Burt Lake

It's not summer without the annual family gathering at Burt Lake. And here we are!

It was a small crowd this year. The California cousins couldn't make it, and Jeff and Courtney were at a wedding that weekend. That left the rest of us to uphold all the traditions as best we could - and initiate Nick to boot. Maggie had already gone to bed on the evening we took the family photo above (just one of the items on the yearly must-do list). But she figures prominently in most of the other photos.

Here she is with her game face on the cornhole court.

The cornhole board also makes a fine slide.

Next on Maggie's agenda: Hammock time.

Then all Aunt Kate needed was a stack of beach towels and some clothespins to recreate a family favorite for the next generation. The hammock fort lives on!

Meanwhile, the first generation surveyed the scene from the front porch.

Of course, there was also bocce on the lawn, pontooning, sailing, and kayaking, swimming and frisbee-tossing in the bathwater-warm lake, fish fry night and a Dutch Oven morning, tunes on the player piano, and most of the rest of the things that have made it summer on Burt Lake for the more-than-thirty-years we've kept this family gathering going. (Just like last year and the year before and the year before that...which makes this the fourth summer of the blog, doesn't it!) A few more photos from this year's festivities here.