Summer Lovin'

Beginning of the summer

Summer is officially done and I think that I can safely say that the kids loved it.  More time was spent at the cottage than at home which for them is pure heaven.  There were day camps, long walks, swimming, swimming and more swimming, parades and generally tomfoolery.

Declan spent 3 weeks doing day camps both in Kincardine and Hamilton and loved every minute of it. Canoeing at the RBG was a hit and swimming at camp in Kincardine was his favourite.  I think Rhys loved his snuggles with Grandma Shirley at the cottage the most and will miss them terribly.  For Leighton it was a summer of discovering what he could get into and where he could go.  He is now in a forward facing car seat and he is just about to start going to daycare.  They are all growing up so fast.

I turned 35 this summer.  From what I am lead to believe I am now old.  There are certainly days when I feel it.  Today was not one of those days.  I was down at the beach with Declan and Rhys running around in the water and trying to catch minnows in the shallows of Lake Huron.  It was hilarious how bad I was at it.  Leave it to Andrea to upstage me and catch 2 in the span of minutes when I was trying for about half an hour!  At least I know I can count on her to forage if required!  In my defence I had Rhys' huge feet splashing around and scaring the fish.  Yeah, that's it, that's the reason I sucked.

One of the best memories I will have of this summer is watching Declan and Rhys play Crazy 8's with Andrea's Grandmother.  How incredibly lucky these boys are to be able to spend time with their Great Grandmother and at this point in their lives they will remember doing it.  Rhys' enthusiasm when we would pull up the drive with her in the car was absolutely enthralling.  He would almost physically pull her out of the van after opening the door for her with a hearty "Hi Great Grandma!"  Amazing.

On the nights when I would drive her back home we would normally have a quick discussion about the  way things were when she was young.  How amazing is it that I can speak to someone who remembers her Father being out on the ice in the winter on Lake Huron with the horse and sled, cutting ice to bring back to the ice house.  She remembers the first time she left town on a train bound for Toronto.  She remembers what it was like to live without cars, plumbing, electricity and so many other things that we take for granted.  On top of that all she is as sharp as a razor when it comes to Euchre.  She never misses a trick and I have learned more about the game from playing on that old table in the cottage with her, my Mother-in-Law Shirley and Andrea than I have playing with anyone else.  If that makes me old than so be it.  Unless you have had the pleasure of that company you will never understand.

Andrea and I also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on September 2nd.  We have certainly packed a lot into that time.  3 kids.  Wow.  Time is flying by so quickly.

Last long weekend at the cottage in 2012

Great.

What a weekend! This is supposed to be the unofficial start of summer and it was rubbish. I went to open the cottage on the weekend and ended up getting a chip in my windshield after some silly girl stopped paying attention to the road. She drifted onto the newly graded soft shoulder and kicked up big stones. One nailed the windshield and I was convinced it was going to shatter. Luckily for me it is just chipped! Great. Then Highway 86 was closed in one of the small towns that I have to drive through so I had the pleasure of a 30 minute detour to get back on track which was just great.

I decided to come home the same day because it was cold and I wanted to sleep in my own house with my family. I got home to find out that Union Gas had been around and changed out our gas meter. In doing so they shut the gas off and I had to call them to get someone back over to the house to turn it back on and switch on the pilots. When he arrived he was kind enough to tell me that my boiler and my chimney are both now illegal thanks to changes in the law in the last couple of years. Great. So now we have a boiler that is not able to be used and will need to be replaced before winter. Great.

Declan has been found to have asthma which kinda sucks as well. Unfortunately for the little guy he also has chronic ear infections which create coughs and runny noses for him. Last night he woke up around midnight hacking his brains out and coughed for about 3 hours. Great. I brought him into bed with us to try and comfort him and ended up with his feet in my back for the rest of the night while he finally slept.

I was really looking forward to this first long weekend and I can honestly say that up until last night it really sucked. Then, Andrea and Declan got home from her parents house while I was cutting the grass and they helped out with some yard work. Apart from Declan trying to run into traffic on Dundurn it was awesome. He helped me cut the grass by pulling the cord behind me and then helped Andrea with weeding the garden, which looks beautiful. I am really proud of the work that Andrea did on that patch last year. It is coming up gorgeous now! Those 30 minutes or so came really close to zeroing out all the other garbage that happened this weekend. It is incredible how something so small or seemingly insignificant can bring such joy.