A Cottage On A Lake Up North

This weekend was full of more Fourth of July magic.  We got up early Saturday morning and headed up north.  Going up north is just something all of us Michigan people do in the summer.  We head north to lakes and cottages, big and small.  Kid Rock had a big hit song about up north adventures.

Up North is anywhere north of where you live.  An hour, four hours, upper peninsula? If it's north, it's "up north."

My husband's family has a cottage on a lake up north.  Every Fourth of July (or the week of), over 70 members of his family go to this cottage on a lake up north.  

I've been there from the beginning.  My in-laws bought the place and hosted the first party way back in 1998,  the summer I met my future husband.  This cottage on a  lake up north was where I was first introduced to his cousins and aunts and uncles and grandfather.  I remember that first night around the camp fire they were quizzing me and seeing how many names I could remember.

Every year, every Fourth of July for the past 15 years, we have gone to the party at this cottage on a lake up north.  Looking back this weekend, we laughed about how much fun I was 15 years ago.  And how much alcohol I could throw back in those early years, which was the main reason I was so fun.  And how much I used to worry about what my passing dish was for the ginormous potluck dinners.  

For the past 11 years, it's been about our kids.  It's been about the sparklers, the boat rides, the swimming, the fishing, the ice cream cones, the campfires, the marshmallows, the parades, the candy bar bingos, the sand piles...the traditions. 

There are a LOT of kid up north.

Every family has a parade right?

For the past 11 years, it's been about watching my kids make connections with their dad's aunts and uncles who played with him while he was growing up.  It's about watching all the second and third cousins running and laughing and connecting.  It's not about passing dishes, alcohol, sunscreen, or matching T-shirts or Kid Rock songs.  It's all about connecting.  Connecting with family, love, nature, the water, the sky, the past, the present.  

It's about moments like this...JT watching closely as  his "Bubba" fixes something up.  

All of this connecting is paving the way for the future, the next generations, to keep on carrying on all of this Fourth of July magic at a cottage on a lake up north.

"Catching Walleye from the dock, 
Watching the waves roll off the rocks...." 

Time To Put Away The Sparklers

Celebrating our independence this year is the party that just won't quit.  And well, um, I'm over it people.  Not to be a Fourth of July Scrooge, I just wish people would quit with the damn fireworks already.  

Don't get me wrong, we had a great time this past weekend.  I mean come on, what other family do you know that has a parade with a red, white and blue decorated tractor and kids singing "Yankee Doodle Dandy"? Followed up with the Pledge of Allegiance under the flag?  Seriously? Do you know any other family?


There was swimming, fishing, cookouts and more good old-fashioned Fourth of July fun.  It was good.  


But now I'm ready to put away the sparklers and get going with the rest of the summer.


Some updates:
Notice anything special about this picture? 

Besides the adorable baby Wade who I dressed in one of Peyton's old outfits?  The flowers!  Flowers that I planted and managed to keep alive in this mad drought.  It's a small miracle and gives me hope for my green thumb potential. (Click here for a brief history on my lack of a green thumb.)


JT is doing just fine with his broken arm.  Sure there are moments of bummed-out-ness.  We had to rig up some bubble wrap, plastic bagging for him to participate in the lake fun this past weekend (the cast is waterproof, but the Dr. advised against lake water).  He was not extremely pleased with what it.  (I of course wish I could put bubble wrap all over him and the other kids to protect them from everything.)

By parade time, nothing seemed to really be bothering him.  His behavior was a bit disturbing to me for other reasons though.  He was acting like he was the crazy fraternity boy in a drunken parade rather than a sweet cousin/family parade.  Oh boy.

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