AKA Family: Cottage Holidays

Well, actually, Matthew's days were pretty much the same as usual and Mom took all her work with her. Dad even had to do some work on his holidays too. So maybe "holidays" isn't precisely the right word. But Matthew did have a change of scenery, Mom got to do some sleeping in and Dad wasn't at the office all day so he got to spend more time with his family. I guess you could say that we did have a vacation and it was a very good one at that. Even the cats got away for a little R&R at the farm.

A little nap on the way

In between two weddings, we spent a couple of weeks at the lake. We packed a lot into those two weeks too! We visited with friends, played in the lake, won the Euchre Championship of the World (despite more than one lay-down hand from our opponents) and we even got a round of golf in at the White Moose Golf course. I'm not going to elaborate on that any more than to say we went and we came home with a substantial haul of found golf balls. The rest is not worth mentioning ;)

We were fortunate to have lots of friends join us this summer on our holidays. First

up was Laurie and Arthur and the kids. This was a designated "no work weekend", even though it was actually in the middle of the week. They have spent many, many hours out at the lake in the last year, but almost all of it has been working (very, very hard) on the Bunkie. So it was nice to just relax and do lake things.

Next up was B

arb and Rick and the boys. They hadn't been to the cottage in a couple of years and the boys had never been so it was nice to have them all there. Barb cleaned the island out of wild blueberries so we ate blueberry everything for a few days.

Finally, Noelle and Jonathan joined us for the last couple of days of our vacation and it was a nice, relaxing way to end the holiday. Noelle was super excited to go sailing and Jonathan was just as excited to not, so I think they complement each other perfectly and I approve of their recent marriage ;)

Most exciting is that Matthew hit a couple of significant milestones while we were away. He had been working on it for a while and we were sure that it wasn't going to be long, but on the first day at the lake, he took is first real crawling 'steps'. They were wobbly and tentative, but there was definite forward motion. After about two 'steps', he collapsed on the floor and had to take a short nap. It takes a lot out of you, you know. Within a few days, it was no longer an experiment to see what would happen when he lifted this hand and move that knee, but had become just another skill in his repertoire that he was using to get where he wanted to be, it seemed, without even thinking about it. This was one of those moments that we sat back and marveled at what amazing creatures babies are. He just learned something incredible, completely on his own, without any lessons from us.

Then, two days later, he cut his first two teeth. Just like that, both at the same time. Luckily, even though they are probably bothering him a bit, it hasn't been an unbearable teething experience.

And of course, there was swimming. Most of Matthew's water experience has been in the bath, so it was time to find out what swimming is all about. As it turns out, he loves the water! He was having a great time checking out his new mobility. He started moving his legs right away and splashing with all his limbs.

Just testing the water. Gotta have the soother to avoid 'sand-in-the-mouth syndrome

Swimming with Dad

Swimming alone in the tube!

Doing a back float with Mom's help

We did lots of other things out there too. The days are always full. Here are some pictures of some of our other activities...