A Day at the Lake - Reunion - Part Something

I've written several posts about reunions in the past, but I have to say, this was probably my favorite. It wasn't the activities so much as the location.

We usually go to a site hours and hours away and the lake was a long walk and the water was so cold you couldn't stay in long. 

There were biting flies, sand fleas and flies and mosquitoes along with an outhouse and a hand pump to round things out. 

The group site was slanted and there were no hook ups for electricity so we had to use the trailers or out houses. 

On the occasions that it rained, everyone was stuffed into the trailers or in the tents and it made us sad to drive all that way to not be able to enjoy each others company due to rain. 

We did have fires there and that was something that was missed at this new site but I will give up the fire for the other amenities for SURE.

When looking to see if I posted about the other camp site, I found that I have never posted about it other than this one the first year I started blogging. It is about cooking over the camp fire. In 2010 we tried another camp site and it was worse than the one we went to for years. Here is a link to that post where you can see a bit of the site. .

The three days we were at the lake, I didn't see one biting bug. Not one. I got no bites, the kids got no bites and we had one or two flies. It was wonderful.

The other thing is that the lake wasn't as cold. There were also picnic tables at the beach every ten feet or so, so that everyone could have one to enjoy. 

There wasn't a huge walk to the water from the beach. There was a walk from our group site to the beach but we liked that due to the little children. We didn't want them running off to the beach without supervision. 

I took some fun beach toys and my dad also brought some fun things but this site also had two "diving docks" that were about a 25 foot swim away from the beach edge so that people could safely dive into the water without issue. They were VERY popular. 

There are no motor boats allowed on the lake or any motors actually which made for a quite relaxing time except for the ATV's which roared in and out but for the most part, it was nice.There were paddle boats and canoes for rent. Grandpa and Grandma were amazing, as usual, providing those for the kids use and some fun beach toys.

There was a golf course about a 30 second walk from our trailers and a driving range that were used by the men of our group. Princess Four was at a leadership camp or she would have joined in the golf. Prince number One had fun with my brothers and dad on the driving range while my brothers and brother-in-law enjoyed a round of golf earlier in the day.

There was a mud bog a short drive or a long walk to the other side of the campground and a hose to wash off afterwards. The older kids thought it stunk so the little kids had a wonderful time miring in the mud. 

The pavilions for the group sites were great. They have three or four group sites where they have plenty of parking for cars, hook ups and different size pavilions. I think we may try for a smaller pavilion closer to the water next year. 

The one reason we may want to stay with the larger site was the huge bathrooms and showers that were mostly ours to use. They were VERY clean and well stocked and key codes on the showers made it easy to get in. 

They had plenty of hooks for clothes and lots of hot water. The bathrooms were always just ours. I never went in when anyone was there that was using them that wasn't from our group. 

I liked that I didn't have to dump the trailer as the bathroom was about thirty steps one direction and the pavilion was about the same in the other direction. There was plenty of parking for the kids cars and everything was included in the group site fee.

The kids enjoyed the clean water and I enjoyed visiting with everyone on the beach and did get in to save one of the toys from blowing across the lake. 

I wanted to swim more but really enjoyed just visiting with everyone that we only get to see a few times a year.  The sand was much better than the little pebble sand at our usual spot as well. 

There were trees dotted along the beach as well, which gave shade for those who are now of the age to hide from the sun rather than lay out. 

I laughed when I compare the photo of my dad and step-mom (in name only, she is like a mother to me) with their hats, glasses, long pants etc with the photo here of princess Two laying out. I have one picture with about five laying out but I don't want to offend some of the people in the picture by posting them in bathing suits online. 

However, I think I can share this cute picture of my nephews and nieces building their sand castles at beach edge. They had so much fun and as we were telling my dad (grandpa) about how much we enjoyed the reunion and thanking him for having it, Princess Two said, "Yes grandpa, if we do this again next year, I'll bring a male friend with me!" 

To that, my dad replied, "We'll do it for sure then." very emphatically. He would love to see more of his grandchildren getting married as several are getting older he jokes with them that they need to find "someone." 

I, for one, am going to go camping to this new site again. Just a few days ago, I was telling a friend of mine to rent one of the cabins they have available there. The savings on gas (not having to drag a trailer and a second car to drive her kids,) trailer dumping fees, hook up fees etc probably make the cabins worth the price.

All in all, a wonderful reunion and a great destination. THANKS GRANDMA AND GRANDPA!