End of Family Camp and Day Off Crafting!

Early morning walk with Uncle Luke

Canoe campers were coming back in so we went to Bear Lake to greet them. Quinny loves Sarah

More tube rides! Camp is the best!

Brave girls! Madi liked tubing a little better  but was not letting go - I wouldn't let go either! Care is so fun, she jumps right in there and plays with the girls and does fun stuff. She is so fun loving and kind. Love this sister in law of mine!

Lava forest time! This is Q's mad face at not being able to climb very good. Right after this she huffed a big huff and then just tackled it. 

Happy cousins!

A friend sent me this from a billion years ago - me and my baby brother! He's SO cute!!! He would have been around Quinny's age in this pic! Maybe a tad younger, I'm not too sure

Dessert night. Best night! Sarah came over to sit with Quinny while she slept and let us go over to main to enjoy this! It was so beautiful and the desserts were SO SO GOOD! I was so glad we went over

Friday morning being silly with these two!!

Madi was angry about something, I can't totally remember what - but Care took these two shots and we were laughing so hard!!!! Typical 3 year old!!! Mad face, notices the camera, instant cute smile! So funny!

Quinny followed Care everywhere this week. It made Care happy because so often she has to miss family stuff because she works shift work so she sees Quinny the least. But Quinny LOVES her and it was cute to watch. Here is care (with hair that i braided for her!) painting tiny finger nails while we sit on the beach. Such a good morning! Love them all SO much!!

I didn't see this girl a ton because she is big and independent and spent most of the time running around with her friends, as she should! But I stole a few minutes with her here and there and it made my heart happy. Such a sweet girl.

Whenever Q sees Lisa across camp, she runs as fast as she can and has to go see her/sit on her/walk with her/just join whatever she is doing. Who can blame her?! Lisa is so good to her and gives her all sorts of love and treats! These two were having time together and Q crashed their party, but they said it was okay :) Q says to me "mama, Lisa say I can stay with them. I want have girl talk with them too!" Haha! I tried to get a pic of them but Q would only make silly faces and not smile

So the girls just went with the silly faces to! They are so stinkin cute!!

We left after lunch to go do camp shopping at Costco and a few other things Jon needed to do for camp. But Family Camp was a good week and I'm glad we got to take some of it in!! Loved having family up here!!

At Costco later that day, they had Christmas trees set up. As people were walking by grumbling at the trees, Quinny was exclaiming loudly her joy over the lights and trees. She is my child :) We love summer and are enjoying it, but Christmas lights make us happy any time!

We also did a bunch of shopping for her party on Saturday! I can't believe that we will soon have a 3 year old. It's going TOO FAST! When we got home that night, Henrik came to find her and get some snuggles. She gleefully snuggles back! He's actually purring so loudly here, and laid like this with her for quite a while! She kept saying "Henrik! I miss you! You big cutie!" These two really love each other haha! He is the best cat ever.

The Monahans are moving to Winnepeg for 8 months and we are so sad! Jen has resigned her position at the church also, and they are leaving August 15th! Quinny is going to be so sad to not have them around - she is so attached to Jen and the girls during the year when we are home! She will actually have to sit with us in church, and not ditch us as soon as she walks in for Jen haha. But we are excited for their family and look forward to having them back home!!! We stopped by to say a quick goodbye. Love you guys!!!

Eating a hot dog with hot sauce... The silly man thought it was ketchup... Nope. His mouth was on fire but he ate the whole thing!

The afternoon and evening was spent doing party prep! Jon went to have a beer with Ian and talk with them before their love - Jon will really miss having his buddy around this year! I played with cookies and icing and made a few of these 'clams' cookies! It's going to be an Under The Sea theme. It fits, right?

And I also took styrofoam bowls and ribbon and used paint and hot glue to make these 'jelly fish' as decorations. Not totally how I wanted them to turn out, but they are okay!

Quinny helped and made a few of her own, all by herself! I was pretty impressed! 

It was a full but easy day off. We love sleeping in our own beds on the weekends! This girl however, made a bed on the floor at the end of her bed and slept there. Whatever works and makes her happy! Bedtime was super easy, she was one tired girl! Rest up for another week of Wildside tomorrow :)

Ice Cream Sandwiches and a Broken Boat

A highlight of Family Camp is always Rod's homemade ice cream sandwiches! Those things are SO SO good and everyone knows it and looks forward to them! So excited!

Jon and I had planned to take a special treat out to the Canoe Expedition group, who were on their last night out there. A few change of plans, and Paul said he wanted to take us, to get his boat out on Lake Cowichan. So we crowded into his little boat and got just over halfway there.... then the motor on his boat fully died! It made a loud noise and the whole boat rocked around. 

 So close to pineapple beach! Yet still pretty away

 She had to pee and was wearing her bathing suit thankfully, so I just lifted it up her dress and stuck her in the water. Good solution, but I didn't realize how long we would be out on the lake for, and how cold it would get. This girl was wet and freezing with so many goosebumps by the time we got back! But she was awesome, and did great out there!

