hello september, remember me?
Did I forget to mention I was taking the summer off? There was just too much biking, swinging, puddle jumping, knee bandaging, picnicking, sun soaking and general holidaying to be done. We had a FABULOUS summer around here. One to go down in the record books. We are tanned, well traveled, exhausted and our toenails are still dirty. Good times!
Our summer kicked off on June 22 with a trip to Saskatchewan. We visited family, FINALLY met our adorable niece and then took off for a dream come true kind of week at a fishing lodge near Flin Flon. After we stuffed ourselves with bbq’d fish, laughed till we cried and inhaled WAY too much diesel exhaust and forest fire smoke, we headed back to the city for a family photo shoot and Grandma’s birthday party. Way fun! The next week Daddy had business in Calgary so we took a little road trip to Cowtown. We spent the week of stampede giddying it up with friends young and old. Such fun to hang out in our old stomping grounds. The only MAJOR bummer was that our FAVOURITE Belgian patisserie was closed for renovations. I’m still disappointed that I missed out on their dreamy vanilla croissants. Looks like I’ve got a trip west in my future! At the end of the week we drove back to the land of the living skies (stopping to check out the “points of interest” along the way) for some more family time. After three weeks of family and friends the good bye’s were hard. We’re thankful for our great memories and looking forward to the next time!
We came home from our western trek just long enough to unpack, do the laundry, get some groceries, visit the locals, see my Mom and Dad, tear up the front lawn, re-pack and get some more groceries before we took off to the cottage for 2 weeks. There is almost nothing I like better than summer at the cottage. This year did not disappoint. SERIOUS good times were had. The new “porch” rocked on rainy days and made sleeping in and napping possible. THANKS MOM AND DAD! The sunny days were a blur of swimming, boat rides, fishing, hammock swings, smores, laughs with friends and so, so much more. We did lots of exploring, attempted to perfect our Eastern fishing techniques (not so good so far), drank our fair share of rye and gingers on the dock (shout out for the ultra tasty and not expensive Forty Creek Whisky) and followed the kids on their photo adventures. We spent the last night with my parents and then had a brief birthday celebration for Not-so-baby J the last morning before making a mad dash for the marina in between rainstorms. Whew!
Poor baby J had the worst birthday ever. Good thing he won’t remember it! We were stuck in torrential rain, heavy, heavy traffic, we missed our exit and then got stuck in worse traffic going the LONG way home. To make matters worse, our little man got car sick and puked EVERYWHERE. It’s not fun to be stuck in a puke soaked carseat for hours on your first birthday. Not fun at all. We declared the next day his fake birthday and celebrated him in grand style all day long.
After a few nights in our own beds and 30 loads of laundry, we packed up our car for one more road trip. This time we went camping on the ridiculously beautiful Lake Huron. I can’t say enough about the endless sandy beach, the happy smiles on my kids faces as they body surfed the waves and the laughs we had with our good friends over the campfire. We all had such a great time it’s going to become an annual tradition. Yeah camping!
Over the last two weeks we’ve been trying to catch up on everything that piled up while we were gone. You know, small stuff like putting sod on our front lawn and installing the underground sprinklers. We’ve gone to Niagara Falls, picked 45 pounds of peaches, ate tomatoes from our garden by the pound, picnicked in the back yard and had a wicked first birthday party for Little J (now that everyone is back from their treks far and wide). On Labour Day we wrapped it all up with a sweet bbq and long day of swimming.
THANK YOU SUMMER! You rocked big time.
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