Michigan

Two weeks ago I traveled to Michigan with my family to meet up with my parents, my brother, and his fiance. The purpose of the trip was threefold: my cousin Beth's marriage, my uncle Tom and Aunt Esther's 50th wedding anniversary, and my Uncle James' 70th birthday.

We stayed at a cottage on Williams Lake, about a mile from the house where I spent the first 5 years of my life. It was really wonderful to stay together and have so much time at the lake--we played in the sand with the boys, chased after fish, went swimming, and cruised around on my aunt Jane and uncle Jim's pontoon boat (they live on the other side of the lake).

The wedding was huge--about 340 people! The anniversary party was the following day at my Aunt Sally and Uncle Tony's place on Maceday Lake, and it was a blast. All twelve of the siblings from my Dad's family were there with their spouses, and there were dozens and dozens of cousins for our boys to play with. There's a lot of musical talent in my family, and as usual a stage with numerous instruments was set up and everyone took turns performing (I've played bass for over 20 years and would have jammed a bit, but didn't think there was any overlap between repertoires--the more conservative members of my family probably wouldn't appreicate hearing "The Goatriders' Horde" or "Toxic Garbage Island.")

This part of Michigan is absolutely covered with lakes, so we took the boys out one morning to one of the undeveloped lakes in a nearby protected areas and caught a bunch of frogs. We only caught spring peepers but saw many northern leopard frogs, who were far too quick for us.

We had a great time and would have enjoyed staying longer. Hopefully we'll make it back to Michigan soon.