Reunion Recap

A big THANK YOU and CONGRATULATIONS go out to Karen for putting on such a wonderful event! I know that she was sweating blood over this whole weekend but it turned out great and I just wanted to let her know before I started to get into details of the reunion.

I really wish that more family had made it to this reunion; this was really a spectacular place. The grounds were gorgeous, the lodges were neat and friendly, the food was great, handicapped friendly and the amenities were more than most of us could explore in the short amount of time we had, even a week would have been too short to explore it all and some of the surrounding areas. It was a hard place to leave.

The first day was a travel day for most of us as we came in from all parts of the country so it was a get acquainted/reacquainted afternoon and evening. Karen had name tags for everyone and there were boxes and books of family photos to look through and lots of charts that plotted the family line back to the old country. It was awe-inspiring to see all the different people who were descendants of Anton and Elizabeth and beyond. Really makes you feel connected through history.

Karen had a few games planned as a get acquainted/ice breaker kind of evening, I had wandered out onto the grounds to marvel and soak in the beauty of the grove of trees just outside the lodges so the first game was pretty much concluded by the time I got back in :-) the second game I wrote about in my previous entry and it helped us learn a little something about each other and kind of kick started a lot more stories that we told each other over the next day and a half. She said that she had to credit her grand daughters for the idea, she’s got some smart grand kids there! We also sang a few songs.

Because people were arriving well into the evening, we mostly broke off into groups the first night, mixing and re-mixing until our long trips over came us and we went to bed. I just happened to set up my laptop that night to play a little solitaire before going to bed (I don’t usually go to sleep until after 1 so it is no use me going to bed early, I don’t want to be awake at 4 a.m.), I just thought I’d check to see if they had a WiFi and sure enough they did! I had been on the Internet for an hour when someone came over and said they found a connection, I had announced it earlier, but I don’t think any one was paying attention ;-)) I had to smile because so many had brought their laptops and other asked to catch-up on their e-mail when they found out we were “connected”. What a change the computer and the Internet have brought to this world!

The next morning after a great breakfast people went on different paths. Some went to Long Beach to explore the marvels of the Wash coast and others stayed at the retreat to talk or explore, everyone had a great time no matter what they decided to do, like I said, there was a lot to do and hard choices to make but any choice was a good one. The weather could have been a bit better because it was a bit cloudy and seemed like it wanted to drizzle but it couldn’t put a damper on our day. For those of us who chose to go to the beach, the retreat had packed a nice lunch with a sandwich, chips, apple and cookie so we were well fed even away from the lodge.

In the evening after another wonderful dinner of roast pork and all the fixings (if you went hungry here, you couldn’t blame it on the staff, they did an outstanding job) we got the “business” out of the way before we got to the fun stuff. First we asked who would be willing to host the next reunion. Funny how everyone has to see if their shoes are untied or look around the room to see who is brave enough to raise their hand ;-) Anyway, Harold and Martha Oechsle volunteered their services. They have been to every one of the reunions starting with the one in North Dakota back in ’93 and so enjoy getting together with all the rest of the family they hope that people will come so they can show off their home grounds in Indiana, for those of you who didn’t make it this time, please, please, please save the time (late July/early Aug) and save the money to come to the reunion in 3 (2011) years. We have a great family and it is so nice to reconnect with it from time to time and many are getting older and won't be able to make many more reunions for some this may have been their last for what ever reason.

I also brought up the idea of having the reunion for 4 days - 2 half days for the start and end and 2 full days in the middle - so we can have a bit more time together. I find it just isn’t long enough to visit and or see the area where we meet before we disband and head home. Even if people are flying into an area, it would be nice to actually have a chance to visit for a couple days before we have to go our separate ways. If you have any thoughts on this, please let me know and I can pass them on to Harold and Martha so they can plan accordingly.

Once we had our next location and hosts set, we did family and group pictures. With all the cameras going off it seemed like paparazzi had invaded the lodge but I think we got a lot of good pictures. As soon as I get them downloaded and edited, I will post them to the picture page and you can down load or print what you need. (Got 'em edited now have to post them). If any one would like a CD write or e-mail me and I can send you what I have. I know at least one person has already posted their pictures on-line and I will put the links at the end of this if you want to see what George Corser took, and if others have things posted, let me know so I can post links here. We can use this as a central clearing house for family pictures and stories, which is why I set it up in the first place.

After all the pictures were taken, we had a talent night of sorts. Lu and Martha played a piano duet that they practiced on different sides of the country and it worked out very well. Karen’s granddaughters Cassie (11) and Clara (7) entertained us with poetry and a cute little skit with the help of their dad Eric and Uncle Kris. Poor little Clara thought she had messed up her part of the skit but it actually made it so much funnier, I felt bad that she was so upset when they had done such a good job. Very brave to get up and perform even if it is family.

