Aune Family Reunion 2018

My paternal grandmother's maiden name was Aune. She and two of her sisters all had large families, meaning my dad had a lot of cousins on the Aune side, and I have a lot of second cousins, and my kids have a lot of third cousins!

Every since 1997, our Aune family members have been gathering for reunions every four years or so, each time a different branch of the family taking a turn to serve as hosts. The Wilsons (my grandma's sister Bea and her family) hosted the first one, followed by the Clarks (my grandma's sister June and her family), and then by the Mobergs (my grandma Olga and her family).

Up until this weekend, each family except the Mobergs had hosted two reunions--so it was our turn to step up and get the Aunes together again. And we chose to do it in Medora, ND! It doesn't have a particular meaning to our family--it's just a great tourism spot where we could do fun activities together in addition to visiting and eating.

Everybody got a bright green T-shirt to wear so that we could be identified as a group while out and about in Medora all weekend. On the front is this image of Yggdrasil, the tree of life from Norse mythology (the Aunes are a very Scandinavian bunch). At the trunk are my great-grandparents; and in the branches are my grandma and her siblings.

The Aunes are not particularly ranch-y/cowboy-ish people, although there are plenty of farmers and ranchers among us. This just seemed like a fitting image for the back of the T-shirts, considering the distinctive Old West flavor of Medora.

And here are a bunch of Aunes (in the bright green T-shirts) seated in the Burning Hills Amphitheater Friday evening, awaiting the start of the Medora Musical, our first reunion activity of the weekend. Just over 100 Aunes were able to attend the reunion festivities.

It just so happens that "family reunion" was a theme of this year's Medora Musical! How fitting.

Most of our activities yesterday and today were held in the Medora Community Center. Saturday started with early-morning golf at the acclaimed Bully Pulpit Golf Course before meeting at the community center for dinner at noon. In the afternoon, we had a scavenger hunt around town, requiring us to look for objects that had been hidden at various spots outdoors as well as for items on the shelves and walls of various shops around town. In the evening, we had supper at the community center followed by entertainment and games.

None of my grandma's generation are alive anymore. But here are "the Aune cousins": my dad (seated) and the other members of his generation who were able to attend. Three of my grandma Olga's children are still living: Alden (in the purple shirt), Rose (in the white sweater), and Arlo (my dad). Four of my great-aunt June's children attended: JoAnn (seated), Vickie (behind JoAnn), John (in the yellow hat), and Jay (next to John). None of my great-aunt Bea's children were able to attend this year.

Saturday night's entertainment included some games, such as competitive Nordic cross-country skiing (on felt-bottomed skis from one side of the community center to the other). Here are Hillary, Suzanna, and Abigail warming up to beat the team of Clarks getting ready behind them.

This morning some Aunes returned to the golf course before we all gathered for brunch in the community center and then said our goodbyes. And now we look forward to the next reunion!

A Very Roloff Sunday

Faithful Reader, I told you yesterday that this morning would be an early one for me, and now I'll tell you why: the girls and I got up around 5:00 A.M. to head north and visit my relatives' graves, and decorate my mom's, for Memorial Day.  Each year my sisters and I take turns providing flowers for Mom's grave, and this year was my turn.  Susan stayed behind to attend the commencement ceremony this afternoon at the school where she teaches (and is a senior class advisor), so it was a trip for just the girls and me today.  In addition to visiting cemeteries, we also visited out-of-state relatives who are in Williston for a few days.  All the details--and photos, naturally--are here:

Ladies' Week Out

Today's guest blogger is Susan:

The girls and I got up on Monday morning in time to have breakfast with Kevin before he and Sandy took Cathy to the airport and headed for Dickinson. The girls wanted a little more time to enjoy the hotel pool, so I let them swim for an hour after breakfast. While they showered, I packed, then we said our goodbyes to any relatives we found in the breakfast area of the hotel, checked out, and made our way to Como Park Zoo and Conservatory. I have many fond memories of Como Park Zoo: it wasn't terribly far from where my cousins lived, so we'd generally manage to work in a stop there when we came to St. Paul for a visit. My grandma LOVED the Conservatory, so no trip to The Cities was complete for her unless she got to go see the flowers.

