always have a jolly time interacting with them and their children. Following the meal, we went on a tour of Eric's cabinet shop addition. During a stroll through the grounds after, Ken gave Eric some advice on thinning apples and provided a hands-on demonstration.

Mini golf with Mom and Dad at the Lumberjack Village course was great fun. So was going to a shop along Hayward's Main Street for ice cream afterward.

Part Three: Visiting Carleen in Pennsylvania

While we were in the States, we didn't want to miss seeing our daughter and son-in-law, so we decided we'd swing by Guys Mills, PA on our way home from Wisconsin. Well, it's not exactly on our way home, but we didn't care. Carleen didn't mind, either. 

Soon after we arrived, Kayleen took us to a little market where we helped her select some sweet corn and tomatoes for meals to come. So yummy!

Another time we went to Franklin, PA to hunt down a thrift book store that Kayleen had heard about but never browsed. Mr. Bookman was a treasure just waiting to be discovered! We spent a long time in that well-organized, vast, and clean shop which was a book lover's paradise.

One afternoon we walked up the Guys Mills road a short piece to Millstone Market, a bulk food store that had its grand opening that week. Among other reasons for going, we wanted to get a taste of the complimentary soft serve ice cream the new owners were offering. It did not disappoint!

Photo Credit: Kayleen Atkinson

It was such fun to play disc golf together one evening, and to go hiking one afternoon with The Daughters at a National Wildlife Refuge just up the road from Carlin's place. 

It was special to have Kayleen & Carlin accompany us in our first blueberry-picking experience since we're married. The commercial blueberry farm was situated on the outskirts of Northeast, a town on the shore of Lake Erie, so we drove about an hour to get there. It didn't take us long to pick our five buckets of berries from bushes that were full of plump, delicious fruit. Bagging them all when we got back to Carlin's made me feel like someone rich handling her jewels. 

Adios, our dear amigos! I always feel a little teary when it comes to saying goodbye, but how blessed we are to belong to people so sweet they are hard to leave...

So there it is - an account of one of the big yesses in my summer. What's been a big yes in yours?

Dani's Discovery Tours via Photos #2: Building a Cake Tower

While the first photo tour in the short series that I'm doing on my blog was about a church camping event, this second entry is more the description of a hands-on project I did in recent weeks.

My niece Holly got married to her Trevor on a beautiful Saturday in late July. The outdoor wedding, held at the home of the bride, was a very touching and meaningful event. (You can read about it here in my sister-in-law Rose's delightful account on her blog.) 

Holly asked me to make her wedding cake, which I was honored to do. Not only did I wish to help her out with wedding preparations in this way; I also somehow felt that it was one thing I could do in memory of Bonnie, Holly's first mom. 

Making and decorating a cake large enough to feed 270 wedding guests was both exciting and daunting. I thank God for my success; it was a prayed-over cake! And I could not have done it without the help of others - my mom-in-law, Holly's grandma and other relatives on the Stoll side, my family, my supportive friends - and google. 

Here, as I will show you in a series of photos, is how I went about it: 

Clustered on the kitchen counter are the ingredients for the white layers - a vanilla 

cake recipe that called for the eggs, butter, sour cream and milk to be at room temperature.

Can you tell that I baked the white layers on a very humid day? Look at those sweaty eggs!

Since each batch of vanilla cake batter called for six eggs, separated, 

I came up with my own version of an egg separator. 

I also improvised a baking strip - to help the cake rise in a more 

level manner - at the advice of my SIL Sharon via Mom Martin. 

This meant that I wrapped water-sodden paper towel sections 

inside long pieces of aluminum foil to make a band.

This is what the baking strip looked like wrapped around the outside 

of the 16-inch cake pan. I think the band really did help to keep the 

cake from forming a too high and mighty dome in the center. 

The bottom layer of the cake was 16 inches in diameter. This was certainly 

the largest cake layer I have ever baked. It seemed massive! I baked 

two cakes of this size to make up the bottom tier of the five-tier cake. 

