Linden Family Reunion

Every two years, the Linden family gets together during the summer instead of gathering over Christmas. The location changes each time and is "hosted" by a different member of the family. This year, it was held at Mahoney State Park in Nebraska. We drove out Thursday afternoon and arrived late Thursday night. 

Friday morning, we got up, had a nice breakfast buffet in the hotel, and headed out to tour the Strategic Air and Space museum. This has always been something we have see on our many travels between Colorado and Iowa and said "we should go there sometime" but never had the time to make it happen so we were really excited to finally make it into the building.

The museum houses historic aircrafts, missiles, and space vehicles. The boys loved running around the hangars looking at all the planes. 

They also had a few activity areas. Patrick spent a lot of time at the earthquake table. You were supposed to build a structure and then turn on the "earthquake table" to see if your building could withstand an earthquake. He just enjoyed pushing the buttons and making the table shake. 

They also had domino tables with patterns to help you set up tracks. The parents enjoyed this one.

After the museum, we had lunch at the marina and watched the fish and paddle boats. Then some headed back for naps and others went to go horseback riding. 

Daniel and I were joined by Aunt Jeni, Aunt Kerry, Uncle John, Shaylin, Olivia, and Charlotte. Daniel rode "Danny" and I rode "Sarge". I was right behind the wrangler in the front with Daniel right behind me. His horse kept stopping to eat grass and he would have to pull his head up. It was quite the feet. I guess he got the horse that likes to eat so it happened a lot. And every time he would squeal "Not again" and have to stand up in his stirrups to pull his head up. The rest of the riders found it very entertaining. 

We ended the evening at the campsite where we had a bar-b-qua and finished the night off with s'mores. My favorite!

Here is Dad instructing how to roast the perfect marshmallow.

Saturday we spent most of the day at the building we had reserved for our reunion. There were plenty of activities planned for the day.

It was right next to the observation tower. It is a 70ft tower that overlooks the park. It was quite the hike up. I only made the trip once (which was good because I was feeling it the next day).

They had organized games for all the kids to compete in the "Olympics". It was fun to see the kids team up and try out all the fun games.

We also celebrated Grandpa Linden's 90th birthday this afternoon. (His real birthday isn't until July 10th but we figured this was a good time to celebrate since a lot of the family were there).

Here he is with most of the kids from this generation that were at the reunion. 

And with his kids.

And his grandkids that were able to attend. 

I had to leave shortly after this to take Josh back home for baseball. (He was missing the first playoff game Saturday night but we wanted to make sure he was back for the game(s) on Sunday so we flew back that night). I'm told the rest of the evening was spent at this building or the campsite. Patrick and Daniel enjoyed playing the games outside and running around catching lightning bugs (something we don't see in Colorado). 

It was a fun weekend and great to see so many family members. In total about 60 people were able to attend. See you in two years, Lindens!