Birthday Weekend at the Lake

This past Memorial Day weekend was chosen for a gathering of all 19 members of my immediate family–Kathie and me, all five of our children and their spouses, and all eight grandchildren. Memorial Day makes it possible for the weekend to be a long one, since most of them, especially Travis (Colorado), have to travel a good distance. The other motivation was the nearing of my 70th birthday. In addition to our own cabin, we rented a neighbor's cabin just a short distance away. This way, everyone had a reasonable sleeping space.

Uncle Will started out the first morning by taking two of his nieces on a paddle around the bay. It does look like they are doing all the work, however.

One of the mothers watched protectively but also got a few pictures of her own.

Penny liked our new boat.

We turned down the temperature in the hot tub, and so there were lots of shenanigans there.

Afterwards, drying off on the deck with treats was a good option.

I am creating a nicer, bigger layout of my electric trains in our new garage, and Frederick was completely taken with them. His Uncle Rob helped him operate one of them. Of course, I loved showing them off to Henry, Anders, and all the rest who came for a peek.

OK. I'm kind of a "toys guy." So, now you have to look at a series of pictures documenting some playing we did. Many of you will remember the toy rocket launchers you used to be able to buy by sending in a cereal box top and $1. They actually worked pretty well, but they were small and doused you with most of the water they expelled when you launched them. I found a new one that launches two-liter soda bottles, and it uses a bicycle tire pump to build up good pressure.

The directions specify that you need to stand well back and use a 15' cord to pull the launch release. Maia did one of the first launches.

Rob actually gets credit for capturing this picture–the moment just after the launch release has been pulled and the water inside the bottle is being ejected. Typically, the bottle went up a hundred feet or so, and we had to retrieve it several times from the woods or from the opposite side of the cabin.

Will decided it need fins and a nose cone, so he fashioned some modifications for the bottle.

They didn't really make much difference, but Frederick was fascinated with the whole exercise anyway.

Fishing was attempted, but mostly it was an exercise in swinging a net through the water or casting lots and lots of times.

I include this picture to show that there was a cake decorated with little pine trees and a man in a boat catching some kind of fish. I managed to blow out all seven candles! I guess that at my age, you get decade candles rather than ones for individual years. Sure makes the blowing out lots easier.

Frederick and his dad posed for me. They are good looking guys.

Will had previously planted trees on his property in northern Minnesota, and he had about 45 of them left over–all red pines, I believe. So, he brought them along and dotted them all around our property. (We are getting a nice rain this morning, so maybe they will all get a little boost.)

On Saturday, all 19 of us went to Famous Dave's for a celebration dinner. Here is one table of revelers!?

And here is the other. Which table seems most festive to you?

Game room features attracted some of the younger partiers.

One, however, was not all that excited by the events.

That is, until his Nana showed him around (and showed him off).

Jess and Maia offered a toast.

Later, when the rocket nose cone failed, Anders chose to turn it into a party hat!

The last evening, a professional photographer came out and took pictures of each family, selected other groupings, and a grand shot of all 19 of us together. This is what I had requested as a birthday gift. What a special weekend this was. Thanks everyone for making the effort to be here! The only disappointment was that no one got me anything from the wish list I posted here a couple of times ago. The list was a challenge, I guess. In fact, my friend Murray later said that maybe people could just get me a big stick, and I could take care of the items on the list myself. That's not a bad idea.