Oops! I hope to learn from the mistakes I made while doing the wedding cake. 

The first lesson I learned was not to bake two layers at one time, at least not in my 

non-convection oven. The cake layer on the bottom shelf took forever long to get 

"done" and it rose crazily because of the layer baking above it. And that said top 

layer above it rose right up into the top oven element...oh, dear! I used the layers 

in the cake anyway - just shaved off the oops part. (My apologies to anyone 

who had a piece of cake that hinted of oven element flavor at the wedding!)

That's a LOT of cake! Mom Martin baked four of the cake layers for 

two of the white tiers of the cake, while I baked two white layers and 

four chocolate layers. I was immensely grateful for her help! We 

baked these cakes ahead, wrapped them in plastic wrap and foil, and 

stuck them in the freezer. Here are the ten cake layers thawing 

overnight, in preparation for decorating the next day.

I sketched a brief illustration for my reference, both for a little coaching session with 

Holly's Grandma S, (she's a retired professional cake decorator, whose advice was 

much appreciated) and for carrying out my own cake assembly plans. 

Grandma Stoll gladly lent us her cake board that was perfect for the base 

of the cake. I couldn't find the white cake foil she recommended, so I 

improvised and covered the wooden board first with white wedding 

gift wrap, and then with a layer of clear cellophane basket wrap. 

You can see the "pleats" on the edge, but I think it turned out just fine.

For applying the icing between the layers of the tiers, I piped a thick "cord" of icing 

on the outer edge that formed a sort of dike to hold in the spoonfuls of icing to be 

smoothed out with my angled icing spreader.

Transferring the top layers from their boards to the bottom layers of cake 

was one of the trickiest parts of cake assembly. Four lifters or pie servers 

as tools along with my hands and the hands of a bystander (which was 

likely to be Kerra) doing careful maneuvering brought accomplishment.

I applied the crumb coats to the chocolate layers first, 

to get the "crummiest" job over with first.

I have a large decorating tip that allows for getting a lot of icing on the 

cake in a short time. After applying swaths of icing on the sides of the cake, 

I used a straight-edged smoothing tool (thanks, Holly!) to even things out.

Following the smoothing technique, I used a sort of toothed tool to put a 

ribbed edging on the cake sides. A turntable is a handy utensil for cake 

decorating. Ideally, you hold the edging tool against the side of the 

iced cake and spin the whole cake to get the proper edging effect.

With so many layers of made-from-scratch cake in the wedding cake tower, it had 

considerable weight. To keep the tiers from collapsing in on each other, I separated them 

with several cardboard circles that I purchased at Walmart. I also used wooden dowel 

pieces that I pushed down into the cake layers. The cardboard cake circles rested 

on these dowels instead of pushing down on the cake proper.

I did most of the cake decorating and assembly the day before the wedding. 

I put the two bottom tiers together and transported them to a cooler next to 

the wedding tent at Mom and Dad Martin's place just a mile or two up 

the road from us. The three top tiers I housed overnight in my own fridge.

In the morning on the day of the wedding, I went to the wedding reception 

tent and assembled the whole cake in its place on the cake table.

Next, I put the icing borders on the cake. Thankfully, this covered up the gaps 

and the edges of the cardboard circles one could see between the tiers.

And, there it was, the tower standing (decently) straight and tall and 

looking surprisingly beautiful in spite of all its imperfections. I was very 

relieved and grateful at this point, besides being eager to see what 

Holly's cousin Bridgette would arrange on it to complete the creation.

She did such a fabulous job. I thought the dear little apples - supplied 

by orchard trees just outside the tent - added the perfect touch.

The bride and groom showed us how it was done. After they had the first 

taste, the wedding guests got their turn to partake of the wedding cake. 

From the reports I heard, the cake was a success in deliciousness.

I was pleased to "build" the cake for this sweet couple, and 

I will be far more pleased to watch them build their 

relationship with God and each other in marriage.