Holidays

So, I was off for pretty much the whole month of July. We went to my brother's cottage in Dorset (about an hour's drive north of Bracebridge) for three days at the beginning of July, followed that up with a week at a cottage in Port Elgin and finished with a week around the house (swimming, shopping, housework). I am happy to say that I only went in to the office six days out of the entire month. How about I share my story with all of you?

The fun all started the last week of June. My brother, Mike (author of Prairie Ponderings) and his family all arrived from Saskatchewan for a two week visit. Had a great family BBQ at my sister's the day after they arrived and then my family spent the day with my brother and his family at Centre Island. Aidan got to go on his first log ride and roller coaster. We then all re-connected at my brother's cottage, which was amazing. Their cottage is right on Lake Kawagama, one of a number of lakes of that part of Ontario. Here's a picture of their lake:



We did a lot of cool stuff, including some boating, swimming, fishing, hiking and just hanging out. Dorset has an observation tower from which you can see forever on a clear day. I made it up to the first tower (about 500 feet up) but didn't go to the top (about 1,000 ft.). My nephew and nieces did, however and, loving kids they are, they made sure to tell Uncle Brian how they went higher than he did. Here's a picture I took of the town from the observation post:



We finished up their visit with a steak dinner at my Mom's and then returned home, exhausted from a great, whirlwind, two weeks of family time.

More later on our trip to Port Elgin.