We built most of our camp with the lumber that we cleared off the land. Because of all the hard work we have all put into this camp it has a very special meaning to all of us.
Every year we try to pick a project to improve or maintain the camp and every one that can works to help get the project completed before the end of summer.
This year we decided we really needed more room. Our family has grown from the eight of us we used to be. All the girls have spouses now, so they have doubled and are twelve now, and they all have children, so we now have twenty-four grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
Our project for this year was to take down the camp that we have grown to love and cherish, and have a new camp built that will be closer to big enough for all of us. This fall we took the camp down, and we are having a new camp built this fall. Next summer we will all be very busy working to get the inside finished. We will also have a nice big bunkhouse. So we wouldn't lose everything that a lot of our best memories are of, we decided to save the porch and make that into a bunkhouse.
It is the most peaceful, relaxing place in the world to be. We also enjoy seeing all of the wildlife we get to see up here. There is all kinds of different birds that we don't see at home, every once in a while we can hear a bear off in the distance, ducks and geese come right up to the dock so the little ones can feed them. Our favorite is the Loon. They can be seen and heard many times through out the day and evening. Their call is such a beautiful thing to listen to. We also enjoy walking in the woods and seeing all the beautiful wildflowers.

  
The most precious of my memories is all of our children and grandchildren make it a point to be at camp every summer for the fourth of July. I often wonder if we didn't have this very special place if we would ever see all of our children and their families all at the same time. Maybe we would, but I like to think that it is our "Little Bit of Heaven" that makes it happen.
Ten years ago, our nephew, Floyd, decided it would be fun to have a "Wingding" at camp and invite the whole family. This is a really big family, Bob also came from a family of six, and we are all very busy with our own lives and families, and don't get to see each other as often as we would like to. He felt that by doing a special thing maybe most of us would make it a point to be there. He had no idea what he was getting himself into! So he mailed everyone in the family an invitation to be at camp for the fourth of July weekend and said he would do all the cooking for every one and gave a menu no one wanted to miss. Steak, lobster, steamers, salads, strawberry shortcake, jambalaya for
dinner Saturday night, eggs benedict for Sunday morning breakfast. Needless to say, almost everyone showed up. He did such a great job we all decided it should be something we did every year. So began our annual "Wingding". A great big thank you to Floyd and Bec for all the time, effort, and energy they put into this very special weekend that everyone in the family looks forward to every year. Without them it wouldn't happen.
Over the years it has changed a little, and we have added many things to make it more fun every year. The menu has grown and now includes, shrimp, teriyaki chicken, pork cooked Floyd's special way, hamburgers and hot dogs for the little ones, and corn on the cob. Floyd still prepares everything, but he does need a little help getting everything cooked now, so his brother's or uncles pitch in and help. The family has grown so much that there is usually at least 75 of us there every year with all of us feeling we never want to miss it.
It sounds like we spend the whole weekend eating, but we do have activities to stay busy and burn off some of the food so we can eat more. There are volley ball games, baseball games, our own version of golf, badminton, fishing, swimming, boating, the kids love tubing behind the boat. This year Floyd got a new boat, so now we have added water skiing. Lots of visiting and catching up on how everyone in the family is doing and what they have been doing over the last year. The kids also enjoy walking between the camps on the rocks, looking for frogs, pollywogs, snakes, and whatever other critters they can find. The guys enjoy challenging one another at cribbage, trying for that 29 hand, and let me tell you, there is a couple of them that will get one (you know who you are!!) one of these days.
  
We spend Saturday evening sitting around a campfire, this is when the kids enjoy making somores, and we have a beautiful display of fireworks over the water. A big thank you to Rich and Mike for making sure every year we have a better display then the year before. Before we know it, it is Sunday after breakfast, and the time when all the good things must come to an end for another year and everyone has to head home. But we all have more wonderful memories, the kids know one another a little better, and we all have something to look forward to. Our "Wingding", next summer.