Annual camping weekend

This past weekend was our annual camping weekend, although for those of you keeping track, it wasn't over Canada Day weekend this year. Earlier this year, when the sites had to be booked, the group decision was made to move the trip to the August long weekend. This was made partly because of possible conflicts with Canada Day for some families but mainly to see if we could trick the weather gods into giving us better weather. After all, the theme of the last three camping trips was rain or cold...or better yet, both.
The change of weekends trick worked as the weather was almost perfect. I say almost because it was a little chilly the first night, but nothing extra clothes and blankets couldn't solve, and it drizzled for about 5 minutes on Saturday. That's it. Other than that, it was warm and sunny. And best of all, just warm enough -- not hot and humid as it has been most of the summer.

Once again, this annual trip was a four-family affair -- the same four families that went on the original trip four years ago. Except now, we've grown to a total of 16 people -- 8 adults and 8 kids between the ages of 15 months and 10 years (with the majority of the kids being under the age of 5). And once again, we were at Balsam Lake Provincial Park, near Lindsay.

We arrived on Friday afternoon, set up and then immediately took the kids to the beach. Over the course of the weekend, more beach trips followed with one on Saturday and two on Sunday. The water was beautiful and really shallow, which was great for the kids to play in. Alex prefered to play with the sand toys at the water's edge but Austin was right in there most of the time.

Our friends Rob and Vone brought their bikes this year, so one afternoon we borrowed them and took the kids on a bike ride through the park.

Other than that, our days consisted of hanging out at the campsite while the kids ran around; eating good food and relaxing. We had a campfire every night and let the kids stay up one night to roast marshmallows.

Needless to say, both our kids completely crashed the minute we put them in the tent every night for bed.

In all, a fantastic trip! There'll be more pictures to follow -- we did some group and kid photos on someone else's camera.