Well, as usual, I should be doing numerous other things rather than spending time on the computer, but I wanted to share a few pictures and highlights of our wonderful week of family bonding time. A little history - when I was young, my family would head up north to Cohasset, MN. Cohasset is a little town outside of Grand Rapids, MN, and home to Sunset Point Resort on Bass Lake. Every summer, my dad would take a week off from pastoring our church, and we would rent a rustic cabin to get away from it all. We would pray the one phone at the resort would not ring, calling with some emergency to send us all back home. While that did happen a few times, I relished the time that my dad could get away and we could all enjoy a family vacation.

My dad passed away when I was twelve, so some years were spent regrouping - moving, my mom starting a new job, switching schools, etc. But, sporadically through the years, my family would continue to head up to the resort. I seemed to never be able to go due to work obligations or something. But, three years ago, we surprised my mom by all meeting up there for her 60th birthday. We've decided to go back now, year after year, to continue to the tradition. It is such a great opportunity to bring all of our families together - we hang out, drink A LOT of coffee, read books, play games, swim, you name it. We mostly enjoy just being together and bonding.

This year was unique because it was COLD! These are rustic cabins - no tv, no internet access, just the bare essentials which call you to simpler times. Our nights got down to the high 40's, and the first half of the week had highs in the mid 50's. Who would have thought that we would need to have the heat on in the cabins for the first few nights at the beginning of July??? But, we all made the best of it - it didn't rain, so the kids were still out from morning 'til night. They played army, tetherball, tag, capture the flag, eenie einey over, kick the can, built sand castles, baseball, played on swings, read, talked, ate, played inside games, tried to go swimming, froze, and started all over again the next day. They relished the time together and milked it for all it was worth. As adults, we drank coffee, ate, sat, read, played pinnochle, bananagrams, Wizard, 5 crowns, Blokus, talked, ate some more, laughed, and snuggled under blankets. On Thursday and Friday the kids were finally able to get into the COLD water, but enjoyed it despite their blue lips. Being together was all that mattered.


It's only Tuesday, but it feels like we were gone eons ago. Thank goodness for pictures which keep the memories alive - here are a few of my favorites...

Sunday morning church around the campfire - or, actually, a pile of sticks...






Army time...