Leap Year?

Hard to believe that it’s been a year since being in Parry Sound… and since my last blog posts about how G was learning to walk. Fastest. Year. Ever. Now he’s running around the Big Cabin getting into cabinets and requesting pancakes for breakfast.

We arrived on Thursday.

Friday we ran a few errands in town which included a long visit to the library for G & I. It’s a cute library! G built a fairly elaborate block sculpture completely on his own (I was impressed) and then played with trains along the train track that I had set up for him. We also signed him up for the summer reading program (since we’ll be here for 2.5 weeks). He checked out books and said hello to a few other kids that were there. We spent the rest of the day at the food store and prepping the Boat House for everyone’s arrival.

Aunty Allie, Uncle Randy, cousins, Aunty Jen and Ethan all arrived Sat. The weather has been pretty terrible since getting here; that didn’t change for them either.

Sat was Canada Day (July 1). Ba, Nana, G & I rode the boat into town in the morning to take part in the Canadian 150th year celebration. Unfortunately, the festivities were (almost) a total washout. We arrived at 11am- seconds before it started to downpour. Sheets of water blew across the bay and the after-puddles were shin deep in places throughout the parking lot at the town docks.

G was dressed up as ‘Seguin Sam’ and entered into the 18 & under costume contest. (Googling Seguin Sam won’t get you much information about who he actually was. From what I could dig up, Seguin Sam was a local trapper who wasn’t seen in the community very frequently. In the one photo online, he has longish red facial hair and wears a cap. We did the best we could.)

There was one other contestant in G’s category- an 11 month old boy who wore a similar hat and carried a toy chainsaw. We’ll find out soon who most accurately represented Sam. G wore overalls, a white t-shirt, a gray vest, and cap. He had a squirrel perched on his shoulder, some red facial hair, and a 150th star pinned on his vest with a Canadian flag. He was perfect (and adorable)!

We also had a chance to walk across the street and view a fire truck before it rushed off to, what we assume, was a fire somewhere in town.
Allie, Randy, and the kids arrived later that day. Followed closely by Ethan and Jen. It’s great to have everyone here… but we still miss dada!

Sunday seemed to be our clearing day with the wet weather. We had rain showers on and off, but the night sky was clear and the moon finally made an appearance. Ba, G, and I took the new canoe for a paddle after dinner (and saw a young rabbit along the shoreline; our first Parry Sound rabbit). G spent a significant amount of time in the sandbox today and running errands in town. We’ve picked up a wooden kids picnic table which, for $35, seems to be the perfect addition to the Big Cabin. We finally have a kids’ dining table!

Today was also ‘tent raising day’. This task requires help from everyone… although the pregnant lady doesn’t do much besides tie knots, take pictures, and keep the snakes at bay (a serious job not taken lightly).

We’ve named this guy, Waldo. ‘Where’s Waldo’ seems to suit him well. He’s at least 4 feet long and has been spotted twice in one day at various places on the property. We decided that it’s better to have him, a harmless giant, then it would be to host a Rattlesnake. So, we’ll continue to keep an eye out for Waldo each day… and hopefully with the Sun on its way, he’ll venture a little farther into the woods.

Oh…and there were smores and sliding!

Monday. Scrambled eggs for breakfast, a trip to the dump in the boat with cousins and mom and Aunty Allie, boat driving, a worm hunt so we could catch fish off the dock (twice!), castles in the sandbox, dinner with Aunty Marion and Uncle Don, smore making, swinging and sliding, and a bath in the kitchen sink… mixed with a lot of playing with cousins. AND, it was sunny.