Green Lake and Ham

In July, we headed out to the family cabin at Green Lake to celebrate Joanne turning 60 and Sofia turning 1, within a week of each other.  Everyone in Adam's family was there, except Great Grandpa, who wasn't feeling well enough to come.  We really missed him, especially Calli who obviously has a great bond with him.

There is an interesting lake along a trail at the back of the cabin.  The trail itself is wonderful as a host to a great variety of wild flowers and little creatures.  Kevin pointed out some interesting swirly designs on one variety of shrub that kept the girls enthralled and searching the trail for more!

Adam and the girls weaving their way through the tall grasses at the back lake.  Adam had to rescue Marin quite a few times, as the grass was taller than she was!  Some cows used to graze back here, so nobody remembered the grass being quite this tall.

Calli enjoyed her time at the cabin and was in her glory with all the flowers and "weeds" that she was allowed to pick!!

Sofia and Gillian were out as well and my girls adored spending time with their little cousin.  Here she is hitching a ride with Grandma to the back lake.

On the weekend, we celebrated the birthdays!  A LOT of people came to the lake for the party and we really lucked out with the weather.  We spent a wonderful afternoon swimming in the lake and eating an amazing supper, followed by this delectable cake!!

From this photo, you can see through to the lake, which is named Green Lake for a reason!!  It is a beautiful green colour and nice and warm as well.

Here, Joanne is opening her birthday gifts on the new set of deck chairs she received!  Gillian opened all of Sofia's gifts as Sofia was more interested in what the first gift held, than opening any of the others to see their surprises.  Marin, in the foreground, was happy to rewrap things, gifts or not, in the leftover tissue paper.

Apparently Marin didn't appreciate the cake as much as everyone else.  This is what was left of her cake when she was "done."  Just the filling was eaten.  Same goes for cupcakes, where only the icing is licked off and the "cake" is left complete.

As we did last year, we took another tour of the Buffalo Ranch.  Unfortunately, Ear Muff, the lead buffalo, went up to the big buffalo house in the sky.  The girls were disappointed, but were enthralled nonetheless in the whole experience.  Marin was in a mood, and wasn't interested in having pictures taken, so I had to trick her for this shot!!  How can you tell?

Again, we lucked out with the weather and the owner of the ranch was very informative and talkative.  He is so obviously passionate about the work that he does.  You can see the devastation in the red trees, from the horrible pine beetles.  There are entire forests of dead trees, rendered red from the little creatures sucking the life blood out of the trees.

We also got to celebrate with Gillian, who passed her Bar exams!!  Everyone was so proud for her and so thrilled to help celebrate her amazing accomplishments!!  I think it's pretty amazing that Gillian was able to complete her schooling, while falling in love, getting married and having a baby!!  I think I lost count of how many times she moved....but she did it!!!  Congratualtions again Gillian!!  We are so very happy for you!

Some really great friends of Joanne and Byron's invited us to use the beach/lake/deck of their wonderful house for the afternoon.  They even took Adam and Kevin out on the lake for a water ski!!  Calli just giggled and kept repeating "Please don't fall, please don't fall..." over and over.  I love the moments when she is completely filled with glee and giggles!!  

I have really cool continuous shutter button on my camera and captured Kevin going into the lake for a refreshing late afternoon dip.





Adam took the girls out on a jet ski ride around the lake.  Calli's giggle lasted the entire ride and was audible all the way to shore!!  Marin wasn't sure she loved the jet ski, but told everyone she had a good time.  Here she is with Adam at the end of her ride.  Oh, and Calli told us that going on the jet ski and go-karting were the best times of her life.

While we were out on the boat, Marin stayed behind and had a little nap on Grandpa's lap.  For a girl who has never really napped and usually only on her own terms, this was a rare occasion and a lovely thing to share with her Grandpa.  

Joanne's friends, Liz and Jerry have a little fox friend who visits regularly.  We weren't aware that this was normal and were caught off guard when he appeared, followed by his mother and brother/sister?  As you can see from this picture, he wasn't bothered in the least by the presence of humans.  Even Marin, below with Uncle Kevin, who is about the same size, wasn't a threat to the little creature.  

Kevin braved nature and fed a biscuit to the fox.

The biscuit is flying through the air in this photo...

And here she is, grabbing the biscuit and moving away...but not far!!

This is the view from Liz and Jerry's deck.  There is a trampoline in the water and Calli and Marin headed straight for it upon our arrival.  Such fun!!  And what a great view!!

Sofia watched the girls build a sand castle on the shore of the lake and tried swimming in the lake, but wasn't such a big fan!

Don and Sharon are building their own cabin with the help of Bryan, master house constructor.  We went over for a look and a hotdog roast and Marin filled in as Foreman, making sure Uncle Kevin was making all the correct calculations.

We got to sleep in the camper while we were at Green Lake!!  It was nice to have our own little corner of the space and keep our stuff together without disturbing anyone else.  The girls thought it was the best thing in the world when Adam converted the table into a bed for them!!  Grandma and Grandpa had bought them each a Fisher Price flashlight, so they had a great time playing with them before they fell asleep each night.  Even though we were right outside at the campfire, we told them that if they felt scared, they should snuggle or hold hands and it would make everything better.  Every night, we found them fast asleep holding hands.  So cute!!

Green Lake hosts some pretty amazing sunsets.  We walked down to the lake access one evening in time to catch this one!  How lucky we are to catch glimpses of this magnificent beauty!  
I love how much the lake sparkled in the sun.  I couldn't get enough!

Here are my silly girls sitting with Uncle Scott at the end of the dock, waiting for the sun to set.

We started getting chilly and headed back to the cabin, while Kevin, Scott and Adam stayed and enjoyed the view.
This is a repeat of a photo I took last year of the cabin at night.  It turned out much better this year and looks so warm and inviting!

Uncle Don and Kevin around the fire in the early-ish evening.  I can't remember what they were looking at, but I can tell you that this photo was not Photoshopped.  :)

We did have one evening when we all sat around the fire telling stories and looking for satellites.  Kevin had an iPhone, so he was able to pull up a timetable for the International Space Station and we lucked out and saw it sailing by as well!!  Calli is enthralled with space and stars, so was Uncle Kevin's shadow for the night.

We had a really big group Hide and seek session for Calli and Marin.  It was great fun!  Here are Marin and Adam hiding, while Grandpa walks by in search of more hiders!!

This is the view of the back "yard," from the deck.  I love how the grass is actually just like grass now!!

After a fantastic 3 weeks in WL and another week at the cabin, it was time to go home.  I really love the flight from WL to Vancouver.  It's a treat to see the snow covered mountains and glaciers along the way.  We sure miss that out here.

The girls did really well on the plane back to Montreal.  Adam and Calli sat together and Marin and I sat together.  Marin tried watching a movie for a while, but sleep overcame her, so she lounged out and had herself a nap for a few hours.  I love it when that happens because I get to watch a movie too...or read...or nap...