2013 in pictures ~ august

precious grin
botanical gardens, montreal
carousel
seedsowers camping
perth fair
sleeping beauty
sisterly love
tiggers mama

perth fair

It's Labour Day Weekend around these parts.

The final days before schools starts back again. Routine starts back again. And to be quite honest, I am looking forward to the routine again, maybe a little bit.

So what did we do for the last hurrah of Summer. We went to the Perth Fair, bought the girls ride-all-you-want bracelets and let them at it. I think they rode about 16 rides. They had the time of their lives. There were huge grins all day long. On the dragon rollercoaster they had their arms up in the air while screaming. So funny.

We finished the evening by introducing our girls to 'demolition derby'! Which is basically real life bumping cars. Phebe is still talking about the cars crashing - not sure if that was such a great idea. Heh! After the derby, Lilah, Phebe and I went up in the ferris wheel together - it was definitely a high point to a fabulous day.

[ the flickr set is here ]

wordless wednesday

bouncy, like tigger!

She loves to bounce, just like her favourite, Tigger.
She's pretty cute too!

the barron canyon

One of the things that has been on our 'bucket list' for quite a while now is canoeing through the Barron Canyon, in Algonquin Park. We have hiked this trail a few times and seen it from above, but only Colin has had the pleasure of seeing it from below, in a canoe. (He went on a guys-only-camping-trip in the Fall, about 10 years ago, and they did this trip together.)

So we loaded up the vehicle. It's a 2-3 hour drive from where we live and because of that, we decided to stay at a relatively local hotel in Pembroke. We thought about camping, which would have been beautiful, however, I'd already camped with the girls the previous week, so I'd kinda had enough of camping, if you get my gist! We put our canoe in at Squirrel Rapids and went upstream from there, it was about 16kms long (round trip), with one portage (each way) of about 420 meters. The girls were pretty excited at the start, but it didn't take long before Phebe was fast asleep! The canyon was incredible, no words do it justice. The majestic beauty of God's creation just takes my breath away.

We stopped in for a little picnic on our canoe back down river. We had a swim in a Barron River, did some fishing. Such a beautiful relaxing day... well, not for my muscles. But it was well worth the aching muscles! I took these photos with my point and shoot camera - I would have loved to bring my big camera, but alas, two wiggly girls in a canoe, I had nightmares of my camera being submerged in the Barron River!

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The above pictures were taken on Tuesday when we hiked the trail.
The following pictures were taken during our canoe trip.
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[ the flickr set is here ]

seedsowers ~ camping

The girls and I had the time of our lives this past week, camping with SeedSowers.

The campsite, (Domaine de l'Ange-Gardien), is in Quebec, just about 20 miles outside Ottawa. There were approximately 100 people there, families, many many young Christians, all eager to spread the Gospel to homes in Ottawa.

The girls had such a wonderful time, they LOVED camping in a tent, did I mention they loved camping in a tent? Oh they were on such a high sleeping outdoors! And they loved hanging with other little people all day long, not to mention catching frogs and playing in a muddy pond, swimming in the muddy pond and sitting around the campfire listening to testimonies and how peoples lives were changed by their Faith in the Lord.

I feel so thankful to have been part of this. To enjoy other Christians company. To feel uplifted. I'm just so thankful for the gift of Faith filled friends and that my girls get to grow up, surrounded by Christian love.

I didn't take many pictures, just a few to document our time there.

wordless wednesday