New Years Cottage Fun!

Every year we go to the cottage and have lots of cold-snow fun!

And this year was no different

Nick was enjoying the snow more than other years

And the dogs were in love!

In fact, they dogs spent most of their time outside. It didn't matter if it was snowing and they got covered in snow. They both loved the snow!

Of course the humans loved the snow as well.

The snow wasn't that great for sledding (the sleds wouldn't go down the hill) but it was good for making snowmen

We tried getting Nick's crutches in the snow, but he really just wanted to crawl, or be pulled in the sled

Katheryn and I made a snowman!

It was a bit windy on New Years night.
The snowman had a party and was doing the limbo!

Nick enjoys the snow, but loved the hot chocolate and cuddles when it was time to go in!

We had brought all of our skating stuff to go skating, but I was sick our whole time away and we didn't go.

New Year! 2017!

Happy New Year!

We were up at the cottage again this new Years and did some crafts to celebrate!

Of course I looked at Pintrest to get lots of ideas to do

We made our own hats, and New Years crowns

We all answered questions and put it in a time capsule to open next year

We had our treasure hunt for pictures from the year.

But as usual I had lots and pictures. We were going to divide into teams and find specific pictures. But the kids were excited at the beginning and then got bored. But they liked finding all of the pictures over the weekend that they didn't find during the game.

Everyone was excited to start celebrating once it got dark

And we got a Happy New Year picture!

Excited for 2017!

Kushog Family Reunion

We had our annual family reunion at Kushog Lake.

It was a smaller group than previous years, but we still had fun!

 

Of course the first thing everyone wants to do is go in the lake

This has a big and deep lake so Katheryn was going to be able to try out all of her swim gear!

(Even though she doesn't look very happy, it is a "not another picture mom!" look)

 

Nick is finally cleared for some swimming, so he was all set to go as well!

 

The water was beautiful and they would spend all day and night in the water

Instead they swam back and forth between our neighbor and our dock

 



 

Nick found the flippers to get in the way more than help. So we took off his braces and flippers and he could move around much better

 

We were camping this year. The kids were really excited to be sleeping in a tent.

I had thought we would all share the big sleeping bag, but Katheryn wanted to be in her own space.
I hadn't brought an air mattress for her, so we ended up with a lounge cushion.

In the morning we had a tent-crasher! Jeremy liked camping
And Katheryn wanted to sleep with Nick and I the second night

Katheryn and I also spent some time Pokémon hunting

Rory found her lounging spot

 

We went first got to the cottage, Rory liked being on the dock. My father jumped into the lake and either she jumped after him, or she was knocked in. But she ended up in the deep water, and she wasn't happy about it.

She did swim back to shore.

 

 

Katheryn has been swimming so great with her life jacket and flippers that I wanted to see what she could do without the support of the life jacket

 

She needed ALOT of encouragement

But she did it!
I never had any doubt!
That girl is like a fish!

Once she made it to the dock and she was confident that she could do this. She was off! Swimming all over the place.
I think next year we will be swimming across the lake together

 

Nick did lots and lots of walking with only his AFOs, but it would tire him out a bit. So he did resting too

 

At night we had marshmallows and told stories around the campfire

And we played cards
Katheryn learned how to play Rummy with Laura and I.
And she WON!

Of course she wanted to play with us the next day
(She may not want to admit it, but she is a lot like me)

Jamie and the kids had a build-your-own lightsaber project

After 4 days and 3 nights it was time to go.
I had to work again Tuesday night, so we got to have a quick dip in the beautiful lake first

No one wanted to get out

When we started packing the car, Rory was all ready to go

I wish we could have spent more time this year. It doesn't look like we will be back this summer

Cottage weekend

We started vacation with a trip to the cottage!

On the way up to the cottage Katheryn wrote a whole list of things that she wanted to do over the weekend.

On the top of the list was going in the water!

It was a hot day, so Katheryn pretty much stayed in the water for as long as she could

We had a plan for Nickolas to get him in the water.
Or at least close to the water so he could participate.

I got this boat for him to float in. It was the best that we could do, but still wasn't the same
I got a 2 person one and not the 1 person one because this one came with a pump and paddles, but the paddles were still too big for Nick to move around by himself.

We had the boat tied up so it wouldn't float too far away from everyone. Katheryn would go in it as well to play. And the jump back out.
I put some stuff around him to support him a bit more, but he still got his shirt wet (but his back dressing kept his scar dry)

 

But in the end Nick liked playing on the big boat and pretending to fish

The sun and the water tired everyone out!

Kyle and Katheryn liked playing some Mario Kart. And Nick cheered them on!
(Katheryn won)

We also went into town for some lunch and shopping

We found a comic store and bought a bunch of comics.
Nick also found an item he wanted to bring home

Because it was Canada Day we had a firework show!

Nick's earmuffs worked really well and he really enjoyed them!

Happy Canada Day!