the shortest one

That's me in the middle.  I'm standing between my two sons.  That's right.  I'm standing.  On level ground.  Not in a hole.  I'm not short.  They're just tall.  And, very good looking.

hunting for THAT place

Hamburg, Germany.   June, 2013.   We found it.

jeremy's baptism

Then and now.

Susan and Steven in the stocks

Here we are, again, in historic Williamsburg, Virginia.  This time Susan and Steven are locked up in the stocks and our brothers are enjoying the moment.  Oh, those silly boys!!  If you notice, the position my brother and sister are "sitting" in is not really sitting at all.  They were only about six years old when we visited Williamsburg.  Their legs were not long enough for them to sit on the wooden rail and stretch their legs to fit into the ankle bracket.  So, they were leaning on the rail and really stretching just to get their feet into the ankle brackets.  (a tough suspension move)  All this for a family photo op.  Looking good, kids.

prom

Yes, I went to prom.  I went to the my high school's Junior prom which was held at the downtown Radisson Hotel in May of 1965.  My date was Terry.

Dad's graduation

This is a picture of my dad at the age of eighteen.  He graduated from high school in Nashwauk, Minnesota in 1935.  He always said that he really felt like a graduate of Renville High School, instead, because he was a student in Renville through the first half of his senior year and all of his friends were there, too.  Then, in January,  his family moved from southern Minnesota up to the Iron Range.  He didn't want to move but he had to so he made the best of it.  I believe this experience led him as an adult to stay put in the community we (his kids) grew up in.  We stayed in the same school system the entire time we were in school.  That's a promise kept.  Thanks, Pop!  p.s. By the way, the following picture of me is downright spooky.  I'm leaving it in the blog anyway.  hahaha

101

One year ago today we were celebrating the anniversary of our Dad's 100th birthday.  We held our reunion at a cabin on Sand Lake in Minnesota.  Three generations gathered for the event and we all had a very good time.  We spent our days swimming, eating and just hanging out.  The evenings were spent by the campfire watching the flames dance in the night sky and making s'mores.  And, of course, we celebrated with a traditional pot luck (Scandinavian style) in honor of our Norwegian roots.  It felt good to be with family.  Happy 101, pop!!

Dad's birthday picnic

Eleven years ago we gathered together on Casperson Beach to enjoy a family picnic.  It was June 23, 2007 and a bunch of us descended on the beach to join our Dad in celebrating his 90th birthday.  This picnic preceded the big event to be held the next day on his actual birthday.  So here we are...Jean, Christopher, Keith, Dad, Jason, Lottie, Jeremy, Kari, Duane, Melissa, Matt, Carole, Susan and Kirsten.

we'll always have Paris

This is me posing in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris five years ago.  It was June of 2013 and my sister and I were in Paris to help celebrate Jeremy and Jan's wedding.  Getting into Paris was easy, maneuvering around Paris was manageable but leaving Paris was a nightmare.  It all started with us going to the wrong train station.  We wanted to travel by train to Switzerland.  What we thought was the main central station turned out to be one of several stations and each station handled traffic going in different directions.  Thus, the wrong station!

five years

Here is the happy couple that is celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary today.  Jeremy is my youngest son and husband to the lovely Jan.  Hats off to you and much more.  Love, Mom

no socks, please

I've always enjoyed walking around barefoot.  I generally don't wear slippers around the house and I run around outside shoeless.  My mom had a hard time keeping socks on my feet when I was a baby.  Here I am sitting on the floor of the living room in the Brookside parsonage with my bare feet exposed and my socks are dumped in a pile on the carpet in front of me.  I look very happy with myself.  Bare feet rule!!

more sisters

Our mother and her sister were confirmed into church membership together on June 7, 1936.  Here they are on Confirmation Sunday standing next to each other in their lovely white dresses.  Our mom, Helen, is on the left and our aunt, Gertrude, is on the right.  This is what Mom said about being a member of the same class as her sister.  She was upset.  For whatever reason Auntie Anna held Mom back a year so that both of the girls would be confirmed at the same time.  Mom always wanted to be in the class with her own age group but she obeyed Auntie and stayed back a year.  It bothered her though.  That, and a few other instances, gave Mom the idea that when she had children (particularly daughters) she would make sure that they were treated as individuals and had their own opportunities for growth independent of each other.  And, yet, because my sister and I shared the same bedroom all of the years as we were growing up, we grew close in other ways.  Caring and respect developed between us and that has continued all these years.  I think our mom was wise to watch us grow together, but separately.  Different personalities have led us in different directions but we always find the time to be there for each other and we always will.  Thanks, Mom.  Thanks, Sis.