Next my sister Lana and hubby Tony got a lot of us up to do a couple of line dances! =-O For one I had to help with the demo so I couldn’t hide behind my camera but it was fun and got people up and moving as a group (check out George’s video links). They also did a demo of a dance they do for their couple’s classes. This was interesting for both Mom and I since for as many years that Lana has been doing line dance we have never seen her do an actual dance, they are both quite good and seem to be good teachers if they could get our motley group dancing in time to the music! They also did another “simple” dance that was fun to watch (I was behind my camera at last!) and also tried to show how to do a two step. It looked like everyone had a good time.

The next morning after another big breakfast people started to leave and others went up to the chapel on the hill where Harold Oechsle gave the sermon. It was really nice they had a van to take people up the hill, though Joy and her group chose the hard way through the woods (no surprise there) and my mom was able to go with the help of some young strong men to get her on and off the van. I chose to wander the grounds looking for the falls I never did find but it was so beautiful there I didn’t mind.

It was such a great event I wished it could have lasted longer. The retreat was wonderful as I’ve said, the people who worked there were so nice, gracious and so responsive to our needs we couldn’t have asked for more. I’m just sad that more people didn’t come, I hope that next time more of our great family can make it, it should be fun to see what Harold and Martha come up with and they need the support of all the family, please try to plan to get there, you have 3 years to clear your schedules and save up.

If you have stories you would like to share about your experience at the reunion or if you have some pictures or video to share, please send them or the links to me so I can post them here. We can use this as a central place for family stories and business so please pass the link along to other family members who may not be on Karen’s or Curt’s e-mail list. It was such fun and so great to see familiar faces and new faces, I can’t wait until next time. Love and peace to you all.

Links to related things:
http://journals.aol.com/artbylerri/ArtbyLerri/
http://picasaweb.google.com/artclasspics/AntonPetersonFamilyReunion
http://pictures.aol.com/galleries/artbylerri/

http://picasaweb.google.com/gcorser/20080802PetersonReunion
http://picasaweb.google.com/gcorser/20080801PetersonSlaggReunion
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5597907667423831075&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7485157395724525612&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4885112354370187711&hl=en

We're Having a Ball!

Welcome from the beautiful, though somewhat grey, Pacific Northwest i.e. Falls Creek Retreat!

We are coming up on Saturday night and we have some fun things planned including a line dance demo and participation, sit down dinner more reminiscing and who knows what else.

We started off our reunion with a nice dinner and then Karen passed out slips of paper with suggested things for topics like "what was your favorite class in school?" or mine was "tell something about the house your grew up in." It got us to talking and pretty soon we were telling stories from our past - some times about the people who weren't here ;-) - and we had a great time.

I discovered by accident that they had a wireless network here and since then it seems like half the people here have brought out the laptops to get e-mail or send msgs. We sure have become a connected world! I think everyone else was going through withdrawals just like I was!

Anyway, Today some of us went to the coast to a place called Long Beach. It is just what they say it is a very long and flat beach. I went with Kris and Lisa with Dorothy and Cindy we went searching for a Geo cache along the boardwalk which Kris found then we went to find Eric and Shelly who had taken their girls to the beach. We were able to drive out on the beach but the tide was coming in and by the time we decided to go looking for another cache, the tide had come in so far that we had to haul all the stuff back to the paved part of the road for fear of getting stuck in the sand! I am getting my exercise.

Once we were back in the vans, Eric and Kris wanted to look for another cache that was suppose to be close by, the easy directions were to drive to the parking lot of a resort and look for it but Eric had his GPS that told him that it was only 300 yards away so we went trekking cross country through eye high weeds and finally found our way into some one's back yard ;-))) We did see a bunch and doe black tailed deer as we stomped through the weeds, but ran out of trail. Eric went back the way we came to go get his van, Kris went down the road and beat him back to the vans said Eric stumbled out of the bushes a few seconds after he had got there and they both drove to pick up up. Needless to say, with all that hiking we were pretty bushed. I think I will sleep tonight hopefully not during dinner!

Well, I will recap our reunion when I can get a few minutes or it might have to wait until I get home, depends on my time. I just wish that more people could be here, this has been a great get together. I will also post my pictures when I get home because I forgot to bring the cable to hook my camera to the computer. If any one else has a story or pictures they want to share fromthis reunion, please send them to me at LerriPete@aol.com and I will put them on the family picture page at: http://picasaweb.google.com/artclasspics/AntonPetersonFamilyReunion

I will also post here any decision we come to regarding the next reunion so you can make you plans early and save the date and your money! ;-)

Love and peace to all.