Cottage vacation

On July 28, we returned to the cottage in Sundridge on Lake Bernard -- but this time, for the first time, we went for two weeks instead of one.

Taking the longer vacation was a great idea and we had a wonderful and relaxing time. The weather was almost perfect every day until the last two days. Even on the days where clouds and rain were predicted, it seemed to clear up by mid-day. And all the hot, humid weather we'd been having down here in Toronto all July only found its way up north for two days. Otherwise, it was just sunny and warm.

The kids loved being able to swim every day. And that they did -- even on the two last days when it was cooler, rainy and/or cloudy -- they still jumped in for a minute before running back up to cottage and taking hot showers!

The water level was quite shallow this year -- so both kids could easily touch all the way until the dock (which is about 100 feet from shore). So they ran and played in the shallow water all time. When they weren't in the shallow area, they were both jumping off the dock into the deep end -- Austin even getting up the courage to dive in.

One day during the first week, we found a hiking trail about 30 minutes away and hiked for a couple of hours. It was a beautiful, secluded trail and we all had fun.

One day during the second week, we drove down to Bracebridge to go to Santa Village for the day. We had been there two years earlier, but figured it would be fun to do again. The kids had fun riding the kiddie rides, playing in the Elf Island park and of course, visiting Santa.

Over the August long weekend, our friends Rob and Vone and their kids Lilo and Isla came to stay with us for two nights. We hadn't told Austin and Alex that they were coming and they were both VERY surprised when their friends simply 'showed up' one afternoon! For two days the four of them had a blast running around while the four of adults enjoyed a beer or four. 

The biggest news of the two week vacation is that Alex learned to ride a two-wheel bike. It happened early in the first week. You see, to get four bikes on our three-bike car rack, Ryan removed her training wheels and bungeed the bike to the rest of them. He had every intention of putting the training wheels back on once we got to the cottage. Well, Alex had other ideas.

She insisted on trying to ride without them -- and basically proceeded to get on the bike and ride away. That first day she fell several times -- often only getting 20 or so feet before falling and once even falling in a ditch! But nothing would hold her back and by the third day, she was a superstar at it and we took a family bike ride 2 kilometres into town to go to the playground (and of course, 2 kilometres back). That's our Alex!

I leave you with a slideshow of some of the photos from our trip and a video of our superstar bike rider.