Now, my cousin Anna works at the zoo, so we got to take advantage of her expertise for a while. We wandered through the primate exhibit (and came back past it several times--the girls were fascinated with the gorillas in the outside exhibit) then headed to meet up with Anna. She gave us a guided tour through the Tropical exhibit--the first exhibit at the Como Park Zoo to incorporate the skill of the gardeners and the zookeepers, and home to some very interesting animals. (If you'd like an explanation on the difference between "poisonous" and "venomous," just ask any one of our daughters.) Anna had to work for a while, so she gave us some suggestions for our next stops, and we made a plan to meet again later.

We got to see the new baby giraffe, a sea lion, tigers, lions, zebra--animals one would expect to see at a zoo. When it was time to meet Anna again, she took us into one of the zoo's classrooms, where she had a surprise for the girls. Anna was able to introduce us to Steffano, a two-toed sloth, and Turkey, an African parrot. We didn't get to hold or touch the animals--they are not tame--but we learned a lot about both animals. Turkey didn't like sharing the girls' attention with Steffano, so he'd whistle or talk to get their attention whenever they turned to watch the sloth. When the girls stopped watching Steffano in favor of watching Turkey, then the sloth would start making his way down his perch towards the floor--knowing that he wasn't supposed to get down, and therefore Anna would come over to entice him back up the tree with grapes or apples. This would upset Turkey, who would then try to get the attention back. After our session with the animals, we got to go out on a balcony that overlooks the tropical exhibit to get a view of it all from above. I've always loved visits to the zoo--and it was even more fun with Anna's help.

That sloth has some mighty luxurious hair!

We said goodbye to Anna because she had to go greet a batch of campers (yes, you can attend camp at the zoo!), and then we went out to finish seeing what we'd missed. After a quick lunch, we walked through the Conservatory (the flowers were BEAUTIFUL--Grandma would have loved it!) and the Japanese Garden, made a quick trip through the butterfly exhibit, rode ONE ride in the amusement park, and then made an uneventful drive back to ND and then back across the river to East Grand Forks.

The girls are s' good to pose while frolicking in the conservatory.

We stayed with the Almlies and had a great time. Erin and I spent all day on Tuesday scrapbooking--all-day scrapping fests were the norm when we lived in EGF, and I've missed spending that time with her. Tuesday night, Gabriel was playing an evening baseball game for "Parents' Night," so we all tagged along to watch. After the game, Jay took all of the kids back home (thank you, Jay!) while Erin and I got pedicures and did a little shopping. We picked up Nicole and headed to the Blue Moose for spinach queso and Long Island teas. Erin and I managed to stay up for a while after we got home for a bit more scrapbooking after we got all of the kids in bed.

That's Gabriel looking over his shoulder at the camera--cute!

Can you tell which foot is Erin's and which is Susan's?

Wednesday started off with a run/bike ride along the river. I hadn't ever been on the "wet" side of the dike, and the city has done a nice job of building a network of paths that take advantage of the lovely river view. In the afternoon, we met the Langeruds at the swimming pool. The kids had lots of fun on the slide and diving boards, Suzanna got reacquainted with a friend from elementary school whom she hadn't seen/talked to since we moved, and the adults even took a quick dip in the pool to cool off! After a yummy supper of barbequed ribs, asparagus, potato salad, and watermelon with the Almlies and Langeruds, we headed to Jay and Erin's volleyball game. They play on a sand volleyball team with the Jungs, and it was fun to see them in action. They play at a park where there are several sand volleyball pits and a large playground, so the kids were able to go back and forth between the game and the playground. In the end our friends were victorious! After the game, everyone came back to the Almlies for a fire in the fire pit and birthday cake for Michael (one of their team mates whom I just met that night).

