Family reunion: Frogtrap II

What, still no Grand Canyon pictures?  Nope, you'll have to wait.  Here are some pictures from a family reunion we recently attended though.

"Frogtrap II", the reunion, was for Drew's side of the family. We came from as far away as Japan, Singapore, Montreal, and Oregon to gather at a summer resort in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York to un-knot and retie family ties.  The last official family reunion that was not associated with a wedding, graduation, or funeral, was 30 years ago.  It was probably time to see how the family had grown and changed.

The place we stayed was called Timberlock, and I would highly recommend it to any family looking to have a great time at their reunion.  One of the great things about Timberlock was that each familial unit had their own cabin or, in Drew's and my case, a "tentlet".

 Our tentlet

The tentlet was just a mini cabin right on Indian Lake that included beds, a wash basin, and a little woodstove, but no bathroom.  Sharing the bathroom

The bathrooms

was not an issue because they were were clean and nice and there were only a few other people staying in tentlets.

The next greatest thing, which to tell you the truth I was initially concerned about, was the lack of electrical power or cell phone service.  Turns out I loved it.

The third greatest thing was the abundance of activities we could do, unscheduled, and just plain fun.

There was swimming in a fantastic lake equipped with a rope swing and water trampoline,

Water skiing and sailing (Drew and I didn't get a chance to sail, but others did)

Canoeing and kayaking

 Brothers - like old times

 

Heading for home

Paddleboarding

Hiking

The little sailboats on the lake were Dan & Kathy and Houston & Linda I think.

dry-land rope swinging

badminton, and archery.  Other activities that we didn't get a chance to do included horseback riding, tennis, ping pong, and sailing.


There was plenty to do, but we also had time to mingle and visit with relatives we have not seen for a long time.

 and meet two of the newest editions to the family:

1. Ivy

and 2. Fulton

 3 generations

 
With all that to do, there was still quiet time to read, nap, sit around, or do puzzles in the lodge.

 (get it, SIT around ;-))

And what family reunion would not be complete without custom t-shirts?  Thanks to Drew's Dad, sister-in-law, and niece, we each got to customize our own t-shirt.

Now that's a real family reunion!

Meals were fabulous and served family style on the dining porch.  The cook and all the staff were very attentive to our culinary needs.  You'd think with all that jumping on the trampoline I did, I wouldn't have gained any weight, but the still-warm chocolate brownies were too good to refuse.

On the first night, Aunt Linda treated us to special birthday cake and cupcake to celebrate what would have been Drew's grandfather's 100th year. We each had a cupcake that had our name and birthday on it. Plus, they were tasty!

In the evenings, we were treated to entertaining and sometimes poignant family home videos digitally remastered and set to entertaining and era-appropriate music by Drew's Unka G.  It was cool to see that much family history.

On another evening, there an entertaining magic show.

We stayed four days, but should have stayed a week because Timberlock was such a beautiful and relaxing venue at which to gather to reunite with Drew's family.  Even though I am raving about how great Timberlock was for Frogtrap II, the truly best thing about the long weekend was getting to spend time with Drew's family.  I got pretty lucky to marry into such a good group!  Thanks to Unka G for organizing us and entertaining us! 

 The 5 siblings.

So how do we pay back Unka G for all his hard work organizing the reunion and editing hours and hours of old video?  We drag him back across the country flying non-revenue on Southwest.  We made it as far west as Denver, but ended up stuck at the airport at 10 pm with no nearby hotel vacancies or cars to rent.  So we enjoyed a less than comfortable night in the airport.

At least we were rewarded with a fabulous sunrise the next morning before catching the flights back to SLC and PDX.

Great family! Great time!

*Thanks to Linda and Eliza for some of the photos in this post.