After two months of fairly non-existent “summer weather”, Hunter and I headed east in late August to hang out with family at the family cottage (aka Grandma Lynne’s house) in Sturgeon Point. This year we were staying for just over two weeks to ensure that we packed in lots of water fun as well as Great Grandma Addie’s family celebration of her 100th year.

One of the best parts about the cottage is water skiing as it is something that we don’t do at any other time during the year. Hunter learned at the end of last summer and we were both thrilled when he popped up like a charm his first time this summer. He was feeling pretty bold and also ventured outside of the wake, later telling me that he thought he was ready for slalom skiing next! I’ve been waterskiing off and on for years and love the feeling of skimming along the water at high speeds – it’s similar to kite boarding and windsurfing – freedom…

There were new tubes bought this year for behind the boat and it definitely upped the ante. No more high speed s turns and whirlpools to try to knock the kids off the single tubes – the new tubes are like floating sofas, with half the adrenaline coming from what you are feeling and the other half coming from anticipating what may happen as you have absolutely no control over the tube. The kids pushed the limits on a daily basis and by the end of the 2 weeks had managed to flip the big one. I was happy to not be on it at the time.

With lots of cousins around, the kids tend to move in and out as a pack at times. Everyone’s outside and then everyone’s back inside. Active time was spent driving circles of the property on the golf cart, along with swimming in the lake and then jumping in the hot tub. Down time seemed to be centred around the world of “i” devices as everyone now has one. Lots of discussion regarding certain apps and “mom, can I download…” could be heard on a regular basis as one cousin had something that another one didn’t.

My Grandma turns 100 in October, which is a pretty amazing thing. We decided to have a family english garden party in her honour during the summer so that as much family as possible could make the trip. With 24 of us there it was quite the party! Everyone got dressed up, we had family photos, yummy finger sandwiches and cake and played bocci ball, croquet and other lawn games.

One of Great Grandma’s requests for this summer was a boat trip so on one of our last days we headed down the lake to Bobcaygeon where she lives and went through the locks to take her out for lunch and for a short boat ride. Our cottage is on the Trent Severn waterway which is a pretty cool piece of engineering and Hunter loves going for a locks trip each summer.

Our new friends Bryon and Sarah stopped in at the cottage on their way to the Ottawa river. It was a bit weird as they were at our house in Whitehorse only a few weeks before and here we were continuing the fun together in a completely new place. Hunter was happy to have another person to play with and Bryon seems to have just a little bit of fun when you put him near water. He pushed the limit on all the toys and had Hunter following very quickly – the gauntlet had been thrown down…

It was a fabulous two weeks. Even though the weather was not as hot as normal, and we had a few big rainy days, we managed to pack in a lot of fun with the cousins, something that we all miss the rest of the year. Thanks to everyone for a great trip!