Nicole and her daugher Mya were among the swimmers at the pool.

Erin serves while Jay checks out her backside--I mean, stands at the ready to help his team win.

Rob and Laurie confer while waiting for the ball--probably high-level strategizing about plays and such.

Thursday morning started out a bit rainy, which was a little disappointing because the girls and I had plans to meet Cathy Spicer at Caribou Coffee and then to head to a park for playing/visiting. Instead, we visited at the coffee shop, and by the time we were ready to leave, the sun was coming out for the day. Cathy was in Grand Forks to visit her mom, and she brought along Zoe, one of her fur babies. The girls enjoyed meeting Zoe, and we'd never seen a cat on a leash before!

Abigail, Cathy, Hillary, and Suzanna

After saying goodbye to Cathy and Zoe, we headed for Fargo. Hillary received a Target gift card for her birthday from Cheryl and Arron and HAD to find something to spend it on. I HAD to make a stop at Hobby Lobby (my new obsession = knitting, remember?), and then we were hungry so we had to stop at Qdoba, which is a place we enjoy but don't get to visit often. We our errands complete and our tummies full, we turned the van towards home. One quick stop in Bismarck to use the restroom and get gasoline, and we were home in time for supper, which Kevin was preparing as we arrived. It was a very relaxing vacation; visiting with friends is always enjoyable but too short, but it was really nice to be home!

P.S. Susan hadn't read or listened to the news to know about Wednesday night's tornadoes here in Dickinson, so the ladies were surprised to hear about it on the radio as they drove into town.

Aune Family Reunion 2009: Day 3

(Recall Day 1 and Day 2 of this reunion?)

After another fantastic breakfast at the hotel, Susan and I took the girls to church. Those who were interested had been invited to attend Shelley and Kevin's church (reminder: Shelley's mom is Bea, one of the Aune siblings whose descendants gather for these reunions), which happens to be just a couple miles straight east of the hotel. We gave a ride to my uncle and stepaunt, Shine and Janet, while other relatives followed us in their own vehicles.

Easter Lutheran Church has two sites just a few blocks apart: Easter on the Hill (traditional services) and Easter by the Lake (contemporary services). Shelley and Kevin attend the one overlooking Thomas Lake. When the weather is nice, they set up open-sided tents on the lawn and hold the service outdoors. It was a gorgeous morning, so we all grabbed folding chairs, set them up on the lawn, and enjoyed a service that started with lots of music. Then the pastor wandered amongst the congregants, asking them to share aloud their "joys and concerns" (e.g., ill people for whom to pray or happy announcements for which to give thanks) (Shelley shared her gratefulness for all the family members able to attend the Aune reunion!), which one of the musicians kept track of on a piece of paper. Then she handed the pastor the list of joys and concerns, and he led prayers based upon what people had just shared! That was pretty awesome. Good music + good message (in the sermon) + energetic congregation + beautiful setting = invigorating church service!

Some relatives had already left to return to their own homes by the time we got back to the hotel after church, but we gathered with those who were still around to have coffee and cookies and say goodbyes. Then my sisters joined Susan, the girls, and me for dinner (at the Dairy Queen next to the hotel) before taking the hotel shuttle to the Mall of America in nearby Bloomington. Although we've been there several times before, that place seems to have changed each time we return with new restaurants and stores replacing some of the old ones and now with a new indoor amusement park (Nickelodeon Universe, which replaced Camp Snoopy). We had only a few items on our shopping agenda, so other than a few stops for specific items, we mostly just wandered around and took in the size and scope of the mall (the largest mall in the U.S.). Here are some highlights:

Susan snapped this pic of our daughters with me and my sisters, Cathy (next to me) and Sandy.

Sandy took this picture so that Susan could get into the photograph. Unfortunately, her face is obscured by Abigail's.

