2025 – A Year in Review
From family trips to building projects and new additions to the Sams family, 2025 has had a lot of happenings!
This year was so full in so many ways. From the interactions we had with you all around the fire, in the lodge, and so forth, to big family events, and beyond, we were never bored this last year! Let’s take a look back at our 2025, month by month.
Part of the Sams family on a dock in Roatán!
January
2025 kicked off with a family/team trip to Morada Coralina, Campfire Bay Resort’s Caribbean cabin down on the island of Roatán off the coast of Honduras! We all had a great time checking on our cabaña while showing everyone around to some of the best spots on the island.
From snorkeling off our dock and over to some coral heads, to zip-lining down the mountain, to having some amazing fresh food, it was a great time to grow closer as a family! If you want a comprehensive guide to Roatán, check out Luann and Kerry’s breakdown over on our testimonial page. And if you wanna see what the place looks like, check out our YouTube video on it!
Also in January, we had our clothing-buy day. For those of you unaware, this is when everyone goes to our clothing supplier and spends upwards of 8 hours perusing designs, fabrics, cuts, and so forth to bring you the best and freshest styles for our Campfire Bay merch every year! It’s exhausting for sure, but so fun!
February
February came with a few big events here at the resort! We hosted a Murder Mystery weekend and while turnout was small it ended up being the perfect size for our test run of this event. It was a blast and we received fantastic feedback to make 2026’s even better.
We also had our Summer-In-Winter weekend, filled with a Pickleball tournament, campfire donuts, tie-dye, and more! We can’t wait to host it again this year – if you’re interested in joining, you can learn more on our Special Events page!
Project from our free-create Decoupage class.
March
The third month brought Craft Camp, a weekend full of jewelry making, pottery, painting, knitting, and collaging to the resort. While we’d never done it before, it was a blast and we’re looking forward to bringing it to you again in 2026!
March was also the month that we found out we had a new member of the Sams family on the way! Olivia and Elijah announced they were expecting a baby in November and we couldn’t have been more excited.
Reed weaving class during our Eco Elsa weekend!
April
To kick off spring, we had Elsa Litecky of Eco Elsa LLC host an outdoor leaning retreat! With a ton of fun classes over the course of three days, families and kids came to learn about how the Anishinaabe see the stars, weave baskets from cattails, cook food over a campfire, and many many more cool things about the outdoors!
We had so much fun, we’re doing another one again this coming April. On the more practical side of things, we also got painting done in most of the cabins to cover the scratches and chips that happen over the course of a year!
A huge bowfin caught off the island!
May
Our 24th summer season started and the resort exploded to life! From new ice cream flavors with our classic homemade waffle cones (now peanut free!) to lovely new flowers picked out by Brookelyn and planted by Heather and Elijah, everything was alive and lovely.
A rarely mentioned highlight was all the fantastic fish caught by guests this summer! While none of us had much time to get out and cast a line ourselves, we loved hearing stories and getting pictures from everyone else. From a massive bowfin (pictured above) caught off our island to more than a few muskies, 2025 was a good fishing year! If you’re lookin for some pics, make sure you check out our page on fishing Fish Trap Lake!
Playing horseshoes in our new horseshoe pit!
June
We had a couple of projects this month. First on the list was fully clearing the land that we later began to build Cael and Brookelyn’s house on. Their lot was fully cleared of trees and brush by the end of the month, and boy was there a lot of foliage to chop down.
The second was rebuilding the horseshoe pit! Did you know we had one? No worries if you didn’t – over the years it began to blend into the grass next to the volleyball pit, so we’ve revamped it and made it good as new!
Cael and Brookelyn standing in the empty lot for their house.
July
By July, the land that was cleared in June was leveled out! Brian, Cael, Elijah, and Jim worked constantly to get all the in-ground plumbing ready to go so they could pour the concrete slab, and once that was set, every spare second was spent getting further and further in the build.
Olivia and Elijah’s house among fall leaves.
