The Quade Family Reunion Winter 2009

December 20, 2009 - 3:45 PM

Every year, my boyfriend's family has two family reunions: one in the summer and one in the winter. I have been with Collin for two and a half years and have attended three of these events.

The first one I went to was the summer of 2007. We camped near the beach, did arts and crafts, went on hikes, visited landmarks nearby, and ate magnificent food.

The second one I attended was two Christmases ago. We had an enormous lodge that had enough rooms to occupy all 30 guests. There was a huge kitchen, a long dining table, a roomy living room, a Christmas tree, and a huge lawn for the kids to play on.

We had a wonderful time. We did the traditional White Elephant gifting game, which involves taking numbers and as your number is called, either picking a random present from the table or stealing one that has already been chosen.

That year, I have no idea what I got, but this year, Collin and I attended again, after having missed an entire year of Quade get-togethers, and I came away with a Starbucks French coffee press!

Surprisingly, I was one of the few who wanted it, so no one stole it from me!

This year we went to Millersylvania State Park in Washington, about 100 miles north of Portland. Most of the Quade brothers and sisters, of which there are 8, have had children and grandchildren and live in the Seattle area, but Collin's dad and his sister Anne live in Portland and Vancouver respectively.

Millersylvania has numerous cabins with at least two bunk beds in each and a big dining hall and kitchen to accommodate all of our guests.

We walked out to the lake, where the canoes were boarded up, but we were able to take advantage of the wonderful scenery. It was dark and quiet with a heavy fog hanging over the lake, but it wasn't raining...yet.

The weekend passed with too much wonderful food, and I left with not a pair of jeans that fit. But the gift giving was fun as always, and we had fantastic conversations with all of Collin's relatives.

They all asked us what we were doing, and it is always good to have such wonderful things to tell them: we are graduating from the University of Oregon this spring, applying for graduate schools as we speak, and plan to attend Quade Reunions twice a year for many years to come!