Abigail, Suzanna, and Hillary strike a pose in front of SpongeBob SquarePants in the middle of Nickelodeon Universe. Susan and I had kind of planned to let the girls ride a few of the roller coasters in the amusement park, but the afternoon passed by before we got to that, and soon it was time to board the shuttle for the return trip to the hotel. But there were absolutely no complaints from the girls; none of them whined about not riding the rides or even asked about the possibility. They just enjoyed wandering through the amusement park and peeking down on the rides as we saw them from each floor of the mall.

Maybe the girls didn't beg to ride the rides at Nickelodeon Universe because they were so pleased with their new dolls, purchased at Friends 2B Made. It is a build-your-own doll store like Build-a-Bear Workshop (recall their having created their own stuffed teddy bears last summer?). In fact, the clothes and accessories for Build-a-Bear bears fit the Friends 2B Made dolls, too. In this photo, Suzanna, Hillary, and Abigail are typing in information about their dolls in order to get printed-out birth certificates for them. The girls had brought along gift cards to spend, too, so they bought extra outfits for their bears and dolls. It was fun to watch them select clothes and shoes to match and to total no more than their gift cards allowed--they seemed so serious about it!

When we got back to the hotel, we took Dad and Beverly to the Green Mill (also next to the hotel) for supper, where I had some delicious chicken Marsala with grilled garlic potatoes. The server agreed to take our family photo before we left:

Standing: Sandy, Hillary, Cathy, Suzanna, Susan, me, and Abigail; seated: Beverly and Dad

When we got back to the hotel, the few remaining relatives gathered one last time to spend the night visiting, snacking, drinking, and bidding farewell. It was a terrific weekend with opportunities for us to see distant-ish relatives again as well as to reunite with my own sisters and dad!

Susan took the girls to the hotel swimming pool after supper tonight so they could have some more fun in the water while I stayed in the Magnolia Room to visit my relatives.

Aune Family Reunion 2009: Day 2

Happy Independence Day! Yesterday as we drove, we listened to National Public Radio and enjoyed hearing what has become an annual feature on NPR this time of year: the reading of the Declaration of Independence by NPR's hosts, commentators, reporters, and newscasters. It was so stirring to hear the words read aloud with meaningful expression and with awesome music in the background. You can hear it yourself (as well as read along) here.

Okay, on to my reunion recap (recall Day 1 of this reunion?): The Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites of Eagan, MN serves the best complimentary breakfast of any hotel I've ever stayed at, so far as I can recall. This morning Susan, the girls, and I joined the hordes of other Aunes staying at the hotel in over-running the dining area just off the lobby for cheese omelets, waffles, English muffins, biscuits and gravy, doughnuts, fruits, cereal, juice, coffee, etc. It was delicious and another fine opportunity to visit with relatives. (Interesting tidbit: We also saw and visited with a family from our church in Dickinson! They're here for a little vacation this weekend and just happened to select the same hotel that we did. What are the odds?!)

Eagan is having its annual 4th of July Funfest this weekend, and we could have attended the parade this morning. However, that would have meant cutting short the visiting, so we skipped the parade. Bea's family had arranged several daytime options for the Aunes today: those interested in golfing did so early this morning; the female first cousins or wives of first cousins (that's my dad's generation) met in the hotel's Magnolia Room for a catered dinner at noon (this is a tradition carried over from past Aune reunions); and those interested in swimming met at noon at Cascade Bay Waterpark (not far from the park where last night's festivities were held) for splashing, sunburning, and dining on hot dogs, chips, and soda. Here are some highlights:

Susan and I elected not to swim, instead keeping a watchful eye on the children and manning the cameras (Susan had ours, and I took photos using the camera of my sister Sandy, who frolicked in the water with the others). I don't know what's going on in this photo, but isn't that a weird facial expression that I'm rockin'?

Here are my sisters Sandy and Cathy, chatting poolside between trips down the waterslides with their nieces.

Here are Suzanna (in the orange), Abigail (green), and Hillary (turquoise) shooting out one of the waterslides.

And here they are in a more serene moment, floating down the "lazy river."

