A Busy Summer Part 2

I thought the other post was getting a little long, so decided to split the summer

pics into two posts.

More boating.  We had one nice camping weekend in early August, and took the opportunity of the calm water to explore a bit more of the river.

 Lola is decidedly not a water dog.  She is a purebred Havanese, perfect for being on your lap, but also sturdy enough for some outdoor adventures.  On this day she jumped in the car as Evie and I were heading out on a kayaking adventure.  So I let her come along and she got put in the front hatch, which turned out not to be the optimum doggy space.  We hit some waves on the way home, and she got totally drenched, not a happy puppy!  Having the hatch open was also not the best decision, as I took on some water getting across the river, and my bow was down, affecting my speed!

One wet dog.

To happier days....

We had a great day at my brother's cottage, the place having many fond memories for me and my siblings, as we practically grew up there.  It was only a short distance from the farm, and we spent many a happy Sunday cooling off in the waters of the lake.  It was so nice to see Evie and her cousins enjoying it in the same way.

The same rock, about 50 years earlier!  Note none of us kids wore life jackets, tire tubes were the order of the day!  Till we learned to swim anyways.

Some more river pix from our camping weekend. The above channel is called Lover's Lane.

The international bridge in the background.  Note the roiling waters...here the St. Lawrence has many whirlpools and currents.  It's quite fun in a kayak, especially mine, without a skeg or rudder!  This area is also known as The Lost Channel.

Wouldn't we all love a slice of this life?  This is a summer island cottage, beautiful buildings and surroundings.  I don't even want to think about the taxes or upkeep involved!  But I enjoy paddling by these places.  Then back to our humble tent and cooking outdoors.

A couple of pix from camping.  We had stellar weather, always an unpredictable factor this summer.

Bob got away for a Ryerson boys weekend at a cottage.

A hiking afternoon with our camping friend Louis.  Although I wouldn't call Sean and Louis best friends (the gap between neurotypical and Autistic is growing the older the two boys get), they do still manage to get up to hijinks at times.  On this day the two decided to head up to the top of this magnificent rock ledge, and peed off the edge (near unsuspecting hikers below, which Mummy had to go and apologize to....I love Autism).

The next event....Skyler's 18th Birthday.

I love these boys and their model looks!

We opened up some champagne to celebrate.

Evie and Sean decorated.  We had to work around the scaffolding, as Daddy is still working on the roof.  Not as we were celebrating, mind.  He does stop working to join us in these things, although on this day I believe he had to forego the champagne and head to his real job.

Our beautiful boy, er, young man, I should say.

Evie's 5th Adoption Day Celebration

Making the cake.

5 years ago in China, Mummy bought Evie 21 little presents, one to be opened every year on her Adoption Day.  This year she got a little tea set which she loved.  It's hard to believe that it's been 5 years already!

This was the day after we first met, at the civic affairs office in Nanchang.  Evie still isn't smiling a lot, but it didn't take much longer before she felt more settled with us.

The moment just before I got to finally hold our little girl.

And the first smile about an hour later, when Daddy took over.