October 11, 2012

Good times, happy family



It was an auspicious weekend... the first ever Hodgdon family reunion and the last time we would ever stay in a waterpark hotel... completely over-rated... the hotel... NOT the waterpark.  


The "toilet bowl"... coolest ride ever..... to date.

The Paul Bunyan waterpark

The kids instinctively knew when the bucket would drop.  They would disappear and reappear sopping wet
(as opposed to just plain wet.)

MAJOR accomplishment for Barrett!  What you don't see is the top view of the rock.  VERY skinny and WAAAY up there... When it was my turn it took all my nerves just to sit on it longer than a minute.

Uncle Chuck and the kids

Grandma Char and the kids

The daughters... Lynn, Christine and Gail

The sons....Barrett, Mark and Chuck Jr.

ALL together for the first time...

The whole family minus the older cousins plus one step granddaughter, Cassidy

Trying to make Mark feel tall

Twins... for now

Later on that night....

Ethan is relaxing, Barrett is passed out, Kya is watching the clouds and Cooper is wondering where we are going to next...

So starts the fall photos...

Even the ground was colorful!

Light glowing through the ferns

It was majestically quiet behind all the rocks.   I could have stayed there all day.


The lifts for the lazy people

Last day...

The kids found crayfish and were hoping Dad would catch one.







The following weekend was just as auspicious... my uncle was inducted in Concordia St. Paul Hall of Fame.... for most of the world, this is just a great honor... but for our family.. it's a wonderful, well deserved honor for my uncle.. since this has been a ghost he's been chasing for about 50 years... ever since professional athletes have commanded the attention of his father rather than his own son.  His father's indifference was greatly overshadowed by our love and pride in his accomplishments.  We found out that night he made the first ever touchdown for Concordia's football program and other major accomplishments.  They also played the Stillwater Prison once.  The stories kept coming all weekend long...


Uncle Paul's football buddies.. the one directly on Uncle Paul's left, Wille, was the one who nominated him.

Mom and Uncle Paul