Nomura/Nakadegawa Family Reunion 2017

Nomura/Nakadegawa Family Reunion 2017.  At Menucha in Corbett, OR.  Menucha is a retreat center along the Columbian Gorge.  Lots of room for a family reunion.  We keep having it at the same place, even though every year there is discussion on having it someplace different.

There were so many activities and people that I didn't get pictures of.  One of the favorites is frisbee golf, of which this picture isn't off.  There is a cousin who sets it up every year with signs and brings the frisbees.  Richard did the course twice.  Our son, Kyle, was the best on the course.  Richard prides himself on beating the cousin, Kenji Nakadegawa, who sets up the course.

One of the activities was to go on a color walk and find things in nature that matched colors.  Mine were blue and green-too easy.  

Richard's mom, Ayako

Here are the participants.

A lot of the visiting goes on in the big main building where we also eat our meals.  The have very good food and cater to all diets.  In the above picture the three cousins are looking over house plans.  Marie, on the left, lost their house to a fire.  Teri, on the right, is a real estate agent and is looking over the plans to help with changes.  Carole in the middle is Richard's sister.

The theme of this reunion had to do with Sumo wrestling.  The championships were going on during the reunion.  What Naomi and Kugen are playing is a paper version of the wrestling.  We also watched you tube videos of training and the real competition.  Not like regular wrestling!  There is some style to it like you would expect in Japan.

This building is Creevy.  Many activities took place here, too.  What you see is the gathering for sushi making and eating.  Origami and other crafts were going on inside.  We also had Ukelele playing.  That was a new activity I hope to see happen in the future.  I really enjoyed it.  It was also lead by Kenji Nakadegawa.  

 This is Glenn and Naomi, our niece and nephew.  Glenn just graduated from high school and is going into engineering, like his mom and dad and brother.  I didn't get a picture of Matthew, his older brother, who just graduated from Brown University.

One thing I really enjoy at the reunions are the musical kids.  This is Charlie.  Yes, they have a pipe organ there that the kids played on, as well as a grand piano.  Another young man, Ezra, brought a clarinet.  They would sit and play music for hours.

 And don't forget the giant bubble making!  Always great fun for big and little kids.

And the view!!!!!!!!!  Richard and I both said Oregon is our favorite.  Utah was fun and we'll go back, but I truly love green.

You know how I like taking pictures of flowers.

The next group of pictures came out squished.  It takes a few hours to download the pictures, so I'm not going to try again.  I'm sorry about the squished look.

This is Eileen, Richard's sister.  Her face is bruised due to a nasty fall she had the week before.  Then Kyle, then Ayako, a young 91 years old.

The Nakadegawa clan.  

The Machida clan.  Richard has one brother, Steve, who usually doesn't attend.

The youngest of the kids.  

The oldest son's family.  His name was Henry.  

Carl Nomura's clan.  He passed away 2 years ago.  Four children of his in this picture.  Can you find them?

Kegun.  

This is Kyle.  He just turned 25 a few weeks before.  He never read in school, he's picked it up just in the last year.  The coat he is wearing he sewed himself.  It is two colors of polar fleece.  The blue is like a mantel.  The pockets are sewed with true pocket seams.  The lining is a silk type fabric, like you would see on fancy vests.   He put in many pockets on the inside to hold his phone, pens and paper, and whatever else he would need a pocket for.  Designed and sewn by Kyle with no pattern

This is the main building where a lot of our activities took place.  There is always one evening we meet in the big room and do Japanese and other folk dancing.  Led by Mary Duval.

So many more activities went on that I didn't get pictures of.  They did vote on meeting summer 2018 in California to encourage family that haven't been to the reunions in years to get together for a day or two.  Then the next Menucha reunion will be 2019.