Ah, Lorien

This was the 19th year (I think) my extended family spent a week at Lorien on Long Lake together. I've loved that place and those people for a long time!

Hopefully you're not too tired of me posting about our vacation there to skip my cousin Maureen's beautiful photos of it. (Thanks, Reenie, for letting us steal pictures from you! We don't take ones nearly as nice.)

And yes, it is named after Tolkien's land of Elves and trees.

What a pro!

Yes, Rachel mastered the six-foot unicycle this year!

Sundry Vacation Pictures

Just some more pictures from our time up north in Michigan . . .

Rachel's become a pro at the unicycle!

Jer and I missed out on some vacation action this year. Taking care of a baby precludes some other activities! My parents bought a slack line for everyone to try out . . .

What a cutie!

Two more cuties--watching The Big Game of baseball from the sidelines.

See the green streak? Yeah, that was a strike, Jeremy.

Aunt Rachel!

Sunburned relations.

I dream about sailing all year till Lorien . . .

Andrew introduced Lisa to the joy of sailing, too.

Siblings, minus Rachel. Apparently I missed the memo about cool sunglasses. Elisabeth is sporting the Malto-Meals!

There she is!

All-family dinner.

Yes, that's 25 pizzas.

The flies were awful this year. They had fine-tuned their horribly annoying head-buzzing skills by the time we got to the lake.

Thanks to Lisa for the photos!

Gramps

We used to bug my dad by calling him "Pops." I think "Gramps" fits him about the same (and he'd probably have a similar opinion of the title). Either way, Josiah doesn't call him anything yet--but he does love to be carried around by his wonderful grandpa, who happily obliged quite a bit this summer.

Dem Fine Women

Well, I couldn't just settle on one or two pictures of my sisters and sister-in-law with Josiah . . . so I went whole hog. These, too, are from July up at Lorien.

Oh Hannah, I can only aspire to your coolness.

You too, E.

Kristen is sort of an honorary sister. She and Sharon road-tripped down from the U.P. to meet Josiah!

Auntie Lisa, I hope you impart at least a hint of your refined accent to my children.

Hair-pulling comes with the territory! Thankfully Hannah has plenty of it. She can bear to lose a little.

I love these ones! Nice photography skills, Han. It helps to start with two beauties as subjects, though. :)

Beauty, eh? (Josiah's doing his pirate eye!)

"Enough with the kisses!"