Savouring Summer

I'll be posting a slide show of the rest of my Montreal photos soon, but in the interim, here is a little look at what else we've been enjoying this summer.

Evan was so excited to have his sisters joining him this year at camp for the first time. Here's a shot of them as we arrived at camp, ready to get started. I had the girls' hair braided to make it easy for them, and I love the way it looks! I'm already missing them, but I know they're learning and having fun!
After dropping off the kids, Stephen and I had our own little mini-vacation up at Lake Joseph. We had a beautifully relaxing time. The rain stayed away, the weather was just right and the food was excellent. We lay on the dock and read, went for a cruise to look at local cottages, and just spent time together.
Chris, Howard and Mom arrived at our house the week before our trip to Montreal. They toured our new house, went sight-seeing and spent some time here with us and the kids. We had Stephen's family and Indra over for a BBQ and wonderful visit one night that week. We then drove together to Montreal.
Since things were so hectic back around the time of the girls' birthday, we decided to wait to have their "birthday" party until the weather was nice. The theme was High School Musical, and the kids enjoyed a visit from "Gabriella" along with songs, games, food and fun. So perfect for a group of 7 year old girls!
Do you recognize this beautiful young woman? Kristen was the sweet little flower girl at our wedding, the one with her broken arm in a cast. We spent some wonderful time with friends this summer, including pool parties at Kristen's parents' home as well as at our friends Doug and Nicole's new house.
If there's been a consistent theme at our house this summer, it's been nature. The girls love frogs! They find them in the pool or on the BBQ;they love to play with them! When company comes, the girls show off the critters they find. Rob and Elise have visited with us (and frogs), as have Adam and his daughter Emma.

While we'll be sorry to see this summer end, I'm happy that we've managed to cram it full of wonderful people and things. We still have time left, but it sure is getting darker earlier now, a certain sign that our summer is coming to an end.

Like so many of us, my summer has been so busy that there's been little time for scrapbooking. But now that the kids are happily away at camp, I'm hoping I can squeeze some in before Labour Day.

I'll be back soon with my full Montreal slide show, as well as - hopefully - a few scrappy projects! Thanks for checking in with us. :-}

A Peek at our Summer Vacation

Every summer I look forward to packing up the kids and heading to Montreal for a reunion with my Mom's side of the family. This year, my Mom and my brothers Chris and Howard flew together to Toronto to visit us for a week, then made the drive to Montreal with me. Here we are at the party.
My grandparents had 11 children and I still find it amazing that there are only 15 grandchildren. Here are the nine of us that were there that day. Isabel, second from the left, traveled all the way from Texas. Isabel's two sisters, our Austrian twin cousins and our two youngest cousins are the only ones missing.
Eight of my grandparent's children are still living, and here are seven of them. Uncle Roy lives in Montreal, but unfortunately was taking cousin Theresa to the train station that day and didn't make it here for photos. Oldest to youngest (left to right) are Hilary, Ilma, Romie, Mannie, Julian, Juliet and Marion.
The gang's all here! This is the group of us at Ian and Ann's cottage that afternoon. Almost all of us are my grandparents' descendants, along with spouses and my cousin Zandra and her husband. We all took so many photos that day, but this one holds a ton of meaning. I hope there are even more of us next year!

We had a fantastic day and the rain held out until well after dinner. Overall, we were in Montreal for almost a week and enjoyed visiting with everyone. Each generation had a chance to spend time together as well as with the elders and youngsters. Chris spent a day with Theresa learning some long-held family culinary secrets, so I'm looking forward to seeing him whip up some traditional Guyanese dishes for our next reunion! :-}

My Mom's cousin Georgie from Connecticut and his daughter Lisa and hubby Greg spent a few days with us, and while they were gone before the reunion day, their ukulele playing inspired so many of us to break out in song! The kids always love a day at the pool, and they even talked my brothers and I into the water for some volleyball games (which - of course - the kids won!)

You can probably tell from the photos that this trip is always special and it means so much to spend time with my Mom's family every summer. I'm working on a slide show of photos of the trip, so stay tuned for that shortly!

I hope you are having a great summer too!