Cousins

L to R: Lavern, Elom (my Dad), Les, Ken, Harold.  (Picture taken in 1984.)

Back in the day, the Nelson family had reunions with great regularity in the Rocky Mountain/Estes Park area in Colorado.  The Nelson brothers were a tight pack of six: Lavern, Merlyn, Elom, Les, Ken and Harold. (Merlyn was the first brother to pass away.)

Their only sister, Lynette, died as a young girl from rheumatic fever.

Five of the six brothers were involved in the war - all returning alive, to marry and begin to raise their growing families  This led to one very large family group at these reunions. The Nelson reunions began in the late 1950s/early 1960s.

These are Elom and Vera's ten grandchildren at a 1990 reunion...recognize our two?

This reunion picture is from 1993. Sadly, Dad wasn't around then after his death in 1991.

Time has marched forward, families have grown up and reunions have changed.  There is one surviving uncle now who just celebrated a milestone birthday --- 90!!!
(Happy Birthday, Uncle Les!)

When Cousin Julie  sent a message (thanks to FB) that she and her husband were coming to the Chicago area from Texas, we knew we had to put a mini reunion together pronto.  Cousin Cindy and her husband joined us at Diann and Larry's place for Chicago-style pizza and we had a blast ---
laughing, telling stories and remembering our Nelson experiences.

We slipped right back into our girlhood goofiness...

The guys seemed to enjoy themselves as well.

Trying to get a picture of our whole group together proved to be a bit of a challenge.

Causing us to regress yet again:

We must get together more often!

Postscript:  We were saddened to hear of Amy's (and Tim's) son dying tragically in a car accident this past week.  David, 24, will be sorely missed.  Peace to his memory.