Introduction
First, a few images of Christina's graduation up at the U of Wyoming in Laramie. You go girl! And there's one of Aunt Helga doing Lord knows what...
On May 20, 2007 I headed south to Centennial, CO to hang out with the Krotchko and Best clan: Aunt Helga, (going strong at 84!), cousin Ann Best and her daughters Jessica and Christina, Jessica's boyfriend Rob; and cousin Gary Krotchko and his wife Pam, and their kids Mike (5 years old) and Erica (8 years old). Joe was at home installing a toilet or something.
This gathering took place on the occasion of a visit of some German cousins from Wetter Ruhr: Helga Gottshalk and her daughter Teresa. The former Helga is the latter's namesake! Cousin Helga and Teresa were heading west for a tour of California and then to other places - in fact, conversations invariably end up being about travel: Teresa is headed off to Bangalore in India, very soon, to study yoga and explore that country. Rob is going to be living and teaching (?) in China. Jessica was on her way to New York the following weekend, and will be joining her mom for an American Ambassadors service trip to South Africa sometime this summer, and eventually, in the winter, moving to Newcastle, England for medical school. I am going to be on a service trip of my own, with Global Partners, a nondenominational Christian mission group - my third trip to Venezuela as a representative of the First Congregational Church of Boulder, starting the end of August.
As for Gary and Pam, I think they are staying put in Colorado for now, although Gary's a rocket scientist so there's no telling where we'll see Mike and Erica someday ...!
It was a really great afternoon, and Gary, with some prodding and a Corona or two, shared the secret of his special barbecue sauce, which can transform even a lowly Gardenburger into something exquisitely meaty!
Mike and Erica, by the way, taught me everything I really need to know about baseball: stealing bases rocks. Really rocks. That's just about all you need to have a really good time playing baseball. And being at bat all the time, that too ....
