A Full Moon

The kids enjoyed a late afternoon swim, marsh mellows on the fire and a fun game of yahzee with headlamps and glow necklaces in the tent

the tricky part is getting into the chilly water

I did it - come on - your turn

tough guy is ready

the waves are almost like in the ocean

oh, oh cold cold 

hard to believe this is one of the great lakes.  there are sand bars and usually you can walk to the first one and then you can swim between the next ones

a creation we found on the beach

our cozy home while camping

perfection

as the moon rose over our campsite the skeeters ganged up for an attack that sent us scurrying to our bug free tents

ready for a fun game

tents at night are always a fun adventure........

Long Point Cont'd

While camping on Long Point we made a visit to a conservation area and took a walk in hopes of spotting some cool birds for Anna (she just picked up a new bird book) and some frogs, turtles and whatever else we could find.

many beautiful flowers for the bees

Ronan making his way down the path - the reeds on the sides made it like a maze (but it also blocked the breeze that kept the mosquitos away)

Any idea what everyone was looking at?

cousins being silly - Anna where are you?

cat tails are a favorite

and here is your answer (sorry for the poor photo) - everyone was looking for these seed pods - if you gently put your fingers on the bottom they explode and shoot out all their seeds.

Quiet Time

The boys and I have reached the  middle of our Canada vacation.  My sister and her girls have gone back to BC.  My sister Carith came up for a surprise visit for a week and has now returned to Colorado.  It is very quiet and has been rainy and chilly - and I am ok with this - the boys are able to catch up on sleep and just lounge around watching movies and relax.  Ronan stated we are not swimming in the cold lake anymore - the girls are gone and we only swam because they were here.  They were very sad to see their cousins go home.  They cherish their time with them for sure.  They have managed to go out and fish a little bit since they have left.  We do have a couple of weeks left at the cottage, farm and in Sauble Beach - it may be quiet but it will be good family time with Papa and Oma.

this was the view of Otter Lake when I woke up this morning, very peaceful and calm

On another note while we have been up North Michael finished his exams for third semester.  He is very humble regarding his scores etc but we want to send out a big congratulations for doing well and working so hard.  We appreciate his hard work so much and are so very proud of him.  He is currently in Bolivia on his break volunteering in a medical clinic and the surrounding area.  We are excited to meet up with him back on the island in September and hear all about his adventure.  We miss him lots and are excited to begin fourth semester. We are also missing at least one Tropical Storm while we are off island but I am sure we will have at least one more when we return home.  There are many more Canada vacation posts to come, patience they will come in time.

Beach Camping

While visiting family in Ontario we went camping at the Long Point Provincial Park.  The campground is in the sand dunes and you can walk to the beach.  When I was a kid we would come camping here, so it is nice to take my boys to a place where I had so many childhood memories.  Now they have a chance to make some childhood memories of their own in the same place.

the evening we arrived and set up our tents a lightening and thunderstorm blew through.  It was a beautiful light show, although it made the kiddos a little nervous.  The next day the waves were choppy, the water was murky and it was really windy but the kids had a great time.