Summer Update

It's been a while since I've posted, so I thought that I'd bring you up to speed on how things are going.

We're having a great summer. The weather has been supremely hot here and though I don't love the heat, we have still managed to do some fun things.

A few weekends ago, we went camping at Bon Echo Provincial Park. This is a beautiful park with a big lake, gorgeous rock outcroppings and great sites. I would totally recommend it, despite the five hour drive to get there.

Here's a sorta crappy picture of the kids at the lake.

When we first got to the lake, we saw this young couple smearing grey mud all over themselves (head to toe and all between) and then they started posing for silly pictures. It was...odd. But mildly entertaining. Then we realized that this fun muddy-clay stuff could be found at the bottom of the lake out in the deeper water.
I told the kids to get some and smear it on themselves and I'd take pictures. We had just begun the smearing process when a nice little girl swam by. She started chatting with us and as we covered our arms in the mucky stuff, I suggested that it was probably really good for our skin.

She says, "Nah, it's not good for your skin. It gives you Swimmer's Itch"

Ahem. Excuse me? What does it give us? She quickly added that teeny mites live in this clay and if you leave it on your skin, they bite and give you an all-over itchy rash.

We quickly washed. And I wondered about the cute couple that had covered themselves, seriously, head to toe in this stuff.

Thankfully, we avoided The Itch.

We hiked, we paddled, we slept, we ate, we swam and we fished.

It was Jack who caught the one and only fish. And this fish was a good sized fella.

Before we left for the trip, we bought him this cheap-o "Lightning McQueen" fishing rod from Crappy Tire. You can see it, red and yellow, in his hand. This little rod caught us a big fish that we ate for supper. Jack was a little disappointed that he didn't get to keep the fish and take it home. How we managed to get this fish in the boat is another tale altogether.

All in all, the trip was a great time.

Although camping is a dirty way to vacation, I do believe it is the perfect holiday for kids.