Sister, Sister

The other weekend, a few days after we'd returned from our annual Power family Door County retreat, we headed out of Crystal Lake again to spend the weekend on another lake with the Bork family for a celebration of Dad Bork's birthday (I think he's 49).

Our retreat took place at Greg and Paula's lake house in Michigan, which they bought last year. The terrific cottage is on Little Crooked Lake, one of the Sister Lakes, about 17 miles east of Lake Michigan. The whole gang was there: me and Trevor, Greg, Paula and Bo, and Mom and Dad Bork.

Trevor and I drove up on Friday night after work, and although it was too dark to see them, these two fellows were there to greet us as we walked up the front steps:

I love these guys

We didn't spend too much time jabber-jawing because we needed to rest; the next morning we were heading out on the lake. T. and I had gotten bit by the pontoon bug the weekend before, in Sturgeon Bay, so we were ready to rock and roll. Or, really, ready to go tool around on a boat and drink beer. You know: rock and roll.

And Saturday morning, we were ready. Greg and Paula, who are kind of amazing hosts, fed us muffins and coffee, and Bo let us have a few pieces of his watermelon. And then, it was lake time.

Greg and Trevor get the Super Mable ready for the waverunner.

Looking good, fellas.

Since we spent the following three hours in the water (swimming, waverunner-ing, pontooning, swimming, floating with a noodle...), I didn't take any pictures. So, just deal with it.

We broke for lunch when Mom and Dad Bork arrived from the city. And after sandwiches and chips, we were back on the water.

Mom "Grandma" Bork and Bo, who is either screaming at the water or about to scoop it all into his little gob

Paula makes pontooning look gooooood.

The birthday boy and his lovely wife

Capt'n Borkster

G + P on the Super Mable

Now, you may be asking yourself, "where's Bo during all of these pontooning shenanigans?" Well, see the picture of Trevor behind the wheel of the boat? And see that lump of beach towel behind him on the right? That's Bosco.

It seems that Bo gets onto the pontoon and almost immediately falls asleep. In fact, as soon as everyone was on board, even before Greg pulled out onto the lake, Bo got onto the seats, his butt in the air, and asked Paula to cover him with his towel. The kid slept for two hours.

Is that a pile of towels?

Nope. It's just my nephew.

Apparently the novelty of having a lake house and an awesome pontoon boat have worn off for Bo. Lucky for me and T., we had no such disillusion and spent the rest of the day floating about, our pale legs kicking around in the gloriously warm water.

That evening, Greg grilled us up some dinner...

The Gregs, junior and senior, in their natural grilling habitat

...and then after waiting an appropriate amount of time (30 seconds), we headed to the front yard to get the fire pit roaring so we could do this:

Oh, hello there.

The careful roasting of marshmallows

Nothing careful about Paula's method: light it up...

...and then cool it down.

And this was the result.

Dad was a little reluctant to eat something that had been speared with a stick and roasted within an inch of its gooey little mallow life, so he abstained from the s'mores and opted to bond with Bo.

I left my pants on the boat, but I don't caaaaaaaaaare!

After we'd ingested more sugar than was good for us, we ambled inside for another round of man vs. woman Trivial Pursuit. And, obviously, we let the men win because we felt bad for them. That's all we're going to say about that.

Trevor and I drove back to Crystal Lake and promptly collapsed with vacationitis. We had a great few getaways this summer--Austin, Door County, and the Sister Lakes--but we were happy to be back to a semi-regular schedule and some work on the new house. And that work will be the focus of the next few updates, so stay tuned!

Hope you all had a wonderful summer, too. And who knows? We might just get a few more days of warm summer weather before the snowstorms start in September!

Michigan, For the First Time

This weekend Trevor visited Michigan for the first time in his entire life. It was monumental.

Well, maybe not monumental, but it sure was a lot of fun.

Greg and Paula got a lake house recently in Michigan and T. and I went up (and over) to spend the weekend with them, Bosco, and the elder Borks. It was a quick drive for a day and a half of gorgeous sun-filled Michigan.

On Saturday the seven of us took a tour to some of the local wineries. Bo was our designated driver since he's more of a whiskey man.

A picture with a cardboard monk

The gorgeous family

Vineyards

But we didn't only tour wineries. We had to get some substance in our bellies, so we went to the Chocolate Garden and had a tasting before buying some real food. Like cayanne pepper and dark chocolate truffles, and drinking chocolate mixes. You know: real food.

Dad Bork, using a refined writing instrument to fill out his chocolate tasting ticket

T., checking out the Michigan he's been missing all these years

After tooling around all afternoon, we all got a little sleepy--some of us more than others.

So we headed back to the lake house to rest up before dinner.

A panoramic shot off the back deck (with T.'s new iPhone!)

Down to the beach

Hi!

And then Greg and Trevor got the grill going for dinner (not chocolate truffles, but it was still good).

T. on the back deck

Greg at the grill

We had a little time to play while dinner was cooking, and Bo showed off his excellent conversation skills for the camera.

He may not say a lot of English words yet (although no, yes, boat, mama, no, sit here, no, help me, watermelon, and no are all in his wheelhouse), but he sure has style!

After dinner we played a lively round of Trivial Pursuit and although the men kind of won by a little bit (or maybe by twice as many pie pieces, but whatever), the ladies were amazing and would have won if it hadn't been so late. That's right. We lost because we were tired.

The girls were pretty tired, too, although they pretended for a while.

We're UP!

And, we're down

And we all slept like exhausted chihuahuas until this morning when Greg woke us up with a delicious egg breakfast.

The weekend was tons of fun and we're looking forward to making many more visits to the lake house over the years (especially to make use of Greg & Paula's new boat and wave runner).

And then we drove home and, after unpacking I promptly fell into a nap. For three hours. And if you think I won't be able to sleep tonight, you'd be sorely mistaken. Sorely.

(this is a picture from last week during T.'s Columbia College Reunion--another post on that will be coming soon)

Goodnight.