Awesome Family Vacation

Here I am still updating our summer holiday pictures in September. :)

In July, we went on a road trip to Kootenay Lake where we joined Ryan's family to celebrate his Mom's 60th birthday and his parents' 40th anniversary.

I took tons and tons of pictures so this is a bit of a long post. I made some into collages to make for quicker viewing. If you're having trouble seeing the pictures because they're too small, just click on the collage and it will make it bigger.

Here we are on the way there, after the requisite slurpy break in Osoyoos.

When we arrived at the cabin, it didn't take the kids more than a few minutes to get into their bathing suits and get down to the beach.

Evan got to go kayaking with Grandpa

And the adults could relax and visit while watching the kids play at the beach.

Chad and Roberta's version of camping involves bringing their dvd player, so all the kids cozied up in their tent and watched a show before bed.

Here are all the wonderful cousins

Having fun together, eating, drawing, eating, boating, visiting , oh and did I mention eating!

These two adorable girls had so much fun playing together, it brought joy to my heart to see them giggling and whispering together - so sweet.

Here's the girls carrying Granny's gift to her. It was a collage picture frame with photos of each of the grandkids.

Two birthday cakes and a lovely banner.

John doesn't know how to go on a holiday and just do nothing so he had to build an addition to the roof of the cabin while we were there (and get Ryan up there helping him.)

Kootenay lake is glacier fed so it's really cold but the kids didn't seem to mind. They were in there like a bunch of fish.

Carter and Rachel helped me in the kitchen when it was my night to cook dinner.

Uncle Chad getting woken up by a bunch of rowdy kids climbing in to bed with him!

One of the highlights for Evan was that he kept finding snakes in the water

He even let some of us hold the snake.

Towards the end of the week, we had a bit of rain so there was time for playing Cranium, and building things out of playdough . . .

colouring . . .

rock painting (even the dogs got in on the painting) . . .

and of course, where there's rain, there's bound to be a rainbow!

The kids had fun wrestling with Grandpa.

Roberta reading bedtime stories (Shel Silverstein poems.)

When we left the cabin, we took the ferry across the lake and headed over to Cranbrook for a visit at Sean and Em's house.

Rachel and Bryn hiding under the picnic table eating rice crispy squares. :)

We did the drive home from Cranbrook in one day but it was a long day of driving. We had discovered on the trip to the Kootenays, that both Evan and Rachel get carsick :( so we gave them a healthy dose of gravol for the trip home.

Grace felt fine, and read her book for most of the drive, even on the winding roads.

So there you have it!