Hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend. We celebrated in the most Canadian of ways - up at the family cottage, eating some BBQ and doing some DIY.  It wasn't much of a restful weekend for HandyMan. He spent most of the time repairing the sunken dock and adding pickets to the fence on the deck. It is a miracle that HandyMan did not fling himself over or through that 2 foot high fence when he was a toddler! Chloe on the other hand, took one look at that railing and tried to swing on it like it was the high bar at her gymnastics class. The kid is a little monkey.



I think the fresh cottage air gave Chloe an added burst of energy because she refused to go to sleep before 10pm every night and she was constantly on the go, go, go, catching butterflies, hunting for frogs, exploring everything, touching everything, getting into everything.

Given that Chloe has always loved bathtime, swimming, splashpads and dipping her hands and feet in the lake, we were eager to give her her first canoe ride! Enjoy this little video of our excursion:


Um, yeah. Not exactly peaceful. Did you know that baby cries echo really well across a quiet lake? Yessiree, they do. Really well.

Nonetheless, it was exciting to get "the next generation" up to the cottage. It was fun to leave some of Chloe's books behind, to hang her life jacket on the hook by the back door and add her story to the family history that was soaked in these old cottage walls. Summer doesn't get much better than this.

How did you spend your long weekend? Do you have a summer escape? A family cottage to run to? Or maybe a backyard oasis in the heart of the city?