Sunday, July 06, 2008

Highlights from the Severson Reunion

Above: Eli and his cute cousins (he has 17 cousins on Ben's side - two weren't here)

We had a smaller (if you can call a group of 31 people small), immediate family reunion with Ben's parents, kids and grandkids, all staying at his brother Joe and wife Cami's house in a suburb outside of Portland. There were people sleeping in all corners of their beautiful home, but Ben, Eli and I were lucky enough to sleep in the guest room! It was great.

Above: the first picture is a great example of how our trip started (Eli crying on the moving walkway). The other three pictures were taken on the way home - he was in a MUCH better mood and even slept for about 2 1/2 hours - it made such a difference, especially since I was dreading that return flight...

Above: we went on a beautiful hike near Portland (Cami, what is the name of this place again?) and saw some pretty waterfalls. Eli had a great time throwing rocks with his cousin Kaelan, who is 2 weeks older and has an amazing overhand throw already!

Above: On Saturday, we went to this great park near Joe and Cami's house that had fields, tennis courts, a big playground, and a fun water play area. Eli loved running through the splashes of water!

Above: Here we are at the big Severson reunion. We rented a camp at the base of Mt. Hood. The setting was beautiful! This was my fourth reunion with the family and all have been at this location. This time was the biggest though - with 119 total! The family really amazes me with how well they interact with each other, even when they get competitive (there were some fierce games of volleyball). Picture 1 - Ben's wearing his team's flag, playing family feud (they surveyed the family on various Severson questions before the reunion). Picture 2 - Ben swimming with Eli. Pictures 3 & 4 - Eli's molars are still trying to come through and he was SO drooly the entire time - you can see how wet his shirt would get in these pics.

Above: Picture 1 - Eli sitting with his great-grandparents, Frances and Floyd. They were all decked out for the holiday! Picture 2 - the cabin where we slept had a big ramp in the front that Eli loved walking up and down. He was pretty unsteady at first, but by the end of the week, he was cruising up and down that ramp pretty fast. We think his walking skills greatly improved on this trip. Pictures 3 and 4 - Eli was so happy being outside so much!

Some other comments on the trip...

  • The food was TERRIBLE. I was seriously starving on those days we stayed at the camp. The camp's cook was not impressive and I actually woke up one morning after dreaming about eating lots of delicious foods. I survived on crackers and snack foods that I picked up at a nearby convenience store. The cabin we were sleeping in was not the cleanest either, but we survived! I preferred this over tent camping w/out a real bathroom for a week.

  • Ben and his cousin tied for first in the big Severson pinochle tournament! It was impressive. But it also kept him out late a few of the nights... that and late-night volleyball

  • It was really wonderful to get away from the stresses of life, be in a pretty setting surrounded by huge trees. I tried to put the housing craziness in the back of my mind and enjoyed spending quality time with Ben and Eli and the zillions of Seversons. Now I'm back to the realization that we still don't know where we'll live in 7 weeks! No worries, right? :)

Below are some short video clips from the week - the first is Eli showing off/banging his head on the velour chair in our cabin's sitting area. The next two are Eli in the water play area at the park (they show off Eli's cute waddle when he walks), and the last one is a video of Eli and Kaelan throwing rocks in the river. It's funny to see the differences in their throws :)

7 comments:

Cami Severson said...
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Sarah S said...

This was from my sister-in-law Cami:

That was such a fun reunion!

The WaterFall hike we went on was Wahclella Falls. I am still surprised that it didn't rain. Amazing.

I am so glad that Eli and Kaelan got to play with each other, cousins are the best!

Thanks for coming and staying in our house even in crazy circumstances. It is always fun being with you guys!! Thanks for sharing all the photos. Are you going to upload them like you did the Christmas pictures? I would love to have some copies!

Hug that sweet little boy for me, and take care of yourself!

Love you!

Suzette Selden said...

What a fun vacation. Eli is such a cutie!!

Laura said...

The food really was terrible - the worst it's ever been. It was fun to see you and meet Eli, though.

Aimee said...

I vote for 2nd worst food ever. I think the worst was two reunions ago (2004). At least this time the food was mainly cooked completely, as opposed to rare hamburgers. Although sometimes too completely, as with cardboard biscuits.

Thanks for the pictures Sarah! I loved seeing them.

Aaron and Emily said...

Seeing all your pictures makes me realize how sad it was to miss the reunion and see all of you!

Kell's Belles said...

I'm so glad the flight home was better! These pictures and movies are darling. I LOVE Eli's swim trunks! SO CUTE! This looks like such a fun trip!