Unwind and recharge Up North

For most English speakers, up north is a direction. For Michiganders, it is a place. The day after the wedding my mom and I went Up North to relax and unwind after the craziness. My friends, their munchkins, and their mom were able to join us for the first few days at Lorien. I loved having ample downtime with them, and Lorien is an ideal place to give kids lots of freedom. The days were a bit chilly, but the kids swam and we sprinkled our days with the playground, walks, happy hour, and campfires. The kids were really into roasting marshmallows (i.e. setting them in fire and trying to blow them out) before proudly presenting them to one of the adults, who in turn tossed it in the fire. You can only eat so many marshmallows. Cheap entertainment. On Tuesday night my brother and sister in law joined us, which means my brother took over the grilling and made us slow smoked ribs. Yum. On the fourth we went and visited my aunt, uncle, cousins, and Grampa who were staying about an hour away. At my uncle's hunting lodge, I celebrated America by shooting a gun for the first time, actually, two guns. Petty fun. 

We had great weather the entire week and I loved the lazy mornings (and afternoons) and a chance to be Up North n the summer for the first time in quite a number of years. 

Beautiful lazy afternoon to sit and read

The boys playing on the slide

I shot some sort of rifle thingy, and this revolver