Nielson Family Reunion in Sunriver

The first Nielson Family Reunion in many, many years! It was so fun, even though there were some cousins and family members that were unable to make it to all or part of the week long reunion. The reunion was with my dad's family (his parents, siblings, and their kids) in Sunriver, Oregon. A beautiful location where we had had reunions before (funnily enough, with both my dad's and mom's families). The picture above and below are missing a few people that were at the reunion (mainly a few of the adults), but it was most of us!

The reunion was the first week of August, and the weather in Sunriver was HOT. The high each day was around 100 degrees. The whole family, numbering around 20 people with everyone there, was split between two houses that were about half a mile from each other. Unfortunately, neither of these houses had AC, so we got a little warm during the day, haha. But fortunately, the weather in Sunriver cooled down drastically at night to down in the 40s, so we were able to cool the houses down pretty well from the hot days.

In general, the mornings and evenings were spent all together in the bigger of the two houses, playing games, chatting, and eating. Many nights, the older cousins around our age stayed up well past midnight playing games (the main game of the week was Werewolf). Then, each day, the whole family typically did one bigger activity, and if not, we would head to the local pool. On this blog post, I'll write a little bit about each activity and post some pictures if I have them :)

Lava River Cave Hike

This little hike is in the nearby city of Bend. The majority of this hike is in a pitch black and chilly lava cave, which was a nice relief from the outside weather. At some points, the cave got so small that we were crouching to get through. Overall, the hike was about two miles roundtrip with little elevation gain.

Paulina Falls

Very pretty 60 foot falls! You have the option of taking a short stroll from the parking lot to an overlook, or taking a tiny but little bit steep hike right down to the base of the falls. This hike is only about half a mile roundtrip, which was still manageable for most of the family. Again, it was refreshing to be near the water on such a hot day.

Paulina Peak

Right after visiting Paulina Falls, we drove up to the top of Paulina Peak that is in the Newberry Caldera area. From there, we had an incredible view of the surrounding areas. From there, we could see a big obsidian flow and two lakes, Paulina Lake and East Lake.

Big Obsidian Flow

On the way back down the mountain from Paulina Peak, we stopped at the Big Obsidian Flow. From my experience with obsidian, I pictured the whole thing/area would look like a giant pile of shiny, black rock. Apparently, that's not the case, haha. But it was still neat! It was still a giant pile of rock, but instead with bits and pieces were shiny, black rock I imagined.

Paulina Lake

The final stop on this day trip around the Newberry Caldera area was at Paulina Lake. We stopped there to take a dip and eat a late lunch before heading back to Sunriver. The water was very chilly and refreshing, but the beach wasn't the best so we didn't stay long. Which unfortunately means, no pictures!

Mountain Biking

I think Dustan went mountain biking every single morning we were in Sunriver, usually driving up to Bend to go. I joined him on an easier ride that I actually really enjoyed! It was a lot more gentle (less steep uphill and downhill) compared to Utah riding. My dad, my aunt and uncle Leslie and Pete, and my cousin Sam joined us. It was fun! We went early in the morning so we wouldn't miss much during the day.

SHARC

The SHARC is a large aquatic center in the neighborhood. It was nice to go to when we had some downtime, since the houses we were staying at came with SHARC annual passes for us to use. Again, no pictures...

Reggae Music Festival

One evening, we went to a Reggae Music Night in Bend. There were lots of high people dancing to the music, which was super funny and entertaining to watch. There were also food trucks there, Dustan and I shared some scrumptious dumplings and a shaved ice. Aaaaaaand once more, no pictures! I need to be better about taking pictures with my phone even when we don't have our nice camera on us. At least my mom takes some good pictures and helped me out with this blog post!

Shopping at the Sunriver Village

Yay for shopping! This was Dustan's favorite activity ;) We stopped in some fun stores, got some neat/adorable pants for Eloise (pictured below), and bought yummy ice cream. There was also an arts fair going on in the Village. Dustan and I especially liked looking at the photography booths.

Our week long reunion came to an end too quick! It was so much fun, and I hope we have reunions more often than every like eight plus years like this time. I have such a fun family! And I can't wait to see most of them again at Christmastime when we visit Washington again. Family reunions are the BEST!!

Lots of new blog posts below!!