It's a Big Family

We spent last weekend with my entire family in Copper Harbor, Michigan.  It's no small event, given our size.  There is a total of 45 of us.  My parents, my siblings, their spouses, and their children.  Plus Jennie. It was amazing. Everything I could have hoped for really.

It's good for the siblings, but at least as beneficial for the cousins. Because we're spread out geographically, my kids don't know all of my neices and nephews.  The first morning, Jack turned to my sister's son and said, "Who are you?" He replied, "I'm Ted!"  "Oh," was Jack's happy reply.  He's probably only seen Ted two or three times his whole life.  It made my heart happy seeing them all play together and interact.  It made my heart happy hearing Shari's rugrats telling (semi) clean jokes around the fire and six-year-old Aubree playing Make Me Laugh in her sweet little voice.  And Tate (three) walking out of his tent in the morning and loud as can be:  "Good morning, everybody!"  I have the absolute sweetest, most wonderful neices and nephews in the whole world.

In February, I got the idea for this camping trip.  But some were focused on planning their Spring Break trips and couldn't make commitments for summer. We are not known for our decisiveness in our family, so I decided to go ahead with our own plans.  Cory had exactly one four-day weekend off this summer, so it wasn't hard to pick a weekend. And since Cory is in love with Lake Superior (seriously.  he might love it as much as he loves me), it wasn't hard to pick a location.  We settled on Copper Harbor.

The locals, Amy and Dan said they'd come out and camp with us.  Then Mike and Shana said they were going up there in June, but I pushed them hard to come in July instead (thanks, guys!).   After that, one by one, the others joined in. Last to commit were my parents. My dad was obligated to a golf tournament, which evidently the only legitimate excuse for not coming is death), but at the end of the day, they couldn't pass up the opportunity to be with their brood. My apologies to the rest of his foursome...we're glad they were there.

I hope we do it every year...life is too short and family is too important.  Don't tell the Yoopers, but I'm going to be pushing for Baker Park next year!