This and that

 Our eldest grandchild was confirmed in her faith.  A lovely young lady!

 

 She had to share a special Scripture verse.

 

 The little boy in the red plaid shirt and his sister right next to him are two of our many grandchildren.  They stood perfectly still while the other children sang and did motions.  They were certainly well-behaved even if they did not sing!

 

 Grandpa showed he still had his skating ability when he put on his roller blades to skate around with this grandson.

 

 

 I think this grandson would fish every day, all day, if he could!

 

 We enjoyed dinner on our front patio and celebrated Norwegian independence day since hubby has Norwegian roots.

 

 We love camping and Minnesota has so many great state parks!  This was our first camping of the 2018 season.

 

 We experienced some rain during this first camping trip but stayed cozy and dry inside our camper.  We had books to read and snacks to eat.  Perfect.

 

 Little number 15 is growing!

 

 Summer fun includes watching grandchildren in sports.

 

 Father and son showed up in the same shirt. 

(Concordia seminary is where this son studied for his PhD.)

 

 More baseball!  This time in Fargo...

 

 Golf..... lots of golf....

 

 Gathering for a birthday celebration.

 

 Organizing his new fishing box.

 

I had to give golf another try.  It wasn't too bad.  I think I will do it again.

 Watching this grandson play soccer. 

 

 Showing off his new trumpet  playing skills.

 

I was very intentional with keeping pictures in albums during the years our sons were growing up.  And it was fun to see this son go through many of the albums to show his children what things looked like when he was a child.  It sure was worth all the effort to keep pictures in albums, labeled by year. 

 

Baptism day

 A beautiful family!

 

 Dad does the baptism.

 

My favorite picture.

 

The proud grandparents. 

Millie is 100!

 Well, she did it!  With a diet of chocolate and limited fruits and vegetables, my mom has lived 100 years and done so well!

 

 We celebrated, of course, and everyone was present!  Here she is with her great grandchildren.

 

 And now we added the grandchildren to the picture.

 

 

 And finally everyone! 

 

 My mom with us four siblings.  (One brother has died.)

 

 

 

 Of course, Gus and Harley came to provide some rides!

 

 Every family member made a precious comment.

 

Thanksgiving in the barn!

It has been a long time since I have posted and I imagine there may not be any readers left here but none-the-less, I thought it would be fun to document a few recent events of 2017.

 

 My brother has a fabulous horse barn which he decided to transform into our dining room for Thanksgiving 2017!  We came from far and wide to be together and needed a large place for our family!

 

 

 The corridor was cleaned, tables and chairs were delivered and the transformation began..

 Seating for 42+

 

 Now we are ready for the guests!

 

 He hired a caterer who came and cooked us a delicious Thanksgiving feast!

 

 This was quite an occasion, as we were gathered, for the first time ever, ALL of our family.

We had gathered because two days after this feast we were going to party again to celebrate my mom's 100th birthday!

 

Along with lots of other outdoor activity for the children (four wheelers, motorbikes, etc.) we concluded a full day of family fun with a seriously crazy HAY RIDE. 



The "north shore"

 

 Here in beautiful Minnesota many of us treasure a trip to the "north shore" which is the shoreline of Lake Superior in the northeast corner of our state, bordering Canada to the north. 

We try to get up there at least once a year and now that we have a comfortable camping trailer for camping we have enjoyed some of our lovely state parks. The one we recently camped in was the Cascade River State Park, with a short walk from our campground to the gushing waters of the cascade river.

 

The day time weather was perfect for hiking and the evening just a bit cool, making the campfire very welcome, indeed.

 

We were only 10 miles south of the town of Grand Marias.  We drove inland to see the fall colors and some of the inland lakes.

 

 We ate the best fish and chips at The Angry Trout in Grand Marais, sitting outside in the sunshine with Lake Superior shining.

 Our cozy campsite.

 

 We drove all the way up the Gunflint Trail, and I snapped this picture of the Gunflint lake looking across to Canada.

 

The Cascade river.

At good time was had by all.  All two of us. :)

 

 

Just some words here.

So, most of you know I am fairly passionate about genealogy and family history regardless of whose family it may be. I was a history major in college which makes sense since I feel my mind is often in historical events. Genealogy does just that. I know many feel it is quite "dead" and "boring" but it is quite the opposite for me! In fact, my genealogy buddy friend (she knows who she is :) ) came across a most intriguing letter written in December 1938 to her great Aunt who shared a surname with the author. The author was a German man, a jewish man, who, along with his family, had managed to escape Austria into Switzerland and was looking for assistant to come to the United States. He was not connected to this great Aunt at all, just must have decided to write to a person with the same last name in an effort to secure for himself and his young family freedom and safety. We are unaware if this great Aunt responded or if he had written many such letters to others in an attempt to get help. So my friend and I took what little information we had and had to dig into history and hopefully learn what became of this young family. In the last 24 hours my friend and I have learned about the German troops that marched in Austria on March 12, 1938 to annex the nation for the Third Reich beginning a campaign there against the Jews. Many, along with this young man and his family, fled, witnessing horrors and leaving all behind. As my friend and I continued our "digging" we finally found that the family managed to come to the United States ... but not until 1968 as they went first to Chile! Then we had to research that and learned that "Beginning in 1938, Chile became the destination of many Austrian emigrants of Jewish origins..." so then the family must have lived in Chile for quite a while (persumable 30 years). Their dream of coming to the United States must have remained because they left Chile, came to the USA and naturalized. Ah, freedom!! Do not take it for granted! And history is something that enriches us as we learn from it! Who said this is dull stuff?