sisters

There's something about having a sister.  In my case I always knew I had a sister because we are so close in age.  We also shared a bedroom as we were growing up.  And that means we shared time, space and conversations in the dark.  We built one level doll houses on the floor of our closet by neatly arranging our doll furniture into "rooms".  We shared a dresser (three drawers down for Susan, three drawers down for me).  Half the closet was hers and half was mine.  There was a bar hook that marked the halfway point.  No clothes ever jumped the line either.  Our dad had two sisters, too.  Those two sisters were Aunt Ruth and Aunt Blanche.  I hope they were as close as my sister and I have been.  Both Ruth and Blanche are gone now.  They both passed away in the last couple of years.  So, that makes Susan and I the oldest aunts now.  Oh, did I say that?  Yes, I did.  But getting back to the sisters part, I'm very thankful I was given the BEST one ever.  The older sister protects the younger sister when they are children.  The younger sister looks out for the older sister when they are adults.  That seems to be how it goes.  Thanks, sis.

grandpa's are father's, too

Here are pictures of the boys with their grandpa in about 1985 and again about twelve years later.  Oh, how they loved him and he loved them, too.  Grandpa's are the best.  They show interest in everything you do and they brag about all of your accomplishments to their friends and to anyone else who will listen.  Grandpa's give good old fashioned advice with a short story attached for clarification.  They stand back amazed at how technologically advanced their grandkids are and, again, they tell all their friends about how wonderful it is to have their own personal computer technicians on hand when they need them.  Mostly though it was about their food connection.   This grandpa loved to watch the boys eat especially when they got to be teenagers.  He'd make sure that he took them to an all-you-can-eat buffet whenever they visited.  He enjoyed telling them to eat all they wanted.  His way of saying it went something like this.  "Now that you've filled up one leg, go back and fill up the other one."  He joked that he, too, could eat like that at one time.  He was also very good at passing along words of wisdom.  I know this because he was my father and he dispensed plenty of wise thoughts in my direction throughout the years.  Happy Father's Day to all the father's and grandfather's who left a positive legacy for their kids and grandkids.  This one sure did.

how I spend my days off

Me?  Riding a snow mobile?  Indoors?  Ya, sort of.  Actually this is a very good representation of what I do almost all of the time since most of my days are "off" days now.  I go sightseeing.  I do a lot of cross country traveling these days and I just happened to visit the Arctic Cat manufacturing plant a year ago in June.  I was in Minnesota with my partner in crime (only the good kind!!), Susan, and we stopped over in Thief River Falls for a couple of days. We decided to tour the facility and we lucked out and got the very chatty tour guide that gave us the two hour tour and we enjoyed every minute of it.  I can see me on one of these things.  Well, actually, I DO see me on one of these things in this picture taken inside the showroom.  Look at me having fun.  Go get 'em, cowgirl.

tired people

Don't we all look tired?  I haven't figured out where this picture was taken, yet.  We were visiting in the home of the woman who is seated in the center of this group of rather tired out people.  The wallpaper pattern is rather distinctive.  (random thought)  Nice cowboy shirt, Keith.

another Confirmation Day picture

I came across another picture that was taken of me on my Confirmation Day in April of 1962.  This photo was taken while I was standing in the chancel of the sanctuary.

mom, dad and grandchild

This is a very nice picture of my parents holding one of their grandchildren.  It was taken during the 1970's.  I think it is a very sweet picture.

not my house

I have no idea who that super-sized woman pointing at the mansion in the background could be but let's just ignore her.  Gaze, instead, at the beautiful chateau at the other end of the gorgeous green lawn.  In April of last year I visited the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina with my sister.  Oh My!  This house and the surrounding grounds are unbelievable.  Horse stables, formal gardens, a dairy, a winery and enough help to maintain the lavish lifestyle that came with it.  It's the Vanderbilt's place, you know.  The central atrium filled with tropical plants was so cozy comforting that I could spend a good portion of the day there just relaxing.  After that, a dip in the inside swimming pool and a round of bowling would be nice.  Which dining room should I eat in?  How about all of them at various times of the day.  What a dreamer I am.  I don't live here.  Just visiting.

