Happy 60th Birthday Nana!
We all gathered in the North Woods at the cabin to celebrate Mom's birthday. It was great to have a long weekend up there with the family (we were missing Jonathan and Sigan-next time!). We all had a wonderful time; out on the water be it in the kayak, canoe, or row boat, eating all of the great food, sitting by the huge fire Benjamin and Mike made in the fire pit, but mostly just spending time re-connecting as a family and creating memories.

Gwendolyn and Joseph taking a little stroll around the cabin, there was no rain (at least not when the kids were up) but they couldn't get enough of the umbrellas!

Benjamin and Mike almost rolled Benjamin's car trying to go to the store rather than making Bryan and Brian come in from their fishing trip!
(Brian had the only set of keys to Mom's car and it was blocking the drive way!)

We had a small birthday celebration while we were there, the plan was for it to be in honor of Nana's 60th but we ended up covering a lot of the summer birthdays. I made a chocolate cake called "La Bete Noire" a recipe from the Wild Roast Cafe in Minneapolis.

I was surprised how much the kids liked the cake, since it was not a traditional cake with frosting. It was a flowerless bittersweet chocolate cake with lightly sweetened fresh whipped cream, you have to start them early on the good stuff!

We had a great time playing "Holie Board"! Gwendolyn wanted to play but she wanted to play her way, it was really cute she wanted to throw the washers sitting down!

Olivia' s turn with the umbrella...

I LOVE this picture of Eileen and Benjamin! They were waiting their turn to play holie board.

Bryan and Papa even got to play some horseshoes.

And some cuddling in the hammock after a long day of boating, hiking, playing, and eating!

Within 20 minutes of beginning our drive they were all out! If only they had stayed asleep the whole drive rather than just half! It was a great trip and we can't wait to get back up there!