Thursday, July 16, 2026

Thursday blog posts are always a wild card for me, but I like details so I thought I would write a bit more about our Michigan trip. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out Hello Monday.

The Details:

5 cousins (plus spouses and kids) were coming to stay at one cousin’s lake house so the 5 of us started our own group text thread to do all the food so that the host had no food responsibilities. They shouldn’t have any food responsibilities because they were putting us up for 3 nights, no?

Etiquette:

Can we take a moment to talk about etiquette? If you are going to someone’s home, you should always take a gift. Last year we created a basket of products from our respective states of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. These things were to be enjoyed after we left.

Tom had the idea to send Neal a device to make refilling fuel easier, so we also did that when we got home.

We all chipped in cash for gas on the boat and jet skis, too – both last year and this year. Boating is very expensive!

You can treat the host to a meal out, ice cream out, anything that you can do to show your appreciation is the right thing to do.

By the way, when Mason went to stay with German cousin Moritz in NYC, he bought him coasters from his leathergoods store and treated him to a meal and some drinks, too. This was instilled in me as a kid and now I hope my kids will always do this, too. It’s shocking to me when adults don’t do this!

Being a good house guest:

We also all chipped in with the cleanup, the dishwasher loading and unloading, the towel and sheet washing and changing, etc.

We always asked what we could do to help. We didn’t complain about the plan or where we were put to sleep.

The meals:

Everyone was arriving Thursday a couple of hours before dinnertime so we knew we wouldn’t have a lot of time to prepare anything. We decided to bring bbq and sides – cold salad type things and chips. Kate brought brisket, I brought pork bbq, Molly brought chicken bbq and then I made broccoli salad, we had slaw, potato salad, a ramen salad, and a green lettuce salad. Kate and I bought our bbq and Molly made hers at home. We also brought plenty of buns. This meal seemed to be a hit with everyone.

Friday night we ordered pizza from the little market. That was a hit with the kids! We also pulled out leftovers if anyone wanted to add a side.

Saturday night we grilled hamburgers and I made grilled cheeses on a griddle because we had so much bread and so many cheeses leftover. The kids loved that! We probably needed a couple of fresh sides but no one really complained. Someone brought individual bags of chips and we had lots of big bags and dips, too.

For breakfast, I brought bagels, crumpets, and cream cheese and Kerrygold butter and someone else brought yogurt parfait ingredients and someone else brought fruit. One morning, a cousin’s wife made two breakfast casseroles and that was a treat!

For lunches, one cousin was in charge of a sandwich bar and brought all kinds of sub buns and bread and lunch meat and cheese.

I brought homemade brownies, cupcakes, and Rice Krispies treats, and the aunts – my Aunt Sally and my Aunt Judy – brought cookies and cupcakes. Everyone brought appetizers and we enjoyed them in the afternoons:

The breakfast casserole:

I brought Trader Joe’s crumpets last year so I brought them again. I made crumpet lovers out of some of the teenagers!

Even the smallest of the kids could walk to the one little market to get more chips or snacks that they wanted!

I brought my coffee frother and three types of Chobani creamers – cookie butter, s’mores, and toasted coconut vanilla. The teens loved making coffees – hot and cold – and we made dirty sodas with them, too! The frother was a hit!

Everyone brought what they prefer to drink plus more to share.

Tom had ice cream every night and I had it one night – seaside caramel:

The teens make fun of Tom’s ice cream obsession and here he is giving them the side eye! The ice cream closed at 9:00 and Tom would start walking at 8:30 even if no one else was ready. One night he had 10 kids following him like he was the Pied Piper of ice cream.

These are all our kids waiting on ice cream:

Tom and niece Lena:

I think we did a pretty good job with the right amount of food. Last year we went way overboard and had too many leftovers and this year we used up basically all the food.

I do have one major pet peeve – the amount of plastic water bottles we went through (some with only one drink taken out of), and half-drunk cans of soda were out of control. The water there is really good so everyone should have a reuseable water bottle!

Neal and his wife Amy are the most laid-back hosts ever. Neal is an energizer bunny and never stops driving the boat, teaching folks how to use the water toys, talking to people, and just doing whatever to help people have fun. Amy is super chill and doesn’t mind people in her kitchen making messes!

Are you a good host? It takes skill!

Are you a good guest?

Amy

29 thoughts on “Michigan Trip Meals and Details”

  1. It really does sound like such a lovely weekend with everyone pitching in something. Other than staying at my mom’s this past February I don’t think I’ve ever stayed as a guest in someone’s house as an adult. We tend to prefer having our own quiet space to revert to at the end of the night so I often get a hotel or Airbnb nearby whomever we’re visiting.

