The 2006 Severson Family Reunion

The Severson Family reunion was, as always, held up on Mt. Hood in Oregon at Camp Arawannah. But there was a big difference this year. . . . We live in OREGON!!! Mt. Hood is only 40 minutes away from us, an iconic volcanic mountain that dominates over the surrounding terrain. It is just beautiful.

Because we live up here we got the opportunity to host our immediate family before and after the reunion. It was so much fun. There were 14 adult and 12 kids -26 total- all under one roof! All the little cousins had so much fun! We went to Silver Falls, the pool, the park, and totally dominated our ward primary on sunday! The cousins even got to spend one night together, in a tent in the back yard! They watched movies, and in general jabbered the night away.

When we got to the Reunion we (Larry and Cheryl's Family) all got to stay together in the Judson lodge. (Except Ben, Sarah, Danielle and Jon- who all got to stay in the fancy bluff units) Because the Judson Lodge was the evening snack and game center we were always where the action was. Every night all of the adult cousins played Mafia until 3am, yes, even I did. It was fun just being able to socialize and get to know everyone better.

The highlights of the reunion were: the Fourth of July Parade- in which all the kids got to make hats and decorate their bikes and Ansel got to play the drums and Levi and Calder rode their bikes (Ansel was a little perturbed that he didn't have a bike to ride), the fireworks that night- we bought a lot of sparklers and shared them with everyone- you wouldn't believe how much smoke was in the air with so many fireworks going off everywhich way and all of the kids (big and little) running around sparklers in hand (they loved drawing on the asphalt with the sparklers) , and of course our boys "Jedi duel" entry in the talent show- in which Levi and Calder where Jedi knights and Ansel was Darth Vader. It was really great, I laughed so hard. Levi and Calder really know some great light saber moves! Unfortunately it was cut short because Darth Vader accidentally got hit with a light saber and ran, crying, to mommy!

On the last day of the Reunion all of the Larry/Cheryl Family went to Frog Lake. It is called that for a very specific reason!! There are thousands of frogs! This time of year, however, they were all tadpoles -thousands and thousands of tadpoles! We had cups and all the kids used them to catch tadpoles with. In some places in the water the tadpoles were so thick they were black swarms in the water. They are so docile and cute that the kids didn't have any qualms with touching them or picking them up. It was really neat. They didn't want to leave.

In short the reunion was really great, and we can't wait until the next one in 2008!!