kids by a fort

Another group shot of the Brudevold kids on vacation during the summer of 1956.  Look at how we are dressed.  Mind you, we were camping our way across the country to the east coast and doing a lot of sightseeing along the way.  Mom always insisted that we look presentable when we visited various landmarks and other historical places.  No play clothes for us on those days.  Play clothes were meant for the campgrounds.  And don't even think about stepping outside of the Higgins on a Sunday morning without being nicely dressed for the church service that was held at the campgrounds.  (Dad most likely led the service and preached)  It didn't matter if we were sitting on log benches or not.  We were dressed appropriately for the day.  (Show God some respect!)  So, here we are visiting historic Williamsburg, Virginia.  What a sharp looking bunch of kids.

Mom and Susan

How cute is this?  Here is a picture of my Mom and my sister, Susan, sitting in a vintage railroad car somewhere in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  This picture was most likely taken during the late 1960's.  That was the summer that my parents and my sister took a road trip out into the western part of the state and visited Mt. Rushmore.  Nice waves, ladies.  I hope you had a lot of fun.

my Mother and I

This picture was taken on March 20, 1976.  It was my sister's wedding day and our mom was glowing with happiness and pride as the mother of the bride.  I was Susan's matron of honor.  The choice of dress fabric for the day was polyester, of course.  Holds up beautifully.  Mom and Dad were married for over fifty years.  My sister and her husband are in their forty second year of marriage.  My hat's off to both of these lovely couples, as well as to my brother Duane and his wife Carole who have just recently passed the fifty year mark in marriage.  There's beauty in longevity.  Congrats.

steve,sue,jean

I am standing next to my brother and sister, Steven and Susan.  I am not sure where we are but there are either some very tiny houses in the background or, perhaps, they are dog houses.  I believe this picture was taken around 1962 or 1963 just by looking at my hair style.  And, look at those cut off blue jean shorts!  Very stylish.  What a fine bunch of teenagers we were.  And, good kids, too.  Also, that may be a little dog next to us. I'm thinking it is.

camping with the higgins

This picture was taken during the mid 1950's.  We had the Higgins tent trailer during the summer of 1957 and into the beginning of the camping season in 1958.  We got the Airstream later that year.  We camped in many of the state parks throughout Minnesota but we also did some cross country trips  and had some great family adventures.  One summer while we were driving out east we stopped at the Indiana Dunes State Park and camped there for a couple of nights.  There are two things that I remember the most about this park.  One--we were able to run barefoot along the dunes and dance in the wind blowing off of the lake.  The sand felt so good (cool and wet) under our feet.  Two--the bathroom situation.  I had "visited" many an outhouse during our time camping but this was my first experience  using an outhouse with a water pool at the bottom of the pit.  I was freaked out by the noise.  Tinkles and plops (SORRY) were scary sound effects.  Yes they were.  But, you know, the fear of falling in at least went away.  However, to this day I really avoid using any outdoor "facility" if I can.  Not pleasant.  No.  Otherwise, the camping was great!

the higgins tent trailer

Oh, boy!!  Going back to those tent trailer days, are we?  Lot's of fun, you betcha!  I may have mentioned this before  but here is what happens when you are camping and you have to get up during the night to answer nature's call.  I remember that I was zipped tightly in my sleeping bag, not so much because it was a chilly night but because sometimes a mosquito or two found their way into the tent trailer and wanted a good meal.  I woke up in the middle of the night with an urgent need to go to the bathroom.  I very slowly unzipped my sleeping bag so that I wouldn't make any noise and very silently made my way to the doorway by carefully avoiding any people who may be sleeping in the central floor area of the trailer bed.  I made my way onto the screen porch where I, again, very carefully unzipped the side screen opening.  Once outside I zipped it back up so that new mosquitos would find their way inside.  I turned and ran (barefoot and wearing only my summer shorty pajamas) to the public bathroom, all the time fearing a big bear would come and get me.  When I finished (what a relief!!) I ran back to our campsite and quietly unzipped, entered and zipped the screen opening on the porch and super quietly maneuvered my way over the feet of sleeping people and climbed back into my sleeping bag.  Zip, zip and I was safe in my sleeping corner.  Success.  O.K., did I mention we had a lot of fun while camping?  We did.