Annual Cabin Party

Every summer we spend a weekend at Fish Trap Lake in central Minnesota with friends we have known since college. Steve's former roommate Brett, along with his brother Kirk and thier families, host the annual event for as many people as can make it. This year was actually a smallish year with just 24 in attendance ... in the olden days it was all college buddies who made the trek. Then girlfriends started showing up ... then wives... eventually some babies made an appearance, and now the adults are firmly outnumbered by the short people. Of the 24 this year, there were 10 adults and 14 kids. The kids' ages range from 3 to 12, so it's a great mix.

Of course there is a lot of swimming and water play, with every type of water toy and floation device known to mankind. You can see the beginings of Ty's sunburn on his shoulder ... Ben beat him in that regard by the end of the weekend, despite numerous applications of sun screen.

We all share in the food supplying-and-preparation duties. While some years have seen some very gourmet-style dishes, this year we ended up with a lot of hamburgers and hotdogs in the grill. The moms (mainly!) decided to take it easy and go with a lot of no-fuss menus. The exception was Steve's tradition of Sunday morning pancakes - he really does make the greatest ones around, and he enjoys flipping the 'cakes off the griddle as fast as people can eat them.

There is also fishing for any of the more adventurous kids. They had to bait their own hooks with real worms, and despite having up to 5 kids on one dock (and several swimming nearby) not a single human was hooked by the haphazard casting going on! And a lot of fish were caught. I think Ben got the biggest one of the weekend, though Ashley (just a few months younger than Ben) had the magic hook - she caught one about every 3 minutes, it seemed. Ben says that's because she was allowing the little fish to be caught and that he was going for the bigger ones only ... otherwise he could have caught just as many. Uh-huh, if you say so!

There was boating, innertubing, water skiing for those who dared (Steve represented our family in that activity!) and of course, what cabin-party-at-the-lake could be complete without a fire every night, and s'mores?

The fire pit area is large and close to the lake. We also had sparklers the final night, and several people around the lake had fireworks leftover from the 4th so we got to see some fancy, albeit random, displays in various directions. The kids performed campfire songs (or other songs - whatever they knew and were willing to share) and everyone heard the legend of the man who picked up the hot rock. (and Steve has no lasting scars despite burning his entire palm after that mishap!)

All in all a great 2006 weekend, and we can't wait for 2007!