family retreat

During the Easter celebration at my mom's house this year, my cousins Maria, Kelsey, and Emma approached me with a couple of requests. They wanted to know if I could help them make two things happen: 1. a family weekend away at a state park inn, and 2. a family beach vacation. Over the weekend, we made their first request happen. (The second is in the works for next summer, with Matt and Katie taking over the planning, with my gratitude.)

Gah, these girls! My heart can't take it.

Believe it or not, Easter was actually kind of late to be planning a summer weekend at one of the state park inns, and most of them were already booked up, so we ended up pushing it to this late September weekend and picking Potawatomi Inn at Pokagon State Park based on availability alone. We have stayed here before, though, with the Kruyers and Holidays, so we knew we would have plenty of fun and a variety of things to do. Mike and Henry opted to stay with the doggos and work on projects around the house, so the Fort contingent was me, Max, and Liam.

sandhill crane

Lake Lonidaw

The way the timing worked out, most of us arrived on Friday, September 20, my sixteenth anniversary, and also the first anniversary of Gramps dying. That made it a little bittersweet, but I have to say it was heavy on the sweet and light on the bitter. Gramps was very clear in his last days that his biggest worry was that our family would drift apart after he was gone, so I can think of no better way to honor him than a collection of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren making the effort to spend a weekend away together for no particular occasion or holiday, but just because we like and enjoy each other.

Anyway, the participants this time around were my mom and dad; Kent and Maria; Mike; Laura, Kelsey, Emma, Jimmy, Gracie, and Elly; and me, Liam, and Max. A good crowd. Not so big as to be overwhelming, but big enough to keep it interesting. I opted to get up early both mornings to watch the sun rise, and Laura, Emma, Gracie, and Elly joined me both days, with Maria coming along on Saturday morning. We all had breakfast together at the inn dining room Saturday morning (and a smaller group of us did Sunday morning, while others opted to go into town for doughnuts instead). The kids went swimming in the lake and in the indoor pool, played ping-pong in the game room, and spent a LOT of time in the library playing board games. A bunch of us went to the craft room Saturday afternoon to paint some wooden items (mine is a birdhouse, of course). Saturday night we took over one of the lounges to watch the Notre Dame game. Sunday morning turned out to be the annual Seaplane Splash-In, so we got to see a bunch of seaplanes taking off and landing. You get the idea.

All in all, it was a lovely, relaxing weekend. This is my favorite kind of family gathering: no holiday pressure, no specific traditions to observe, just plenty of time to spend with people I love, talking and laughing and doing as we please. I would do this all the time if I could.