Getting Way Out of the Kitchen

The kidlets and I were lucky enough to be invited to my sister-in-law's (hostess with the absolute-mostest, but don't call her Martha Stewart!) family cottage up in Muskoka for a lovely family reunion of sorts with my other SIL and her lovely daughter Jolene. Yes, hubster was invited too, after all, it is his brother's and sister's families we were visiting. But he wanted to stay back and supervise the renos (n.b. HARDHAT ). Besides, he figured they really only wanted to see the kids, as the cousins only get together a couple of times a year, and it had been a while since my niece had moved out to Kelowna 2 years ago.

I had mentioned this trip to a friend and she asked whether I was uncomfortable going up without the hubby, as it was the "IN-LAWS". I didn't even think of it -- I've known Ian's family for so long (OMG, about half my life now). I'm so lucky that we have such a great relationship with them and they are my family too. So I had no qualms whatsoever. My biggest worry was driving up there on my own, as in all the years I've been up I've never been in the driver's seat. Fortunately it was a very easy route, and I had a lovely chat with my son with the background accompaniment of rhythmic snores courtesy of my little G, who passed out as soon as she got into her carseat. Excellent! And bonus was that Ian did manage to come up for a couple of nights (alas, everyone was really quite THRILLED that he made it up - it wouldn't be the same without Uncle Even!)

One new skill I learned was how to swim to the raft one-handed, while holding a Pomtini in the other. In fact, all three SIL's got a lovely respite from their offspring who were sleeping in the balmy afternoon, and discovered we all excelled in drinking and swimming. Of course, we were drinking responsibly, limiting ourselves to one bottle a piece, although the Corona was looking mighty invitingly at me after my pomegranate fix. I felt so spoiled, as the kids were occupied by their cousins and aunts, uncles and quietest Bouvier on earth, Moon. I wasn't just Mommy the whole time.

Liam also had a few firsts during this trip. He went tubing for the first time, looking so adorably hilarious with his shark-goggles, grinning ear-to-ear while his surfer/ on-its-way-to-dreadlocks hair was whipping in the wind. That's him in the back behind my niece.


Then he tried a bit of waterskiing and managed to stay up the first time:



Then he did some kayaking, and went on the canoe; even found time to make some mudpies and fossils with his sister in between adventures.


He pulled out his Nintendo only ONCE the whole time we were up there, and it was only while we were getting ready to leave. There was too much fun stuff going on with his cousins to waste on the electronics.

Giselle also conducted an experiment on her own - she went into the water with a pull-up on instead of her swim diaper (decided to go in without her swimsuit). Amazing what those diapers can absorb - sucked up a big part of the lake!!! It felt like a 50 lb weight, but she didn't even notice as she made the cave comfy for the froggy that she was trying to catch.

I had a wonderful visit with my family, the kids had some great bonding time with their cousins and aunts and uncle. And I even managed to get a little more of a tan and only a couple of mosquito bites.

Summer...LOVING it!