Labor Day Weekend 2023
Growing up, Labor Day weekend meant a weekend of yard work for our family.
Yeah.
When the kids were young we would often use Labor Day Weekend as a time to go on a vacation because Nick would only have to take four days off of work instead of five. I remember visiting the Henry Ford Museum, camping in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, going to Door County, Wisconsin and more over Labor Days.
Since we’ve had the lake house though, we’ve used it for a time of relaxing and spending time on the water. Over the past years we’ve had holiday weekends like this one where three of us families on the lake pitch in for meals. As a result, nobody has to cook huge meals over and over again all weekend, and each meal becomes a fun time of fellowship and shenanigans. It’s been a lot of fun spending time with friends and family.
Saturday we arrived at the lake. We had a dinner of steak, pork chops, and chicken. There were so many sides and yummy appetizers. It was an amazing meal. After dinner we all relaxed and waited for the fireworks to begin.
But before they could begin we had our annual lakeside croquet game. This year we had the course officially set up by a friend, Brandon, and we all heard the rules before we set off to see who would win. It was so much fun and I am so bad at croquet. I came in last place out of six with our friend Jody winning the game…and the trophy!
The display for the fourth of july had been threatened by rain, so they postponed the big fireworks show until Labor Day. The kids all put their suits on and swam to the water trampoline to watch from there. All of us adults boarded our friends boat and we drove to the middle of the lake to await the show.
It did not dissapoint. The fireworks were beautiful. And being on the water with the reflection and the peace made it even more gorgeous.
Shortly after the show we made our way back to shore and were met with Greg’s world famous homemade ice cream. Paired with our friend Rebecca’s brownies we were eating such a heavenly dessert.
Sunday was equally amazing. We slept in and woke up to begin lunch, BLT’s with friends, coupled with those Chocolate Chip Cookies I made for the weekend. After lunch a group of us adults went out on the boat to watch the kids go tubing. It was fun to watch our friend Seth toss all of the kids around.
After boating the ladies got in the water to float off the end of our piers. It was so nice and refreshing with the super hot day we were having. We only got out when it was time to go to our individual cottage’s and prepare our items to bring to dinner.
For dinner we had a mexican feast with all of the fixings. Guacamole, queso, and pico flowed freely. And after that we headed to the other side of the lake for a karaoke party! Don’t worry…we didn’t sing to anyone but we had a pretty good time watching from the back table!
Monday was heavenly. The family didn’t officially start stirring until 11…I made myself a wonderful cup of coffee and watched an autumn episode of Good Witch while everyone else snoozed. This is the view I woke up to in bed. God’s beauty is breathtaking. It was one of those moments you can look back on when you are having a really stressful day, that just the thought of can bring peace to your mind.
This was the view while I was brewing coffee. It was so nice to stare up into the heavens through the clouds and just day dream while the coffee drip coffee took it’s time.
For lunch we had the traditional Labor Day Weekend meal…hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, corn, watermelon, and all of the fixings. It was so good and as you can see, we had no shortness of yummy foods.
I ate so much food this weekend but it was so good.
After lunch Greg took the kids out tubing. He was a wild and crazy driver and it was so much fun to see all of the kids getting thrown around. Calvin was the first one to fall off.
After wake hours we pulled back in and us ladies floated in the water for about an hour. It was so relaxing and we were in the water so much that I got pruny.
The only thing that got us out of the water was the promise of milkshakes at Rebecca’s with her antique milkshake machine.
I had a grasshopper flavored shake and it was so good! Our friend Rebecca even swirled the cup with chocolate sauce…very fancy and sweet!
After lounging with our milkshakes we looked at the time and realized it was time to get headed back to reality. Emma and I packed up and headed home so I could get working on homeschool planning. Sweet Nick and Calvin cleaned the cottage and got everything picked up so we could come home early.
It was hard coming back home and getting back into the groove of things but also felt so nice.
I lit a bunch of fall candles, made myself a Sweetea’s Cinnamon Roll Iced Tea Latte and got to work, organizing the school work, planning lessons for the month of September and just generally getting things around to be successful for the week.
The weekend and the summer had come to an end but oh, how glorious they were.
The photo below is a lovely depiction of Labor Day Weekend…the sun is still shining, there’s a calmness on the lake, a teeny bit of a hint of chill in the air, and you can see some colored leaves starting to float in the water. Summer gently gives way to the autumn loveliness to come.
I hope you all had an amazing Labor Day weekend. I’d love to know what you did to relax and say farewell to the sweet summer months.
Love you friends!
