Family Milestone Weekend

I had some pretty big family reunion milestones last weekend. My aunt and uncle (mom's sister Shirley and husband Roger) were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Their oldest daughter and her family live in Spain so plans were made well in advance for a large family gathering. My siblings and cousins from Iowa, Wisconsin, California, and Spain all gathered in Minnesota for the event.

The night before the party my sisters and brother and I got together with some of my kids for the evening. It was the first time the four of us have all been together in one place since May of 2002. We sat around and talked, reminiscing about our visits to Roger and Shirley's farm as kids and comparing memories.

Saturday morning we met our dad for breakfast. Our family experienced some major breakdowns and seemingly irreparable damage in the late 80s. Our dad had not been with all four of his children in one place, together, since Christmas of 1986. Each of us, over the years, has worked out our family connections in our own way and on an individual basis, especially with our dad. Saturday morning was comfortable and happy. It was a long time coming, but it came. And Dad was SOOO happy!

We took some family pictures outside the restaurant. The one of the four of us turned out well.

Something about black and white makes a picture just look more "permanent" to me.

I got one really nice picture of Dad with Tom and Kathy. I know Kari got quite a few, and has one of him and me so I wasn't too worried about getting my own. I tried, however, and couldn't get Dad and Kari to stop laughing.


They kept laughing

And laughing

And laughing

And laughing!


At the anniversary party there was another long overdue reunion. There are 10 cousins on my mom's side of the family. Eight of us are only 6 years apart with Tom and Kari trailing along 2 and then 4 years later. My mom had the oldest (me) and youngest (Kari). I followed in her footsteps as my son Joey is the oldest of the next generation and Gabe is the youngest. We tried to figure out when we were last all together and the best concrete date we have is 1978 at the funeral of our grandfather. We were probably together in 1980 but can't be sure. Our last photo together was taken in 1977. After 34 years we made sure to get another.

"Quisley" cousins, 1967

1977

2011


Our final stop was a gathering of the immediate family and us cousins back at the farm. I don't remember not going to the farm to be with family. Most of our reunions were held there, and that was where we headed for family weekends. Uncle Roger milked cows so it was always easier for us to make the 90 minutes drive there than for him to get help doing chores. We enjoyed sharing a list of our farm memories. The four of us were the "city kids" of the family. I think our favorite lesson learned from our farming relatives was, "a man's entire arm can actually disappear in the rear end of a cow".

So much was the same, kids playing ball in the yard.

The big tree with a swing

Teenagers who didn't want to go, asked to leave early, and then begged to stay later as they got to know their relatives and started having fun. Shane and Bryce enjoyed meeting and playing a game with their Spanish cousins Nicole and Natasha. Lisa asked me when we would see them again. I said I didn't know, possibly never. "That's not fair!", she said, "I just met them and I like them and I might not see them again!?" Hopefully we will.

The reason for the gatherings and joy was this couple, Uncle Roger and Aunt Shirley. They represented our home away from home. My brother Tom lived with them for almost 6 weeks when he was 2 while my parents, Kathy, and I went to Norway. Tom was always close to them, spending weeks there during the summer throughout his childhood. Before I went to England I spent time with Uncle Roger photographing and learning about his farm. I started to enjoy my uncle as a person, and since have cherished my visits and benefited from his very practical and sensible way of looking at life. After my mom died 9 years ago Shirley has done what she could to take her place, if not in a physical way (because of our distance) in an emotional way. My daughter Ellen and granddaughter Karissa were with us at the gathering and Shirley referred to herself as "great-grandma", and I loved it! Shirley and Mom definitely had one thing in common, a dislike for cameras! I could not get her to really smile for me.

When we grouped together for a picture of the four of us with them you can see that we were having trouble figuring out which camera to look at.

Kari said something funny, people got silly, and Shirley started to laugh. So even though it's not much of a picture I just love how happy she looks here.


The only trouble with Milestone memories is that they are just way too few and far between. I think it's about time for a Duluth get-together...

Camp 2011

Every year we like to say that this year was the best camp year ever. I can definitely remember some years that do NOT fit that description. Sometimes having a baby or several young children make the week less relaxing than it would be otherwise; sometimes there are campers who cause trouble, complain, or just have an attitude that requires summoning up more grace than you would like to summon; sometimes there are squabbles, factions, and cliques among people that creates a noticeable division in the camp; and sometimes the weather is cool (or cold) and wet.

Besides having to keep up with Gabe, this year, for me, really was just about perfect. The weather was fabulous, the kids were cooperative, the campers were tremendously helpful, the overall spirit in the camp was gracious and kind, and I got to hear every single message!! This year was our 19th camp and it's the first time I've heard all of the messages. I'm not sure if I've even heard half of them before. It was quite a treat. (I believe the messages (by Kyle White and Brent Nelson) will eventually be posted at www.northwoodsbaptist.com under the Camp link if you have the time to listen and want to receive a blessing.)

Here are some snapshots of our wonderful week.


ENJOYED HAVING SO MANY OF OUR OLDER KIDS (and granddaughter) THERE--the older ones actually enjoy sitting and talking with us, the younger ones just want to be with their friends!












FORT BUILDING

WALL BALL--a boys' game where it seems they are trying to kill each other, and looks like it too!



