Joanne

Joanne
My life and crafting times.

Thursday 18 July 2013

Summer is a very busy time!

After Arianna is out of school I find that I am spun into a busy vortex.
Don't get me wrong, I love this time of year. In fact it is my favorite time of year.


Every year we have our annual camping at Syringa Provincial campground.
Not as many families this year but it was still a lot of fun. How does a week of camping go by in the blink of an eye? 
Last year for the first 4 or 5 days it poured rain. 
Not this year. I am so thankful for that.
Families started to arrive Thursday afternoon. We were surprised with one family we didn't know were going to be there. So happy that Keri and her boys were there even though it was just one day of our stay.

Keri packing up her camp while I visited.



Stephanie likes to sleep in her tent. She has been doing this for years. Last year she bought herself a nice sized tent.
Stephanie and Hammah setting up the tent

Jaime talked about making fire starters last year. We never did get around to making them over the winter. So she took it upon herself to make each camp a set of them. Thank you Jaime!
Jaime and Joanne with the fire starters.

 Our second annual progressive dinner at Jaime, Janet and Gordon's campsite to have delicious salads (rice and Caesar)Not a huge group but a lot more manageable. And what fun we had!
The whole gang for the 2nd Annual Progressive Dinner
Jaime, Janet and Gordon the hostess' for the first course
 I don't have a picture of the next stop which was our site with seafood skewers (course #2)
Course #3 Shana serving up vegetable skewers
 The following stop was at Joanne and Brian's site for course #4 with delicious steak bites and garlic bread. 
I did take pictures but not a good one of Joanne serving up the delectable food.
Our next and last stop was at Darlene and Dave's for desserts. Darlene is an amazing baker and she didn't disappoint. She served ice cream with all the fixings you could have wanted and then some.
Course #5 Desserts at Darlene and Dave's site.
The finally of the night was our campfire get together.
Shana and Myles popping popcorn over the fire. No smores needed this night.


One of the dogs that comes camping every year is Buster. He is a rottie/lab cross. Buster loves the water. You can tell he has lab in him because he loves to retrieve kids, logs, sticks etc. But his very favorite are logs ... big ones! 
Buster retrieving a log with the kids on it. They just have to come ashore!


One of my favorite things while camping is watching all the butterflies.
Here one landed on my foot as I watched the kids and dog play in the water. Joanne my ever faithful friend was there too.
Small butterfly on my Keen


Last year we walked to the beach and saw about 20 butterflies on the sand drinking the water (I think that is what they are doing).
This year we didn't see as many but here are a few that did come to entertain us.
I wonder if these are monarchs as well?


A few days after we started camping Jim had to go in and have a wisdom tooth extracted. An oral surgeon had to come in for this procedure. After the tooth was extracted Jim needed to rest a lot. Here Jim and Arianna lay in the new hammock we gave him for father's day. He really appreciates this mode of relaxing.
Taking it easy after surgery.


Every night we have a fire with roasting marshmallows and making smores, Texas smores that it.
Janet and Jaime roasting their Texas smores over the fire and a few of the other campers.


Of course what would camping be without the beach and playing in the sand.
Myles, Elizabeth and Arianna making hot tubs in the sand. It was a lot of work

Another fun thing we get to do thanks to Brian. BOATING!
The kids all wanted to go for tubing time. I think Elizabeth was the first lucky person to go out on the tube.
Brian with his boat & Elizabeth ready to be swept away on the tube.


Boris is the smaller member of our canine group. He is probably not much more than a couple of pounds. Jaime is his owner and she got him a life jacket. The life jacket even has a handle on it.
Jaime has seen a dog drown and never wants this to happen to her beloved Boris. So he may not like the jacket but he will be a live unhappy puppy.

Boris' new life jacket.




Darlene had suggested we all make stepping stones. Here are all 12 decorated stepping stones.
Stepping stones

One of Joanne's bucket list items for this summer was to get a ride with Jim on his bike. He has a Mustang seat which is very comfortable.
One more thing crossed off Joanne's summer bucket list.

This was the first part of our camping adventures. One whole week. 
Tomorrow I will share our trip down south of the border.
Stay tuned for adventures in Kellogg and Wallace Idaho!

Joanne


1 comment:

Karen (formerly kcinnova) said...

You guys sure know how to camp! We've gone camping with extended family (on my husband's side) and take turns hosting meals for everyone.
Love the stepping stones -- great idea!