Sum Escape: Wonderful Family Time! Higgins Lake and Muskegon Cottages. August 11-26, 2018

We arrived at our Higgins Lake rental cottage late on Saturday afternoon and Jordan and Eliza, Sarah and Joe and Brett and Natalie all joined us almost immediately. It was so great to see them all! During the week we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary, August birthdays for Eliza, Natalie and Joe, Brett and Natalie's engagement, as well as other family events. Jordan wanted us to remind everyone that we also celebrated national middle child day.😀

It was so wonderful to have everyone together for this time. So many memories of camping at Higgins Lake were remembered together!
The cottage was not in such great shape when we arrived but the landlord lives right next door and promptly remedied some issues. On Saturday evening he came with a peace offering....a pontoon ride for the sunset with swimming off the top deck included! A good guy.
We also had Austin and Lauren, Brett's friends who are the children of two couples who are our friends visit as well. We all had a great walk to the ice cream store near the state park where we camped years ago. What fun!

On the way back Julie said it would be easy to get some firewood for a campfire. With 9 of us we each grab a piece and carry it back to the cottage! This is how we try to keep fit.

Breakfast time Dad's pancakes, eggs and bacon.

Making sandwiches for the pontoon outing.

We rented a pontoon to visit the sunken island and sand bar areas frequented with our old Four Winns boat in days gone by.

We also hit the camp candy store for some treats as well...there were many trips there in years gone by!

Dad still buys of course!

About the lake and park.

The sunset from the state park.

Everyone but Julie and I had to leave by Tuesday mid day (some even sooner due to work schedules) so it was tough to say good bye to all. But our friends Tim and Pat came up to join us for a couple days. They and their family used to camp with us for many years at Higgins Lake so we too had to rent a pontoon and visit the swimming holes. But being a little older....not much swimming.

But that after lunch nap sure was great!

Our lonely fire after all had departed. But very nice and peaceful.

On Saturday Aug 18 we moved to the next rental cottage in Muskegon. On Sunday we took Mom to church and then all attended Julie's uncle Bud's (Alex) 100th birthday celebration. What a great celebration! He even drove his Farmall Cub tractor into the party! His family did a great job with the party and it was well attended.

During this week we visited Mom all but one day around all our dentist, eye doctor and ophthalmologist appointments.
We had Julie's brothers Craig and Kevin, their wives Erin and Deb and also Julie's cousin Jill for dinner one night. It was great to see you all and visit a bit!
Saturday Aug 25 marked Tom's Mom's 95th birthday with a meal and cake and ice cream at the cottage. Mom arrived at 2 and did not leave until after 9. She and all attendees had a great day visiting and reminiscing. Happy 95th Mom!!