A trip north :D

We had a quick trip up north this past weekend. We zipped up with my Mom to visit my brother and his two kids (Kala - 10, Kyle - 9). We were so busy!! On Saturday afternoon, we left Kevin and Kyle at home, and did some touristy stuff. Mom got dropped off at the Community Centre to hit the Antique Show (the kids called it Antique Road Show! LOL). Mike and I, Zachary, JA, Sophia, and Kala zipped down the way a wee bit to the Muskoka Lakes Museum where they were having some special stuff going on. The big girls got their faces painted, all the kids got tattoos, and made necklaces. We checked out some cool jewelry, and played with some toys that the local Native group was displaying. We sat and had hotdogs and burgers, and later had free popcicles! We then zipped back to pick up Mom, and back to Kev's. It was time to head to the BOAT!! Kevin has this fabulous new boat by Four Winns. It was big enough for all of us to ride in!! We went fast, fast fast!!! Sophia was terrified for a while, but after about half an hour, she was thinking it was pretty terrific, and went to the bow to ride with the other kids... until Kevin his some other boat wake, sped up, caused a big splash to get us all, and that was the end of that for Sophia! LOL! It was a VERY late night for everyone.

Sunday we went to the Legion for breakfast/brunch. Oh it's soooo good there!! JA wasn't feeling too hot, so I didn't get to overeat (which is a GOOD thing!). After heading home, we all got bathing suits on to head to Bailey Beach! The kids enjoyed their swim, then went on an hour boat ride with Daddy and Uncle Kevi. When they got back, it was more swimming. JA and Zachary with their lifejackets were pretty brave! Then JA opted to take hers off, and jumped into DEEP DEEP water, and swam around. Those swim lesson are really paying off!! Sophia was also enjoying the water big time... she'd go in with and without her life jacket, although her jumping in was limited! She was great out in the 'deep' water (ok, so about 7 feet, I couldn't touch, but that doesn't say much!!!), swimming about in her life jacket, doing her thing. So after our big swims, we went home for supper, and then a sunset cruise. I was SO anticipating an earlier night... however, we rolled into home around 11pm! The good thing... Sophia fell asleep about 30 mins into the cruise!! LOL The other kids followed suit around 10-10:30. They were so cute. The Sunset Cruise was FANTASTIC!! We saw the most gorgeous Harvest Moon (I know, it was still July!), and my camera just didn't do it justice. It was big and red, and glorious! The sunset was incredible as well, but again, the camera just doesn't do the real thing justice.

We headed for home on Monday morning, leaving a wee bit later than we had hoped. Michael was to be at work for 3pm.... we left in good time. We stopped for a big basket of wild blueberries on the Hwy 11. We found out that Hwy 400 had been closed south bound. We missed the last exit before the traffic. *sigh* We got stuck in it for well over 2.5 hours. Mike was REALLY late for work. However, he got out with a plastic bag and collected it almost full of empty pop cans!! (My mom cashes them in!). The kids got whiney at this point, I so wish they would have napped!! But it's all good, we got home...the kids went to bed... and I flaked.

So now we are gearing up for camping this long weekend... should be fun!!! :D

**Note, I took a 'burst' of photos of Julie-Anna jumping into the water... but the slideshow has them backwards! LOL! Mike thinks it's great, her jumping OUT of the water! LOL!