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  2. Great tips! We have a refrigerator in the house plus one in the garage plus a chest freezer, but I cannot imagine where in the world you would store all of the food. Do they have more than two refrigerators?

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    1. Thank you! They have three cabins so some of the food can go to the smaller cabins. The one in charge of burgers drove to a store and got the supplies. It really wasn’t too much for the main fridge this time.

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  3. I love how everyone chipped in and also gifted your hosts- that is absolutely the right thing to do. Sounds like your meals had something for everyone which is so smart!

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  4. I just love your weekend! You Americans are such pros at fixing gatherings like this! I notice that here too, when there is a cookout or something, everyone has all the equipment like Tupperware, folding chairs, etc! 😀

    Our cabin is really small, just room for kids and us, but we do have a guest house in bad need of renovation… have to fix it!

    Great idea with bringing coffee stuff like you did! And I agree with you about the plastic bottles and cans… drives me crazy that I can’t recycle anything here! We have a Brita pitcher here, works perfectly.

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    1. Well, thank you! Yes, we do love our picnic equipment!
      That is so quaint, though. I love your dedication to cabins.
      I was so happy to have my coffee fixings. We have really good tap water. We just fill our bottles. I buy very little paper plates and things like that, too. We also use cloth napkins.

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  6. I loved reading about the details of your trip, and I love that you do this each year now. The second year in a row now makes it a tradition, right? I try to be a good guest when I stay with someone; I do this when I travel to Colorado to see my sisters. I clean up after myself (and others), I make my bed before I leave with fresh sheets, and I try to leave it as good as or even better than it was when I first arrived.

    I’m working on being a better host every time someone comes over! I want my home to be presentable when someone comes over, and I want to have good food (either that I cook or order in); other than that, I stop there once the food is served. I will sit and laugh at a table for hours on end, and I’ve learned to leave the mess. Everyone chips in with the mess when the house is empty again; it takes very little time to clean up afterward! The only thing I might do would be to cover food or to put something that needs to be refrigerated back in mine. I’m a work in progress!

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    1. Thank you! Well, it’s only the second annual so we will see if we continue to get an invite! Lol. I think being a good guest and host takes practice. I do think it’s important to stay at the table and not jump up to clean. You need to enjoy the guests! I do like to always start with an empty dishwasher for loading after, though.

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  7. Oh yes, I have always been taught if you are visiting someone to take a gift and you have to help out while you are there! It sounds like you all ate so well. That made me chuckle about Tom and the ice cream.

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  8. What a fun Meat tradition! Sounds like you guys have it all dialed in really well. Since we have a Beach House… I try to be a very good host. I love having people over but I also like having the house to ourselves. I will show people one time where the drinks, food, snack, snacks… Are located. And then, after that, you just get up and help yourself and make yourself at home at my house! I’ve also been a guest at several lake houses and other people’s homes and I always take a gift. I always purchase their meals when we go out to eat and always make sure I clean up after myself and keep all of my stuff in its own little location. That’s probably the hardest thing for me as a hostess… I do not like things just sitting around so I’m constantly picking up peoples glasses and putting them away even if they’re coming right back to use them lol oops! All of our good friends have gotten used to my OCD and so they just roll with it lol have a great Thursday!

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    2. Sounds like you are an excellent guest and host. I am the same way. I had trouble with all the water bottles and cans lying around and it wasn’t even my house!

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  9. Love how everyone pitched in and how it all came together.

    I do need an idea for a soccer watching party this weekend where we are invited. What is a good host gift and what food would you suggest we bring? Thanks!

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  10. Sounds like Neal and Amy and the perfect hosts (given their personality traits). I loved reading this post. I agree -everyone should chip in on all the things. Love that time was the Pied Piper. Too funny! This lake tradition is awesome.

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  12. This was a great post! I agree, some people are terrible guests :/

    Maybe someone could encourage water bottle use by buying everyone a personalized water bottle from Etsy. I try to do a “little something“ when we do girls’ trips and that is what I did this year for all of us. You had a huge crew, though, so maybe the parents could pitch in to help with the cost of that? I agree, some days after we take a bunch of people out on the boat we are left with so many half filled bottles of Gatorade and water…it makes me crazy. When the kids were a little, they were allowed to take two things on the boat with them and we put their initial on the cap so there wasn’t arguing once we got out on the boat.

    I would love to vacation with your Tom and get ice cream every night 🙂

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