August
Summer closed out busy but fun, and among all the chaos, Elijah and Olivia’s house was finally done! With their final shower installed, garage doors on, and siding up, Olivia’s dad Tim came up weekend after weekend to help Elijah paint the last bits of siding. The black structure stands out in the woods in all seasons, and Elijah and Olivia are so pleased with their dream home becoming a reality!
The whole family at Cael and Brookelyn’s wedding!
September
The biggest event this month was Cael and Brookelyn’s wedding! On the 27th all their family and friends gathered down by the lake to bear witness as they stepped into a new chapter in their lives together. It was a lovely ceremony with many moments of heartfelt speech and prayer.
Brookelyn’s friends were able to come from their various places of residence to stand beside her as bridesmaids, and her beloved brother Madden stood as her Man-of-Honor. Cael was supported by his brothers – Iain as Best Man and Elijah as a groomsman – as well as two of his best friends. Pastor Chanda Winkels, who just so happens to be Brian’s sister and Cael’s aunt, officiated the ceremony.
The reception was an elegant bash in the Rec Center, catered by Brookelyn’s family who have a background in the restaurant world. Even months later, we can’t stop thinking about this beautiful day and how wonderful everything was!
Dressed up for our Medieval Feast themed cabin!
October
In October we switched around the lodge for the holidays and new year! What is usually a simple re-adjustment of tables, chairs, shelves, and decor ended up being slightly more detailed as we needed to pull off an entire slat-board wall and paint not only a replacement, but the rest of the wall itself!
In the spirit of building and renovating, October was also the month the boys finished the sauna. While it was a little iffy to move (it’s definitely too tall to be legal on public roads), it turned out great and people have been enjoying it down by the water!
On a fun note, we hosted a cabin at Camp Shamineau! Every year they hold their Fall Festival, and this year we finally decided to join in on the fun. Each cabin chooses a theme, and being a theatrical family with a love for the fantastical, we went with a medieval dinner theme. It was so fun handing out candy, chatting, and generally spending time together on a lovely evening!
Nikki Cantleberry gives a talk on Nutrition for Wellness Day!
November
We kicked this month off with our Wellness Day to celebrate the opening of our new sauna. We had speakers come in and talk on nutrition, massage therapy, mindset and how it affects your life, herbalism, sourdough, and detoxing.
It was a fantastic day of learning and, in some cases, getting hands on! We made Elderberry Syrup to keep us healthy during the winter with LuAnn Raadt, of Herbs for All, and tried some sauce by Abby Foster that helps keep our gut balanced while tasting delicious! We can’t wait to host another one next year with more to offer, and over multiple days!
To bookend November, we got to welcome in the newest member of the Sams family! Olivia went into labor at 7:14 am on Saturday the 22nd, and after 27 hours of labor, Rowan Lloyd joined the rest of us earthside on the 23rd!
His first week was interesting – within 48 hours of his birth we got the first snowstorm of the year, and the little family would have been stuck at the hospital if it weren’t for Brian and his all wheel drive Honda Pilot! They went back two days later once the roads were better since Rowan had jaundice. After another 24 hours and a lot of blue light treatment, they finally got to go home and started to settle in to life together.
We can’t wait to watch him grow up exactly as his dad did, running all over the resort and spending his days in the lake!
Heather and Brian receiving their award.
December
Brian and Heather won an award for Top Resort Owners/Operators of the Year on December 4th. A few weeks before the Stars of the Industry Gala, Hospitality MN called to inform them that they were nominated. It was such an unexpected honor to be given such an award at an event that celebrated all the hard work everyone in the Minnesota hospitality industry does, and is not a title that either Brian or Heather take lightly.
The next day it was business as usual with Heather and a friend repainting the entire rec center gym floor and Brian building and clearing snow. Ah, the oh so glamorous life of a resort owner!
What a year! We can’t wait to see what comes in 2026. Thanks for reliving our 2025 with us, and we can’t wait to see you this next year at the campfire!
