Camporama

Every summer my extended family gets together at my uncle's farm to have a family get together. We used to get together at the Pinery Provincial Park but over the years it has become so booked and expensive it is hard to get a place for us all. So we gave up and started to hang out at the pond.

This year was a bit different, we had a large tent set up and a band playing for Isabel and Bill's 25th wedding anniversary. As usual there were tons of people and tons of kids including Lily's second cousin Mia who was born 2 days earlier.

 Mic and I brought lots of board games to play with the Huitema's.

And in the evening there was a band and lots of dancing. Lily wore her headphones and enjoyed being on Mic's shoulders.

Also enjoyed during the weekend was lots of time around the campfire. There was a constant rotation of people sitting around.

We also stopped by our farm and Lily had her first taste of raspberries fresh from the field!

Tobemory

For the first time we went car camping at Tobemory on the Brunce Penisula. The water on the lake was super clear and there were multiple ship wrecks. Michael took two days to go diving and that left Lily and I to check out the village and do some of our own hiking.


First was the car camping set up. We didn't realize our camp site was near a bog and boy were there a number of mosquitoes. The breeze kept the away on the second evening but the first evening involved a lot of swatting. We borrowed tons of gear (although not a dining tent) to figure out what we wanted when we went car camping in the future. The eight person tent we just bought however, and it was wonderful.

Michael head out on the boat on the first day and Lily and I just visited around. However, on the second day Lily and I packed up and headed out to Flowerpot Island. First the boat that took us to the island went over a shipwreck and we could see all the way, 40 feet, to the bottom because the water was so clear. Then we raced to the island, I found it exciting, Lily was very interested in the straps on the backpack.

On the Island I took a photo of a Canada Parks boat to show how clear the water was.

I packed Lily and our lunches up and carried her on the trail around the island, first stopping at the two flowerpots - softer rock with a hard rock cap which had been worn away by waves when the lake was at different levels in the past.

I hiked carrying Lily in the baby backpack carrier. Not as heavy as overnight packs in BC but not as light as Swiss hiking backpacks. We went about 6km around the island, good thing there was next to no elevation gain, just a few stairs here and there. Lily fell asleep twice during the hike.

 

Grand Bend

It was a cool day and we were in Grand Bend for a short visit. Lily stopped by the beach for her first view of sand - she liked to move her fingers in it and luckily didn't try to eat it!

Lily Swimming

Lily finished her swim class at the Lion's Pool in Stratford. Starfish. Which is a good description since if we weren't holding her up she would probably be sitting around on the bottom.