 Contemplating how to get us out of this mess? It was funny to see the difference between his problem solving and Jon's problem solving thought process

 Operation rescue the ice cream sandwiches (that was the treat we decided to take them, figuring we would be there quickly and they wouldn't melt if we had them on ice... ) They canoed all the way out to us to get their treats

 Problem solving... one is texting and not getting results (there was much confusion on the other end) and the other is deciding that we need to get to shore and go from there, so he starts paddling

 She got the job of steering the boat, lucky duck! She was pretty pleased with this!

 When I realized that Paul wasn't getting very far with the people he was contacting, I messaged Sharon. She makes things happen and I knew a plea from me would get the ball rolling. Sure enough, she came to pick us up by the time we got to shore (in Honeymoon Bay, in a private Marina. But hey, we needed to land, so they are going to have to share!). It was quite the adventure. I was grateful for my friend! It's not what you know... it's who!

 The campers were stoked about the ice cream sandwiches, melted and all! I was glad we could make them smile! We got updates all week long from Aimee (who went along as the female leader) and it looked like they were having such a good time! I was sad for Jon, because I knew he really wanted to be out there and it was hard for him to not be there... but it actually opened the doors to some new thinking about Wildside and how he can expand and grow the program. All exciting stuff. And it was nice to have him around for the week!

Start of Family Camp!

Monday was a gorgeous afternoon and I was glad we got up there in time to enjoy it! We went to the beach and Quinny found Madi, who she was eagerly searching for! Ready for a fun week!

Kenna just about to play the wide game after dinner!

 These two being cute together. Big hugs! They were 'helping' hand out coins during the game

 Dinner all together! It was really fun to eat meals together and just laugh and have fun. It was a mid summer change up from our usual camp routine over at Wildside! 

Hanging out with my lovely Sharon! I loved Family Camp and all the time I got to spend with her!

 Tuesday it was cooler out, and Jon needed to fill the bus with gas, so we took Makenna along on an adventure! What cuties. Jon was leading trips all week... He was getting ready for caving on this day

 This is my seventh summer up at camp, and I have never spent any time at all in the craft hut. Like not even 3 minutes down there... but Quinny really wanted to make a craft, so down we went... I felt like a strange outsider! I had no idea how things worked down there or where things were... it was funny and weird! I suspect I will be spending more time down there with this girl who loves to craft!

 Quinny and Madi spent every morning here before lunch - slip n slide! They loved it!

 Laughing, happy girl. Her joy spills over. 

 Before long, she had the hose and was running the slip n slide was made me laugh and was no surprise. She has a very strong personality and likes to be 'in charge'. Soon all the kids wanted to hold the hose, so she had to share the job.  

Walking down to go for her first tube ride! Care was brave and took both girls! They went super slow but they loved it!

 Madi wasn't as thrilled as Quinny, I think she was a bit terrified. But she stuck it out and did it! So proud of these two

Victoria Day Off :)

Jon was missing his parents and wanted a day to sit by the pool - I often forget that he misses out on that, because we come down when he is at camp. So we packed up and headed down there! It was nice and hot out and we spent the day by the pool and I didn't take any pictures... opps! Jon headed back up to camp on Sunday and I stayed for an extra night down there. Canoe Expedition was happening, and Jon opted to stay back from the trip with Jenna to give her some more one on one training and to try and rest his back. (Not sure if I have mentioned that or not? He hurt his back really bad, and it seems to be getting worse rather than better. Yikes! He is in so much pain, but never complains or says anything. I feel awful for him). 

I went with Lois and Quinny Sunday morning to go to the book store because THIS BOOK FINALLY CAME OUT!!!!! The 'eighth' Harry Potter! It's a play rather than a book, but I was still really really looking forward to reading it. My love for Harry Potter runs deep - I think JK Rowling is such a genius with her writing. I have loved these books since I have been 11 years old (same age as Harry when the series starts!) and the books first came out! I have a few opinions on this new 'book' but I can save those for a face to face conversation if you ask me about it :)

Nannie got her girl a Frozen sticker book and stickers to go with it and they sat for a long time doing that (with a new mishaps!). I love watching Lois with Quinny... she is SO unbelievably patient with her and you can just see how much she loves her. I might be biased, but I think these two have a pretty special and unique bond :)

She spent a lot of time in the pool over the weekend! She loves to swim SO much and is such a water baby, still! I bought her a new bathing suit for the pool there, but she wouldn't come out of the water long enough to let me get a picture of it haha. This year, I let her swim without an adult in there with her, but we have to be RIGHT THERE, watching carefully. I still prefer someone to be in the water with her, but as long as it's someone attentive watching, I am okay with this! She usually convinces someone to come with her anyways, often times her Papa

Nannie and Papa took her to the park that night and I got a little while to myself! Win win

I would say she is quite happy to be there with them :)

Family Camp was underway at main site, and with Jon staying back from the canoe trip, he would be working on main this week! Luke and Care were going up for the week to volunteer and take in the week! So Lois drove me and Quinny and Care up there on Monday afternoon... we had a lovely few days off and it was so nice to spend time with them!