My Miscellaneous Musings: Reunion at Lake Tahoe

We look forward to it every other year. Christiansen Family Reunion at Lake Tahoe. Time to relax, enjoy being with family, and laughing. A lot. We arrived to the Cedar Glen Lodge on the north side of the Lake just before dinner on Monday and got checked into our rooms. It was hard to even unpack the car because I just wanted to run around hugging everyone. Being a rather large family, we just about fill up the joint. :)

We are lucky that they let us set up tables on the lovely common area between the cabins and we do a big dinner each night. Not an easy task cooking for 50 or so, but the families take turns and the food is always delicious. We talked late into the night and the kids played and played while getting to know their cousins again.

This year, we had a theme each night for the entertainment. Our first night, we had a slide show of tons of pictures. I had everyone send pictures and then I went through all my pictures from past years and even scans of our growing up years and Grandma and Grandpa. So fun to have it projected on the big screen after dark. One night we did a whole evening family history, telling stories and showing pictures from generations past. Another night we played silly games with lots of prizes for the kids. And the big finale on the last night was the Christiansen talent show. The kids, especially, had lots of fun with that. Cooper even went right up to the mic and sang the Spiderman theme song. Quite impressive for a two year old. :)

We spent lots of time at the pool and the beach. Did a hike up to the top of an old fire lookout. It was a gorgeous view of the Lake from up there! We also went to a ropes and zipline course. It was super fun, but also really tough. (Especially when I gauged zipling into a platform wrong and I whacked my ankle so hard it was swollen in seconds. I wasn't quite sure how I would get down. We we about 30 feet up in the trees and had lots of climbing ahead of us. I finished the course despite the throbbing pain and was proud of myself for toughing it out.) Everything was great fun and the kids as well as Ken and I went to bed exhausted each night.

My favorite part though, was spending time in wonderful conversation with my parents, sister and brother, and lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins. I love my family so much and I treasure the time am with them. I can't wait for two more years!