It was a cool day, so the fire felt good.

Our large kettle comes in handy for cooking the corn.

Sarah thought the play box made a great place to play! Great hug from brother Evan.

Another great day for a picnic!

It’s been a week of warm temperatures and that means a busy beach! Everyone has been enjoying the warm temps and spending a lot of time on or in the water.

Enjoying the sunny weather!

Katie and Ella having fun playing in the sand.

Last night we enjoyed a much-needed shore dinner. Ballard Lake has a great camp site for enjoying a meal outside. Good friends and family joined us. The only thing missing was a fish dinner. The resort had other plans for John on our day off. Fixing the well pump took priority over fishing. We settled for homemade sausages from Boulder Market Place. Great decision, they were delicious!

Heading into the channel. Thanks to all the rain this year it's an easy ride through.

The pontoon made it through with the rest of the gang coming by speed boat.

Grilling those great sausages!

That's one big pan of potatoes!

John enjoying a much deserved relaxation time.

Chuck learning how to make pudgy pies.

Eleni's pudgy pie birthday dessert.

The gang at the end of a great time together!

Ended another beautiful day enjoying the campfire.

Roasting marshmallows and pudgy pies

Smores....YUM!

Tetherball in the dark?

John lighting sparklers for all the kids.

Tuesday evening we had a strong line of storms hit the area. There were tornado warnings in effect so we alerted the entire resort and offered the basement of the lodge for shelter. Out of the 17 vacation homes 13 of them took us up on the offer. By 8PM the power was out and didn’t come back on for 20 hours. One of the hardest hit areas was just down the road in Star Lake. North Star Lodge lost 20 large trees on their property. We feel very fortunate that we only lost a few small trees along our hiking trail.

Waiting out the storm

Huddled together....even the dogs were joining in the fun

Doorways were full!

Camping out on blankets

Most everyone was in the game room, but we had overflow in the laundry area

Keeping some of the dogs barricaded in the housekeeping closet.

Making memories!

We had the largest picnic of the year today….95 people! The rain held out with only a couple of drops…who knew then that we would all be gathered again that night in the game room.

Catching up with everyone while the meat was grilling

The Wengerts and Moores enjoying their meal

That's a full table!

Enjoying family time together

Aidan and Aidan playing ladderball

Lots of GREAT desserts

Everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather at the beach today. At one point there had to be almost 50 people at the beach!

sunbathing, bean toss game, laughter and more

Fun on the tire swing

Friends and family catching up since last years WBV vacation

Time for some pruning of the trees.

Chris dragging the limbs up the hill.

Loading down the dump truck to bring to the burn pile!

Hillcrest and Woodside have a new dock. It sure does help top have the space for 5 more boats. No more having to use the space at the end of the main dock for boats. It can remain wide open now for kids (adults, too) to fish from. There is also a new deck along the shoreline to sit and enjoy the views.

Space for 5 more boats. Yipee!

Sitting in the new glider chairs is a wonderful way to end the day or enjoy the sunrises.

Carol and Dick took their 1923 Oldsmobile touring sedan out for the first ride of the season this year. Their potluck group took a ride to the Star Lake Store for ice cream.

Five were able to ride in the car, the rest had to follow in a modern-day version.

The old gas pump was finished this week. Too bad it doesn't pump gas anymore.