Six Weeks of Summer: Cottage Life.

Two families plus my Mom.  In a fairly small cottage.  For one week.  

For some, it could have been a recipe for disaster. But not for us.  The cottage left us with full hearts and so many happy stories that it would be impossible to share them all here.  I think that I'll let a picture say a thousand words.  Or, in this case, lots of pictures say thousands of words.

The week began with Sheldon teaching Grandma how to make friendship bracelets by holding the string with her big toe.  (It's how all the professionals do it.)

The mornings on the dock were a little chilly which meant that the kids stayed up in the cottage playing games and the diehards spent quiet coffee time enjoying the view.

By mid-morning, while we waited for the sun to come around to the dock, the kids were in the boats.  They kayaked and they paddled.  Later in the week when Chris bought them water guns, the 'mafia wars' began.  Best of all, they ferried us (and books and cameras) out to the swim dock where the sun hit first.

By noon, we were swimming.

One afternoon, Chris took the kids to the park in a nearby town.  A little later, I drove into town for some groceries.  On my way back I stopped for secret ice cream.  Not so secret, apparently, because look who I ran into!

We also took a break from the water to have a (very buggy!) scavenger hunt near the cottage.  

photo credit:  Susan

Mmmm.  Night S'mores.

On what was probably the hottest afternoon of the week, Susan put the 36 stairs outside the cottage to use and ran a bootcamp class for us. Yikes! I went straight from bootcamp to the water.  No need for a wardrobe change!

Early in the week, I announced that on Friday afternoon, before Grandma had to leave, we would have a Family Talent show.  Everyone had lots of time to discover their talent or find someone to share their talent.  The girls spent all week practicing their dances and creating commercials (which also included their Dads), Sheldon and Josh sang a song about "Jocks" (as in straps, not athletes, naturally), Mom, Susan and I sang our old camp favourite - "Fire's Burning" - in a round, Josh did his magic tricks, and Peter and I sang a duet.  So.  Much.  Fun.

photo credit:  Susan

We ate like Kings, we slept like babies, we played, we read, we did puzzles, and we were treated with a couple of beautiful sunsets and a few visits from a little mouse.  There were games of 'Apples to Apples', some 'Pictionary', and lots of 'Crazy 8's' and 'Solitaire'.  We lay on on the dock and watched for shooting stars.  All that and a LOT of laughs!

Thank you Kashwakamak Lake for such a memorable week!