HALF COURT SHOT COMPETITION




EVEN THE RAIN WAS FUN




WATERFRONT ACTIVITIES





VOLLEYBALL


POOR GABE


GABE IS SIDELINED




GABE GETS TO PLAY







TALENT SHOW NIGHT





FYI--The conference/camp sponsored by Northwoods Baptist Church and held at Camp Nicolet is open to any who love the Lord and wish to join in a week of family fun and Christian fellowship. We will meet again August 20-26, 2012, but many of us will be joined in spirit all year long!

Our final MTU Huskies season?

We've been driving up to Houghton to watch our boys plays college football for six years. This seventh year (watching jersey #7) could be the last. Troy decided to head south for his college years and plans to try out for the baseball team. Shane, who is closing in on 6'6", is working on his basketball skills with hopes of it helping pay his way through school. Bryce and Owen aren't on the college radar yet and I'm not pushing them!

This final season promises to really end with a bang for Chet and Priscilla. Not only is the last regular season game in the dome at Northern Michigan, the traditional big rival for The Miner's Cup, it is on the calendar for November 12, one day after the due date of their first child.

For you Husky fans, click here a look at what the team is shaping up to be this season. Here are a few quotes from the article.

If the old saying, "defense wins championships," holds true, then the 2011 Michigan Tech football team will have a chance to be among the top in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference standings come November.

The Huskies entire defensive secondary returns-and they're all seniors. That includes All-GLIAC Second Team strong safety Jesse Vandenberg, who has 220 career tackles including a team-high 83 a year ago. Chet White, who plays an outside linebacker position, started all 10 games a year ago and posted 62 tackles and a team-high three interceptions.

Practice for this final season is officially underway. Go Huskies! Go Chet! DON'T GET HURT!!!!

Phun Phonics with Gabe

We've been caring for our Minnesota twins this week (Carson and Keira) and have read LOTS and LOTS of books. After nap time today I was reading an alphabet book to them along with a very enthusiastic Gabe and we were on the M page. There was a picture of a motorcycle and Gabe quickly called out, "Bike!"

I said, "No Gabe, remember, it starts with 'm'."

"Oh," he said, giving me a funny look, "a mike."

And that's a GOOD thing?

One of my married children recently shared an observation with me,

You and Dad have really done a great job at raising all of your children to be really excited about getting out of the house.

It was supposed to be a compliment.

Best Surprise Birthday EVER!

If you ever check into my little corner of the world you'll have noticed I've been silent for over a month. Chet is certainly tired of seeing "Mom Confessions" and has given up looking for updates. Although, he knew that we were on vacation for three weeks of that time (not something I wanted to publicly advertise) so probably expected it and understood.

I had planned to do a series of posts from that trip for my family so that I could connect with all of them after our long absence. However, they connected with me instead!

I "celebrated" my birthday on the 15th in Havre, Montana. It was not intentional. We were stranded there while waiting for our van to be repaired (I hit a deer--actually, I completely destroyed a deer and he destroyed the front end of our van and everything under the hood that holds fluid of any kind). So, Havre it was.

It wasn't too bad. I had an air conditioned hotel room, a pool, a putt-putt golf game (which I won), a huge Dairy Queen Snickers Ice Cream cake compliments of David and Dana who called it in for me, and many phone calls and birthday messages.

We finally made it home on Wednesday the 20th and moved on with life. By this past Saturday my birthday was a very distant memory. Keith and I went out shopping in the morning while the children did the general housecleaning. I walked into the kitchen with my bags to see the counters cleaned off and Troy putting away clean dishes.

I exclaimed how great the kitchen looked--I'd begun cleaning out the refrigerator after our absence and had dishes to clean out and wash sitting on the counter. He responded, "Yeah, well you should see your room." I was perplexed, I had left my room clean and the bed made and I told him so. "Well, you should go look at it," was all he said.

Immediately I groaned, "Gabe!" Keith and I headed down to inspect the damage. As I opened the door I was saying something like 'oh boy, what did he do' when I was greeted with a thundering, "SURPRISE!"

Packed in my room were my 5 married children, their spouses, and 2 grandchildren (2 were sleeping elsewhere). Coming down the stairs behind me and joining us in the room were my younger children (minus Shane who came later after a basketball event). We spent the next few minutes hugging, crying (OK, so I was probably the only one crying), laughing, explaining, and hearing the details of the events leading up to the surprise.

They pulled it off wonderfully. I had no idea they were in my room or were planning anything like that. On my way down to the room I stopped by our extra refrigerator to put away the milk and found three cheesecakes. I was confused and wondered how they got there but I didn't connect it to the "mess" in my room. I only thought Keith/Coley or Dana/David had needed some extra refrigerator space and had left their cheesecakes there--thinking it might be possible that they would be coming over in the evening (I had actually texted them to invite them over for a cook out) but not thinking it was a surprise.

The entire day was spent enjoying my family. They had the food all taken care of, they brought outdoor games, and they did all the clean up! I had one final surprise when I was blindfolded, led outside, picked up (nice to have big, strong sons), and placed in a hammock (like I need another gift!). It was a fabulous, amazing, tremendous, wonderful day. And I didn't take one single picture. I didn't want to miss a second of enjoying the day by being behind a camera. The memories will just remain in my heart.