Labor Day Weekend...w/ family!

In past Venhuizen history we have had massively large family reunions...but we haven't had one since 1991, or there about. This past labor day weekend we had a get together at my parents house in Mora. It was a beautiful weekend full of family fun, catching up with relatives i haven't seen for almost 15 years. Before i get into the details of the weekend, lets take a blast from the past quick like.

This was taken way back in 1978 with most of my cousins. A few of them are missing- but this is most of them. I will not try to explain who is who, but i am the cute little girl in the pink dress with my arms crossed....my grandpa and grandma Venhuizen are also in the picture. They were the best grandparents...I miss them! I think the age range is from 3 months to 9 years old. This family reunion was held in Roschter at one of my Grandpa's brothers houses...i think! I am thinking i am 3 years old here, so am going to venture a guess that i don't remember much about this get together. So let forge forward about 12 years...The next 15 or so years we had regular every summer family get together...

So this isn't really a picture taken at a family reunion, but at my Aunt Bonnie's house with the same crew of cousins, the only difference is that we are about 13 years older...that would make me 16 years old, a junior in high school. Not sure if you can tell any difference- whoa!!!! again, i am not going to try to explain who is who, but I am the one in the dark blue shirt right in front. We are an interesting group of kids!!! lots of fun things to do together and loads upon loads of trouble to get into. Again....lets fast forward another 15 or so years to this past Labor day and our family reunion.

This picture includes almost all of the Venhizen cousins that showed up to most of those family reunions back when i was 3 years old. We range from 25 to 38 (i think)...we have grown up, have wives and husbands, kids of our own...a job, a house of our own, we are the grown ups now - weird! it was very cool to see some of them. Most of these peeps i see pretty often, but....the two guys on the far right of the picture, both in blue i haven't seen in 15 years- and the crazy part is they live in Brooklyn Center- just down the road from me. The four girls in the front row are all sisters and we use to play together all the time. They were the only girls i really had to play with, other wise it was boys-boys-boys!!!! So...it was great to see them, and catch up on life's adventures. This was taken in 1987. and the pic after that was taken 2007. Lots of change!!!!

So even though i have been a Venhuizen for 32 years, i learned something new about my families history. So my ancestry is from Holland, i knew that, but what i didn't know was that my grandpa actually lived there for about 3 years....and than he also lived in Canada for a while as well. my dad tells me that at one point grandpa, at the age of 18, had to take 2 of his younger brothers - ages 15 and 13- and had to ride work horses from Canada back to south Dakota, where my grandpa Henry spent most of his years living and than raising his own family. can you imagine riding work horses from Canada to s.d...whoa! anyways. It was a joy to see family!

current picture of my immediate family....