More Gabrielsens Than You Can Shake a Stick At

There is no more quintessential summer activity than the family reunion.

In our case, we reuned 80 of the living progency of my grandparents, Lyman C. and Erma D. Gabrielsen.  Hat tip to Ellen Gabrielsen King for creating the family banner, that shows how grandpa signed documents.

While many--probably most--of the attendees were not actually Gabrielsens in name, they are all tied to that builder of houses from Logan.

Of course, there were standard reunion things:  food,

facepainting (and over 30 glitter tattoos! You know who you are...),

and catching up on kids, grandkids and retirement investment strategies.

But here is the real treasure of the day: starting with the first presidency of the clan, the most veteran generation, the Grandes Dames of the family:

They have passed the torch to the next generation--the cousins--and we all like each other.

Here is the next generation--this is the table of teenagers who all got to know each other a little bit better,

and here is the bunch that is learning that family reunions are pretty cool.

And that's how families go, handing down from generation to generation.  We're on the right path.

And now, random shots from the day:

James and Ashton

 

Jake, Lanae and two of three kids

 

Eric and Alex

 

 Leslie and Will

 Ken and Kay (big shout out to this blog's most faithful and enthusiastic reader, Kay)

 Ben and Julia

Al and Karleen--organizers and motive forces of this year's gathering--catching up with Jess.

  

 

Everyone had a good time sharing stories and catching up,

even people who already knew each other.

And lots of desserts meant that a good time was had by all.

Thanks to Al and Karleen for herding these cats together.  We missed all of you who couldn't be there.  Let's do it again, soon.