Ahhh! Sweet mother of all that's holy! The computer chose to upload them all in semirandom order and I cannot seem to reshuffle them. I'm so sorry, this is going to be painful. They seem to be in subgroups, but not in chronological order. To make it worse, they seem to be in reverse chronological order, within their random subgroups. Oi. This will be a trippy experience through an August with the Lock, it'll give you a confused, vaguely delirious sense of what it's really like to be us!
Cottage Week - the three big kids take a break from quality outdoors time at the cottage to compare games on their parents cell phones. A sad, sad comment on childhood today. I'm only bitter 'cause my games weren't as cool as the other moms.
Cottage Week - we went on a walk to collect treasures - ahhh, back to nature!
Cottage Week - Some kids never grow up!
Cottage Week - Such a neat moment - all 6 kids had been suspiciously quiet in the kids room with the lights off for too long, so we peeked in to see what was going on... they were doing shadow puppet shows with the light of a pair of spy goggles!!
Cottage Week - The night before our high school gang arrived I discovered a lost dog clinging for life to the canoe at the dog, tangled in the ropes. It was very dramatic! We eventually found his owner - yay for happy endings!
Cottage Week - An action shot of Harrison generously sharing one of his favourite toys - "Rock?" - this love of geology made for painfully slow walks along the gravel cottage road.
Cottage Week - Brendan got bored one day - so I told him to go look under the cottage and find something to play with, like I did when I was a kid at the cottage. The result? Pure cottage gold! He hauled out a bunch of lumber scraps that doubled as a road, a slide, a trampoline and anything else his imagination could muster. Love it!
Two boys on a wooden slide, what could possibly go wrong?
Cottage Week - a lovely end to a hectic week, but full of memories!
The next weekend we went camping in our new trailer - ask Brendan what his favourite thing about camping is and he says "Staying inside the trailer". Sigh.
Camping at Ferris - More old school toys - Heidi shows off a fool proof collection of items for hours of fun - a tray full of water, a measuring cup and her feet!
Harrison: "What are you doing?"
Heidi: "I'm soaking my feet, it's really relaxing!"
Harrison: "I don't get it."
Camping at Ferris - Taking advantage of the quiet campground roads to practice with Brendan's 2 wheeler (no training wheels!)
And now for something completely different - the computer has thrown in my picture of our weekend camping with the neighbours! A little busier!
Birthday - And now on to the twins 2nd birthday (don't worry, there's more of Ferris Park to come later on). To answer your question, yes, we got them electric toothbrushes for their birthdays. They love them. They steal ours constantly. They still carry them around with them everywhere they go.
Birthday - We did get them something else in addition to toothbrushes. We're not AWFUL parents. This is their new 12 Volt battery 4 wheeler. They love it too. Except that Harrison's legs are longer than Heidi's so he pushes the accelerator pedal even when Heidi is driving, which I will grant her, would be pretty annoying. So now we're keeping our eyes on Kijiji for another vehicle (like that's what our garage needed.)
Birthday - Heidi goes to town on a birthday cupcake ice cream cone
Camping at Ferris - Oh, back to camping! Ok. Here are some better quality interior shots of the camper. It is a joy to camp in.
This is the kids bedroom with 4 bunk beds. We can pull the bathroom door across the opening to separate it off completely, which is amazing. That does however leave you with the door wide open when you're trying to pee after they've gone to bed. Which is not amazing if someone happens to walk by the trailer at just that moment. I learned that one the hard way.
Camping at Ferris - the suspension bridge at Ferris Provincial Park
Camping at Ferris - exploring the Locks beside the suspension bridge.
Camping at Ferris - The boys explored the Locks a little further on their own, while Heidi and I went back for Blaze, who had respectfully declined to cross the suspension bridge.
Camping at Ferris - Attempt #2 at a family hike (our first was in May) was fairly successful, if one ignored the sound of Harrison and Heidi from the hiking backpacks shouting "OUT, OUT, OUT, OUT, OUT, OUT, OUT, OUT, OUT!"
Camping at Ferris - Roasting marshmallows over a campfire - how quintessential! Brendan campaigned hard all weekend to roast marshmallows, but it was not until this moment (having learned a few choice new words from his father who was trying to get crummy wet camp wood to light) that he admitted that he doesn't like eating them when they're hot, he just likes eating them out of the bag. Seriously?
Camping - we made some other camping memories instead though, thanks to sparklers my mom gave us. Rob and Brendan had a great time making all sorts of wonderful pictures!
Camping at Ferris - The next morning we explored Campbellford, found a great coffee house and Brendan taught himself how to play ukulele.
Which he then taught his brother and sister!
Hey!! A picture of me!
Camping at Ferris - That kid loves sunglasses almost as much as he loves toothbrushes.
First Day of Grade 1 !!
Waiting for the bus!
Harrison was very sad to see Brendan get on the school bus. Our big kid even had to move back one row from his regular seat to make room for a new kindergartener. He's growing up!
And now back to the twins birthday. We made a sign to hang outside the camper trailer on their actual birthday...
Having a Skype birthday with Auntie Ali in England
And our last run of photos is of Lock family time at the cottage - snuggling with Papa
Heidi, Harrison and Cousin Ellie
So proud!! Brendan caught two big fish with his birthday rod and his Dad's wonderful teaching!
Rob scaled, deboned and filleted them and I fried them up for our dinner! Brendan ate his whole fillet (the pan on the left is the fish) and declared that he loves fish!
John, Betty, Wyatt and Rowan stopped for in for a visit too, here they are all cuddled up on the couch!
Fishing time on the dock
What's funner than bubbles?
Snuggling in after swimming in the lake
The only answer to the question of what's funner than bubbles? Naked time!
Have a fun fall everyone!