Here's Sandy with some of the slides in the background. The next few pics are more shots of the waterpark's slides. It's a great facility, and the kids had a blast playing in the water this afternoon.

All the Aunes gathered back at Blackhawk Park again for tonight's supper: a pig roast catered by Divine Swine Catering. While we waited for the food to be set out, the girls led Susan and me on a short walk to Blackhawk Lake, which looked just lovely beneath the setting sun. (The lake is kinda swampy--less of a lake in which one might want to swim and more of a slough at which one might want to gaze from the safety of the bridge or the shore. But legitimately pretty nevertheless, tucked as it is amongst the trees.) A short while later, the caterers served tangy coleslaw and potato salad alongside both pork and turkey with a delicious barbecue sauce on the side, and we ate and drank and visited. Here are some highlights:

See? Isn't Blackhawk Lake pretty when one cannot see the algae up close? That bridge is picturesque, too. We stood in the middle of it awhile and watched fishes and frogs moving around in the lake, darting between fronds of underwater vegetation.

This swine tasted divine but looks a bit gruesome. Notice the apple lying on the aluminum foil near the pig's snout--nice touch!

For dessert, Bea's family served Norwegian baking, including these kransekaker ["wreath cakes"], also called Norwegian wedding cakes. They're made of ground almonds, powdered sugar, and egg whites. We may not have been home for me to cook for Scandinavian Saturday, but we got our Scandinavian cuisine just the same!

Hillary got a bit too much sun this afternoon and started feeling unwell at suppertime. Although last night we took the shuttle from the hotel to the park, this evening we drove ourselves; so I had a vehicle at the park and was able to take Hillary to a store to buy some children's pain reliever and a bottle of aloe vera gel. She and I returned to the hotel so that she could take the medicine and I could cover her face and shoulders in aloe vera. She grabbed her blankie and stuffed animal, and we got back in the vehicle. On the way back to the park, she asked if she could take a nap, so I purposely drove around Eagan to pass some time so that she could rest.

By the time we got back to the park, she was alert and feeling much better. However, we had totally missed tonight's program! People had been asked beforehand to provide entertainment, so those willing had signed up to sing and play musical instruments. Our family decided to do something a little different and planned to teach everybody some of the Norwegian folk dances that we learned at Camp Trollfjorden. Susan, Suzanna, and Abigail were able to do that without Hillary and me, and they said that it went well; and many people afterward reported that they'd had a blast learning and dancing those dances, so it seems to have been a hit. Here are some highlights from the entertainment (that Hillary and I missed):

My stepmom asked Suzanna, Abigail, and Hillary to sing their a capella version of "Amazing Grace," which became a duet after I bolted with Hillary. I think Suzanna and Abigail got in on some more singing with my sisters, too.

Here are some Aunes doing one of the Norwegian folk dances that Susan, Suzanna, and Abigail taught them. We're all used to dancing at wedding dances, street dances, and similar events, so I'm not surprised that people were willing to get onto their feet and try out some new dances. In fact, my cousin's daughter, whose wedding is this upcoming weekend back in ND, asked us to bring the music to her wedding dance so that we can teach people there these dances!

Here is my dad (farthest left) playing accordion with his sister Rose's four children, who are great accordion players and who often treat us to performances at Moberg get-togethers (see this, this, and this). They were just putting away their instruments when Hillary and I returned, but I'm assuming they were all terrific, as usual.

My sister Sandy brought a tripod and used her camera's timer to capture a photo of the whole group. This looks like a bunch of people, but it's only those who were in attendance this weekend--there are still other Aunes who did not attend!

Bea's kids knew a location nearby from which one could view the fireworks displays of all the surrounding cities, but we five were amongst those who decided to skip it, avoiding a battle with traffic and mosquitoes by returning to the hotel instead. The hotel let us use the Magnolia Room as a gathering spot, and we packed ourselves in for more drinking, eating, and visiting. We couldn't ask for a better central meeting place than what our hotel has turned out to be. It was another great day!