Fredricksen/Fredrickson/Larson

Back in January at my Great Aunt Doris' funeral, it was decided that the Fredricksen clan needed to get together outside of funerals and weddings. So, the 1st cousins decided on a date, June 14! Yesterday we all gathered together at my parents house for games, delicious food and lots of visiting.

Cousins came from near and far: Stewartville, Rochester, Twin Cities, Des Moines, IA, Brandon, SD, Watertown, SD, and Bathgate, ND. It was SO wonderful to spend this time together.

You may be curious about the title of my post...the original Danish spelling of my last name is Fredricksen; however, one of my grandpa's brothers decided to change it to avoid all the misspellings, Fredrickson (at least that's how I understand the story to go). My grandpa had a sister who married a Larson, so that's where we get those Norwegians from!

My grandpa and all of his siblings have passed away, so this is our eldest generation:

My dad JR (that's what he goes by to his family), Connie, Lance, David and Richard.

Sometimes I forget that I fall into the 2nd cousin generation because I'm a bit younger than them! My dad's the baby of the cousins... Here is my generation going from left to right back to front

Brian, Eric, Ross, Bobby, Will and Jim

Annie, me, Beth 

After we finished generational pictures, we went into individual family pictures. Here's mine! 

 David's family. David's mom, Mary, is the only person in the grandparent generation. She married my grandpa's brother. It was nice that she could come and spend some time with all of us!

These are the crazy FredrickSON's. Richard, his daughter Kelly and her little girls were unable to make it. Next is Nancy. She was married to my dad's cousin Steve. Then we have Bobby and Annie who are Steve and Nancy's kiddos. Then we have Connie and her significant other, Lee. 

Here's Lance Larson's crew! They traveled the farthest and no one was missing! I won't go through with all of their names. 

 Here we ALL are! We had to call my uncle Mark to come over and take the picture because all my parent's neighbors were gone!

Here we have Lance and my Dad. Lance and Dad are very close because Lance was incredibly close to my Grandpa Clarence. We spent all of our summer vacations at Lance's house in Park Rapids, MN. They've moved away from there now to be closer to family. Lance had to make sure Dad was grilling just right! 

Before the big rain hit, we enjoyed some yard games. 

Sharing of stories

and tractor rides!