Saturday, July 19, 2008

A visit to Aunt Canada's house!






When Mason was younger he always called Candace, Aunt Canada! He seemed to have a difficult time getting his tongue around her name! We had a great day. Spent time with Dave the Dog, went swimming, had a fabulous lunch and went for a walk to the river. Thanks Can!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

A Yearly Camping Trip.....maybe?



On the Canada Day weekend we went camping with my friend Karin and her two kids Miller and Morgan. Our friend Chrissy and her daughter were going to join us but had to cancel. We missed you Chris!

I've known Karin since our Girl Guides days (when we were ten). She must have had more badges than I did because she was definitely more prepared and knew more campfire songs! The idea for our camping trip originated as a girl's weekend but soon became a girl's weekend with kids! We went to Silver Lake Provincial Park and had three sites between the two families. It helped that we had the end of a dead end road so the kids had a lot of freedom to roam.


There was lots of biking.....






...and lots of eating!
































So, it rained and rained some more. The kids or course didn't mind one bit. We went for a hike in the rain which was fun. I've never seen so many varieties of mushrooms! It was warm enough that it didn't matter that we were soaked. My new tent however didn't stand up to the rain as well as I had hoped so I went to bed that night on a wet mattress with a damp sleeping bag. The kid's bedding was fine. That night we got quite the storm. I couldn't believe that the kids slept through the thunder and lightening. I guess that's what fresh air does....puts them in a coma. So I lay there awake....thinking....am I going to float away soon....should I move us into the truck....why are the kids still sleeping...I'm lonely!! The rain was coming down so hard that I couldn't have gotten us to the truck without drenching everything and everyone! Anyhow, the kids slept a little later (6 am instead of 5 am) and I was able to get everything dried off.







Karin and I each brought one craft type activity for the kids. It turned out to be a blessing with the weather the way it was. Gave us a break from the rain. I brought a tye-dye kit which was fun. In retrospect I would have brought more items of white clothing so that we could have experimented with the designs a little more and I also would have brought gloves for each child so that they could do more of the application themselves. They turned out great though.

Karin brought boxes for the kids to decorate and turn into treasure boxes. These were the highlight on the way home, filled with rocks, acorns, leaves, etc...

Some beach fun!