Family Reunion Cookout

This extended family has a week-long reunion in Minnesota every Summer. Grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles and cousins gather at the same lakeside campground, rent the same cabins and do the same exact things for a full week. It’s a tradition the adults love and hope the kids will continue when they are grown.

Scott and I took these (and many more) photos at one of their cookouts. We arrived at the campground in the late afternoon, just in time to see younger family members return from a day of swimming in the lake. Some walked and some rode a golf cart. All were carrying inflatable rafts and following their noses to a fish fry on the deck of the biggest cabin.

On the deck, men drank beer and teased one another as they dipped their fresh-caught fish in a secret batter. Inside the cabin, women drank champagne and giggled as they assembled a buffet of side dishes and desserts. Down below, kids threw baseballs and played tag. It was an Americana scene straight out of the Norman Rockwell book I carry around in my head.