Those Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer (a.k.a. Our Summer Part 1)

Well, summer is over and today is the end of the second week of school.  I think getting back to school and back to schedule has been harder on me than on the kids!!  Summer was just too short.  In fact, I'm not sure if any of my title saying is even true...there are days but we have very little haze here and around our house, they definitely were not lazy!  So, now that we are getting back into a schedule, I'm going to try to blog more.  I wanted to start with an overview of our summer but realized that it's WAY too many photos for one post.  Instead, I'll break it up into three or four posts.  There are a couple of natural breaks, so I'll start with those.  The first instalment is our weekend at Rowan's Ravine with Jason's family.  We rent some basic cabins there and spend a weekend together hanging out.  So, this year was not as nice weather-wise as it could have been but it was good anyway.  It went something like this...

Hanging out by the fire.  Jonathan's not too sure just yet, but that's OK.  Then he'll stay away!

Summertime and baseball just seem to go together.  Not enough players for a game but a scoreless version of Five Hundred could happen.

I even managed to bat (photo courtesy of Evan...)

Summertime and cameras just seem to....go together?  Well, the cameras are always out summertime or otherwise!

It was windy enough for some kite flying.  Papa's homemade kites even took to the air.  Though, I don't think that lasted long after Evan took the controls :)

The only sign that there may be babies around somewhere!

There were cute moments like this (Evan loves "little kids")...

...and this.  Jonathan needed his own space, I guess, and under the cabin seemed good.

Evan could always be found in the wagon...at least whenever Uncle Craig wanted to use it for something!

Good thing Papa can balance...bike rides are awfully fun when someone else pedals!

The weather may not have been nice but the wind made for some fantastic waves at the beach and there is nothing my boys love more than some big waves!

However, once they were out it was a little more than cold!

Shhh...we're hunting wabbits...or maybe just the others with our water balloons (not that they broke when they did hit each other :) ).

Mini-golfing is always an adventure with kids this age (they were done in about 5 minutes and weren't too excited about having to wait for us to ACTUALLY shoot a round!)

There are always some beautiful prairie sunsets.

And sometimes babies hanging out at dusk.

The only really bad weather was a storm that blew through Sunday morning, mostly while we were at church so it was all good.  Here are the big kids, before church, watching for lightning in the sky.

It got nice in the afternoon and a prairie nature hike was in order.  This was shortly after Bethany and Xander saw a snake.

All the kids with Papa.

One of the beautiful vistas we saw of land that was reminiscent of what it must have been like at one time (that is until you saw a car go by in the background).

Finding friends.  I believe it went something like this...there's a grasshopper.  They're really little.  See there and there...nope I think that one's a tick.

One of Evan's friends decided to hitch a ride with us to the edge of the bush.

Since it was nice, it was back to the beach for sandcastles and playing in the water WITHOUT freezing to death.

Rocks.  Rocks.  Always rocks.  With four boys, we never seem to go anywhere without collecting a bunch of these.  This one is currently in Jonathan's room somewhere.

Then, we had a nice little treat - ice cream!

A favourite end to the day is glow sticks.  Unfortunately, it gets dark really late so the kids don't get to play with them as much as they'd like, but they're fun anyway.

So, that was the weekend we spent at Rowan's Ravine.  Stay tuned for another instalment in the top-rated series "Our Summer".

Until next time...

I Don't Know What To Do!

Really, I feel confused and just a little alone...my constant has been altered...for the first time in so very many years...I am without my camera! :)  The poor thing is broken so I had to send it off for repair - for 4 to 6 WEEKS!!  I hope it's either cheap to repair or expensive enough to justify a new one.  I hate when the estimate is in that middle ground.  I sent my favourite lens off, too, so hopefully they will return together in not too long.  However, I may have to use this as an excuse to shoot off the 3 or 4 rolls of film I still have in my fridge.  Gotta dig out that SLR camera body and hope my dSLR lens works on it!

So...where have you been?  What do you mean it was me that wasn't here?  How on earth does summer slip by so fast.  Every year I think, it'll be time to relax and hang out, especially when we have no vacation planned.  Every year it flies by faster than I can blink and with no time to spare!  I have much to tell you about since last time I was here...swimming lessons, suppers out, trips "home", VBS (and all the craziness that ensues), company and so on and so on...it's been a busy month and a half and school is right around the corner!  I could really use another week of summer but maybe routine will get me back on my blog - who can tell?

Anyway, I don't have all those photos downloaded but I did want to share with you a sampling of the family photos we did at the beginning of July.  The wonderful Lindsey of Lilyfield Photography took these for us and I love how they turned out.  These are some favourites and some silly ones but they are just a peek.

The whole family...

Bradley...

Jonathan...

Evan...

Alexander...

The boys...

Even one of us...

And, of course, since we were at the beach, the day couldn't end any way other than this...

Shhh...

And, with that, I guess I have posted the photos.  Hopefully I will be back with more fun ones later.  I did remember to take my SD card out of my camera before I sent it away so I can download.  I just have to find time to sort them!

Until next time...