36 people. 1 week.

This year's Sylvester family vacation is in the books. And a more perfect book it could not be. The weather was perfect, the company was perfect and the vacation turned out pretty perfect. Each year my mom's family takes a vacation up by Ely to Mattila's Birch Lake Resort. This was our 9th year.That family vacation no longer just includes family; we've added some family friends, and they make it that much better.
Each year we choose themes for a few of our days up there. We get together in February or March for the Babbitt Planning Party and choose themes. This year our dress up, make food for and decorate for themes were Hillbilly and Margaritaville. Our food-only themes were Oktoberfest and anything-on-a-stick.  We also have a fishing contest the day of the fish fry each year, and this year included some Minute To Win It games, which turned out to be a blast.
We visited Ely's Blueberry Arts Festival on Sunday, which is a tradition for us. Brassy and Chad and Cris also came up there, so we all ate lots of fried food together and walked around visiting the vendors. But, it was just too nice to be in town, so we decided to head back to the resort for some volleyball. Each year we also play volleyball with a few of the locals. We know where one of the kids works, so we find him at work each year and plan our volleyball games. Always a good time!
We took many booze cruises, both during the day and for sunset, the latter being my favorite. We ate lots of food, drank lots of cocktails and ate a few jelly shots. We all enjoy each others company and look forward to our Babbitt trip each year.

the girl cuzzies

a paper lantern we lit one night

playin' volleyball

anything-on-a-stick night

red neck yacht-clubbin' one night

shooting water balloons

the only clouds we had all week came Friday afternoon when a storm skirted us to the south

Hillbilly night and some of the ladies