Rock Lake Lodge - with the A's

We were blessed with incredible weather and great times at the cottage this year! We switched places with another family and we were a little worried that the 3rd week in Sept. would be just too far along in the year to expect much nice weather - but we had hot days and pleasant nights. Lots of sunshine gave us plenty of opportunity to swim and the cooler nights made sleeping easy. Most years we use the cool or overcast days to make trips into town or to do some local sightseeing, but we didn't have those days, so we spent all our time just enjoying the cottage facilities to the fullest.

Here are some pics of our good times:

Laura getting a sweet kiss from little Isaac.
Sink baths - all the rage for the younger crowd :)
Caleb blissfully listening to the Disney records - which skipped so badly that the Snow White song (Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go.......) lasted about 30 seconds!!
The ladies. I have to tell Rich to angle the camera so that I'm on the far end of pictures rather than the close end................all the ladies out there will know what I mean :)
Proud Grandma and Grandpa with their grandkids.

Searching in vain for fish........

Rob and Karen in the boat of choice - we all loved that thing!
Pretending to be "water people" in their little houses.
The little cuties :)
Corin's first boat ride in which he sits on his own - not on mommy's lap. Absolutely fearless with big brother in control.
Allison and Laura hosted a tea party for the ladies. They served us tea, mini chocolate chip cookies and toffee scones. Here is their first attempt at pouring tea from the tea pot with the crooked spout...........

Marybeth spent much of her time combing our hair and applying makeup - usually to our foreheads and our chins :) Even Uncle Rich was subject to her hairdressing :)

Here are some "around the cottage" pics.....

Jo will likely deny it, but you can't argue with a picture. She was working in the kitchen, thinking no one would notice her, but every time mom and dad turned their backs, she started doing this little dance - I caught her in the middle of one of her unique moves.............;)

We celebrated Laura's 10th and Marybeth's 5th birthdays while we were there. We had a pinata.....

.....and a treasure hunt - the kids all took turns reading clues and eventually uncovered the loot!

We made lots of new memories and had bunches of family fun. Looking forward to the next A. family get-together! (hope it includes a rousing game of Dutch Blitz!!)

Summer's End

Have you had your last "fling" of the summer, yet? I guess we haven't - not officially. We still have a week at the cottage coming up (starting Friday), but the school year has begun and catechism and the different Bible study's at church are beginning - so it feels like summer is over. So, I looked through our summer pictures and thought I'd post some pics I'd neglected - our camping trip with my side of the family.

One of the big highlights (for me!!) was tea out with the ladies - at a quaint tea house in Bloomfield.........
We had scone, fresh from the oven, with local jam and Devonshire cream - it was very "high English tea-ish" and I felt a little like Beatrix Potter. Well, maybe not, but the setting and the food were right :)

We had some fun family campfires, but the trick, at this stage in our younger families, is "what do you do with the babies and young ones that end up cranky as all get-out (I'm not sure where that saying originated, but I kinda like it.........) if they don't get enough sleep at night?" Here is Caleb in Ron and Lori's van trying to put the babies to sleep :)
It's our tradition to let Dad take us all out for icecream every year :) Actually, Mom and Dad have been very generous to keep up this yearly outing even as our family (and Dad's bill!!!) grows as the years pass. We talked about buying a brick or 2 of icecream and some cones and making our own, but I think Dad likes his "ordered" cone as much as the rest of us do :) Thanks, Mom and Dad!

I think Mom got more enjoyment out of sharing her cone with Corin than she did out of eating it herself :) A true Grandma!

Lots of happy icecream faces :)
My dear brother, Mark and his little Em.
And of course, the beautiful Sandbanks beach kept our kids busy on surf and turf alike. They swam, played sports (including a memorable game of beach soccer, in which we had to remind the men that there were kids playing and would they please quit being ball hogs.........:), and also built a really good sand rendition of Ancient Egypt.

We had a great 65th birthday party for Dad - complete with hand painted shirts for all the kids and an extra special one for Dad - with all the kids hand-prints on it.
My rather startled (but handsome ;) looking brother, Joel, with chicken-poxed Braden. Chicken pox seemed to feature regularily in our doings this summer.......
ANd this was just too cute - matching happy grins as they swing in the hammock together. Great brothers, great friends :)
And so, summer shuts its eyes, to awake briefly here and there in the next months, but then to sleep soundly until next year. It's been fun and full of the blessings of our covenant God Who promises that the seasons (all special in their own way) will continue until Christ comes again.

And now comes my favourite season of all - Fall!