We had our second anual family reunion up north August 17th – 19th. Up north is better defined as a legitimate four hours straight north. In the middle of nowhere on a tiny lake that doesn’t offer much as far as waterskiing, but does offer great fishing, hunting, ATV rides, nature, hiking, etc. There were roughly 60 people up there this year. We have decided we will try to do this the same weekend every year. The term Family Reunion makes it sound more formal. That is not the case. It is just a large group of people doing what they want to do with their time up north.
The fact is that in the 1950’s there was one cabin on a significant amount of land. My grandparents shared the cabin with my grandma’s sisters and their families. Over time all of the families grew in numbers and eventually the land was split up and more cabins were built. When I was growing up there were still many families sharing only a couple of cabins. As kids we certainly didn’t care that we were sleeping on pull out couches and the grown-ups were awake talking an laughing as we were trying to sleep. It was fun to hang out with all of our cousins and run around in the woods, etc.
We are now on our third generation of adults and again the families have grown. As our grandparents sadly passed away some decisions needed to be made. Today there are three cabins in a row, still owning a decent amount of land. My parents own one cabin, my dad’s cousin owns the middle cabin and my dad’s brother owns the third cabin. It is still fun to walk between cabins and see familiar faces.
The fact is that as the families have grown, it is more and more difficult for everyone to get together on the holidays. There are just so many other families that each of us has to split time with throughout the year. This third weekend in August has proven to be a perfect time for everyone to come together and share some laughs and enjoy each other’s company.
By night the cabins are full. There are motor homes and trailers and tents scattered everywhere. A few go to be early and others stay up late by a fire. During the day there are more kids than I can count running around playing with other kids. A few are familiar, but overall they really don’t get to spend much time with throughout the year. By the end of a couple of days, they could be best friends. It is amazing how easily kids get along.
One of the only schedules we keep are for meals where we move from one cabin to the next with each passing meal. All 60+ people eat together and catch up. The other scheduled activity is the parade. The kids spend hours decorating their bikes and wagons. The parade makes a loop between the cabins and everyone sits outside to watch the parade pass. All of the kids, and admittedly some of the adults, spent the last 51 weekends thinking about the 2nd annual parade.
I find myself thinking that all of our grandparents, the original owners of the single log cabin, would never have dreamed this many people would be enjoying the same “middle of nowhere” area where they spent hours talking about anything and everything.
An enjoyable weekend with better weather than the Twin Cities had. 51 weekends to go until we get to meet again!
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