and had a lovely time with my parents and my family. It was a bit of a unique situation in that we stayed in the cottage next door to our old cottage. My parents had a cottage in Thornbury, Ontario (if you are looking at a map of the Great Lakes, look at Lake Huron and how there is a bay off of it to the right. At the very bottom of the bay, the southern-most point, is the Georgian Triangle and that is not only where I was last week, but also where I grew up.)
Anyway, the year before Doug and I got married my parents bought a great little cottage on the water. We spent part of every summer up there and it was just 5 minutes from my parent's house (where they both ran their businesses). Two years ago they sold it and we lost that beach connection; or so we thought. Last year my dad (a handyman by nature and someone who can't possibly sit still) was "hired" by the guy whose cottage was next door to ours. He was needing new windows put in and he offered to allow my parents the use of his cottage for a week is my dad would do the work. Dad said yes and he and mom invited us to stay up there with them. It was so great that we decided to rent it again for this year.
When we arrived this year I met the neighbours who bought mom and dad's old cottage. They are a lovely couple but it was surreal to see them going in and out of our old place while we were next door. They were not around last year when we were there.
Funny thing though, that couple hired my dad to install a dishwasher for them last week. They left on Monday with plans to be back Friday and could my dad have it installed by then??? WEIRD!! (My parents had done SO much work on their cottage over the years and dad's working there gave us a chance to go in and see how they had re-decorated -- or not as was the case. They did paint the pine ceiling white which is a mortal sin in my dad's eyes. I thought it looked great.)
Once he got started with the installing and working around the two places, he couldn't stop. I was hysterical. He did take time out to kayak with the boys and have dinner with some old friends but mostly he worked.
I had a chance to see my cousin, Melissa and her children too! It was SO great to reconnect with Melissa and have a couple of opportunities to catch up on what life is like for her, her husband, Luke and her two kids. She has a 5 year old, Adia and a 3 year old, Thomas. All four of the children played SO well together. I don't have her permission to post pictures of them but trust me, it was wonderful. Fergus has been asking me about his cousins and this was a great chance for him to get to know them.
Anyway, the boys spent a great deal of time in the water and on it too. Doug left Monday and came back Friday so he didn't get as much time at the water as we did. He made the most of it anyway. His mom had been in Collingwood (20 minutes from Thornbury) for the week visiting her sister and so on his way back to the cottage on Friday he picked her up and brought her to the beach. The benefit was two-fold: she had some time to visit and hang out with my family but it also meant that I wouldn't have to leave as early because I didn't have to pick her up en route.
Next big adventure??? Camping in two weeks (after Aunt Jen goes home)! The boys are in for a GREAT month!!!
2 comments:
You sure are doing a lot this summer--how wonderful!
And youf dad's idea of fun vacation activities remind me very much of my dad's. Every time he visits, he builds or repairs stuff. He likes it, and I get things fixed!
This sounds wonderful! Glad you had fun with the boys.
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