Into the woods to Grand's Tom's Cottage we go....

Two weekends ago we traveled into northern Wisconsin to visit Andrew's family's "Cottage". It's a red cabin in the woods on Little Muskie Lake near Minocqua & Woodruff, Wisconsin. It has a bedroom and loft that can sleep four each and a porch with a pull-out bed, as well as a living room, kitchen and bath. There's a path to steps that go down to the lakefront and pier where you can fish or take the fishing boat out on the lake. The Cottage, as the family calls it, was built by Grandpa Milt when Andrew's dad was young and was originally intended to be the garage. A house a little closer to the lake was in the original plan. They made the "garage" liveable for the time before the house was built, however the Cottage became so well-equipped the house was never actually built. And the family has been going up there ever since in the summer. Now that Tom and his siblings are older they alternate picking weeks to be up there. And now that the grandkids are getting married and some starting their own families, they are making treks there as well.
Andrew and I made our first trip there together back in the fall of 1998. This trip two weekends ago was our first trip back since then and Ella and Lily's first trip there. Tom and Pat and Ben and Jenelle all joined us for a fun family weekend. We walked along the streets of Minocqua checking out the shops and activities such as mini golf and a family fun center with some Chuck E Cheese-type token games. We took Ella fishing which she LOVED! She was beyond excited when she actually got her first fish with her own little pole. And every fish that was caught she wanted to touch. She would hold her index finger out to it and say to the fish, "I want to touch you okay?" Jenelle and I went out too and caught a couple blue gill, crappies, and a northern. We were very girlie girls though and would not touch the fish or take them off the hooks. :-) Lily fished a little from the pier as well and went for one boat ride, which was more than enough for her.



We ate as some good restaurants (Minocqua Brewery, Auggie's, and Monical's) and enjoyed time hanging out around the Cottage. We made S'mores around a campfire one night, which I learned Andrew has never really done before! (Can you believe that?!)

All in all, it was a fun weekend. Oh, and Andrew and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on Saturday (the 18th). Although it was nice weekend, I think I might want to celebrate just the two of us next year. Maybe we can go up with the whole family again, but on a different weekend. :-) I made the photos in this post small so I could include more. You can click on the picture to make it a little bigger if you like. New photos to the August album coming soon!