This summer we rented a cabin at Camp Everest in Milton, VT, for a week in July. If I could have designed a perfect week for us, I could not have done better than what played out naturally over that week. Family fun, traditions, swimming, relaxing, boating, late night talking, grilling, Raging, frogging... and doing it all together with some of our favorite people on the planet (who we happen to be related to). As Nate put it: can we do this every year?
Please. YES.
We rented what is generally called "Bob's Camp" from the Morway family, who own most of the land and many of the cabins of Camp Everest. It's two bedrooms and especially the screened in porch were ideal for our family plus the many visitors we enjoyed over the week.
Weekend #1 started on Friday, July 17, with a drive to VT after work. We arrived at Janet & Pete's house at 1am. Saturday morning we enjoyed a pancake breakfast made by Janet, and the usual antics in the yard.
Mandy, Skyar, and Kitsu came up to say hi
Must test all the equipment
Yup, this works, too
By Saturday afternoon we'd moved ourselves and two cars loaded with food, clothes, games, swimming/boating paraphernalia, and who knows what else to our new cabin home. It didn't take long for all of the Hutchins great-grands to take over our screened in porch:
Then it was time for some serious frogging, boating, swimming, and general gathering of people.
Photos of our family sitting just like this have been taken for decades at this very spot
Getting some bites with Kali
As Nana Hutch put it on Facebook: "The
Hutchins have been catching frogs at Camp Everest for 87 years. You
would think the frogs would know enough to hide by now. Tradition...it is
all about tradition!"
Relaxing and reflecting
Not a flattering shot, but a good moment anyhow off the back of the boat at the sandbar.
Dinner group on Saturday night.
Saturday night, someone (Mike and Kristen) suggested that we adults could head off into the sunset, literally. We left the kids at home in the capable hands of Kyra, the oldest of the next generation of cousins.
Sunset cruise on Mike and Kristen's new boat
On Sunday, before Cole and Owen had to go home to Massachusetts with Mike, we attempted a great-grands photo. Cora was NOT into it.
C'mon, Cora! Just sit with us!
One for the scrap books. Or just the scrape pile.
Later on Sunday, some Jensen-Helland visitors began to arrive for an overnight stay.
To the beach!
Sunday night, all the little girls (Cora, Alivia, Myla, and Lienna) had a "sleepover" in Karisa's tent outside our cabin. There was no sleeping, but there was so much giggling and shenanigans until finally we had to make good on the old standby parental threat to "come in there and separate you!". Other Camp Everest neighbors told us later in the week that listening to those girls had made them smile so hard it hurt that evening.
The next morning, we took Alissa and Brooke on a tour of Camp Everest, including a visit to the Sevene camp even though they were all still in pajamas.
Chillin' on the lawn before Karisa and her girls headed home
I babysat Silas and River while the bigger folks went on a Whaler ride with Nate and Cora. This happened:
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