This year was the first ever Carlson Family Reunion, held at Turtle Lake in Minnesota. It was such a great and memorable trip - I definitely hope it is not the LAST Carlson Family Reunion! We only had really nice weather one day out of this trip, but it couldn't have been on a better day - the trip out to the hunting shack! The first day after we all arrived we made the trek out to Aiken, to the Carlson's hunting shack. I've heard a lot about this shack over the years, and so it was really fun for me to get to see it first hand. Bryan's grandpa also brought out the 4-wheeler, so the kids all had a fun time riding around on that. We roasted hot dogs over a fire for lunch, and just sat around listening to stories about what life was like "way back when." It was a wonderful day!
On the way back from Aiken, we also stopped by the family cemetery. I love this picture of Ella sitting next to the headstone of her namesake - Bryan's great grandma, Ella Carlson.
Bryan and Scott really wanted to get some waterskiing in this trip, even though the weather was far from warm. But in order to fit it in with the rest of the scheduled events, they left our cabin at 5:00 in the morning and drove out to Bryan's Uncle Ron's house to ski. Despite the cold weather and early morning hours, they all had a great time waterskiing and driving Ron's race cars around. There are a few things that Bryan will skip sleep for...and this is one of them!
The entire family stayed in a giant 11 bedroom cabin for the reunion, and it couldn't have been more fun. There was a playground right outside, which Ruby spent a lot of time at, and a lake for fishing just a few steps further. Since the weather was quite rainy for most of the time we were there, we decided to get the kids out and take them to a little indoor water park one day. They had a blast! It was a lot of fun for them to run around together, going on slide after slide after slide. A very fun day!
Next came the day of fishing! We rented a pontoon boat for one of the days, and we fished and fished and fished! We have taken the kids fishing before, but we usually just catch and release. But this time we had a bigger goal - a fish fry that night! I wondered how the kids would do with the flopping, suffocating fish sitting in a bucket, and they actually did quite well! Spencer was not a fan of baiting the hook, or touching the fish afterward, but he did love the actual fishing. Tyler and Ella didn't bat an eye ripping that worm in half, shoving it onto a sharp hook, and then pulling that flopping fish off the hook after catching it. No problems at all! I was quite surprised at Ella. She wasn't one bit squeamish, and she loved that day of fishing. And even though I'm much more of a fishing spectator, I sure did enjoy the fish fry that night! Bryan's grandma has a way with fish. Mmmmm!
Here are a couple of pictures of our last night there, with all of the kids gathered around for Catherine's nightly story time. The boys all slept out here together, with the two girls in the bedroom just next to them. They all loved being with their cousins, and they were not happy that it was time to go home. But like I said...we just hope it isn't the LAST family reunion up in Minnesota!
On the way back from Aiken, we also stopped by the family cemetery. I love this picture of Ella sitting next to the headstone of her namesake - Bryan's great grandma, Ella Carlson.
Bryan and Scott really wanted to get some waterskiing in this trip, even though the weather was far from warm. But in order to fit it in with the rest of the scheduled events, they left our cabin at 5:00 in the morning and drove out to Bryan's Uncle Ron's house to ski. Despite the cold weather and early morning hours, they all had a great time waterskiing and driving Ron's race cars around. There are a few things that Bryan will skip sleep for...and this is one of them!
The entire family stayed in a giant 11 bedroom cabin for the reunion, and it couldn't have been more fun. There was a playground right outside, which Ruby spent a lot of time at, and a lake for fishing just a few steps further. Since the weather was quite rainy for most of the time we were there, we decided to get the kids out and take them to a little indoor water park one day. They had a blast! It was a lot of fun for them to run around together, going on slide after slide after slide. A very fun day!
Here are a couple of pictures of our last night there, with all of the kids gathered around for Catherine's nightly story time. The boys all slept out here together, with the two girls in the bedroom just next to them. They all loved being with their cousins, and they were not happy that it was time to go home. But like I said...we just hope it isn't the LAST family reunion up in Minnesota!
3 comments:
Looks like a lot of fun! I would love for us to all stay in one of those huge cabins some day!!
Looks like a great trip! I can definitely tell Spence is growing out his hair.....
That looks like great fun. What a fun place for a family reunion. :)
Post a Comment