A day with my brother

It worked out well to be camping a bit more north in Ontario, because it meant we were only an hour and a half away from my brother & his fiance. So the day after we got to the campground, we took the day to go spend time with Thys. Leah was working that day, so she could only join us for supper. We had a beautiful and fun day - spent mostly on a lake near his house.

We spent a couple hours here - relaxing on this little spot on the beach
or playing frisbee in the water.

Then we cruised around in his little boat for a while. This

area is beautiful! We were trying to imagine how amazing

this place would look in the fall!

Thys had mentioned something about cliff jumping quite

a way down the lake - a spot we didn't have time to go

to anymore that day - but then we came across

this little spot - and the boys decided it was also a

great spot to jump from!

Checking it out...Taking the plunge!The view from the topWhen we got back, Thys and Leah made us a delicious dinner.

We finished off the day with a campfire and s'mores and pie - even though we were still stuffed from dinner! It was a good day.

Camping in Ontario

Part of the reason we picked these particular days for our trip to Ontario was to join in on the annual camping trip with a few of Martin's cousins and their families. We had a fantastic and relaxing time together at Arrowhead Provincial Park.

We were pretty proud of this setup! Martin & I had

our own site a little ways down - but we spent the

majority of our time at J&M's site... they had all the food!! :)

Since J&M did most of the planning and looked after us

so well - we figured it was only fair if we at least took

care of doing the dishes!

A little hike/walk we went on

Checking something out with Uncle Martin

Snack time after our walk

We spent most of the afternoons at the beach

And then came the rain...

They had a little interactive thing about logging, so

a bunch of us went there - a little change of scenery

from our tarps at the campsite. They had a couple

little games to play - so that's what me and Zach

are doing

All the mom's had been prepared - and so the

kids got to go from site to site to do a different

craft - coloring, painting rocks, etc. It kept the

kids entertained well. Martin & Joel took the chance

to play a game of chess.

Some one had this brilliant idea so we could still enjoy our

campfire that night! The rain actually let up for the whole

evening - so we didn't end up needing them - but

it looked kinda neat!

I guess that sums up the camping part of the trip! We considered going home on that really rainy day, but were glad we stuck it out. We had really looked forward to camping with everyone - and we weren't disappointed!

The trip there

Ok. Over 3 weeks since the last post. Wieska's been busy so I (Martin) thought I would fill in for her this time.

So, our vacation....

I have come to realize that vacation is really a privilege and a blessing. I am sure there are many in the world who do not think of vacation or holidays like we do. We were very thankful to have the opportunity this year to go to Ontario for 10 days.

We left on a Thursday night, catching a red-eye flight across to Ontario. We stopped over in Calgary and had a quick coffee with Wieska's sister, Rianne, before we continued to Toronto.

Arriving in Toronto we had rented a car from a place that was about 5 miles from the airport since it was less that half the cost of renting directly from the airport. So, we picked up our bags and went to find a taxi. That was easy until the driver told us it would be $30 to drive us 5 minutes away! We dropped that idea and decided to take the city buy - except that there were over 5 city buses at the airport. After asking questions we located the right bus which took us close to where we wanted to be. As we walked the remainder of the way, a lady stopped and offered us a ride which we gladly accepted. Renting the car was a smooth process and we hit the road toward Chatham - the place where I grew up. We didn't last long, however, and found a rest area where we caught some much needed sleep.

After 2 hours of sleep we had a quick lunch and carried on only to be stopped by a flat tire 15 minutes later. Problem was, our beautiful little rental car had a spare tire but no jack - and Wieska wasn't strong enough to lift the car while I changed the tire. Thankfully we were near a rest area and could borrow somebody's jack

Notice the nice dog poop I managed to step in with my right foot.

With the little donut on the tire we managed to find a tire shop only 20 mintues away and they had a new (used) tire on the car in a few minutes. So we carried on without incident to Chatham
We dropped in on a few people in Chatham - one being my old friend back when I lived there. It was good to drop in and catch up a bit.

We also visited a few of my old teachers from school back then. Following our visits we grabbed an ice cream and decided to drive the 2 hours to Mitchell so we wouldn't have to do any driving on Saturday. We arrived at Joel and Marianne's around 10:30 pm. glad to be done our travelling stint for the weekend.