What an adventure!!

Mike, Nana and the kids got home late last night from their Spanish River canoe trip. If you don't know anything about the Spanish River it's a 160 km long river in northern Ontario with plenty of whitewater, great fishing and spectacular scenery. It sounds like they had quite the adventure!Avery with a baby turtle she caught while staying at Fox Lake. It was a perfect distraction while waiting for a shuttle to the top of the river.

After getting a late start the first day and putting up with some serious rain they made it to this beautiful campsite on a quiet lake. The fishing was incredible and both Cam and Mike caught plenty of Pike and Bass.

Halfway through the trip the gang ran into a group of women on the river who were out for a day trip.......this is where the real adventure began. The three women unfortunately missed a major portage and got pulled into a long and dangerous set of rapids losing all of their equipment. Luckily nobody was seriously hurt in the ordeal, just shaken up and scared. At the next set of rapids the their canoe flipped one of the girls got seperated from the others. Mike , Nana and the kids who had set up camp for the night were the last to see her heading downstream apparently chasing her friends.

After having some dinner and enjoying a great fire eveyone turned in for the night thinking the adventure was over. Around 10:30 pm a helicopter started flying over the river. That's when the gang knew that all wasn't ok with the group of girls. Mike and Cam went out with flashlights and signaled the helicopter hoping to pass on info about where the girls were last seen. It circled a few times and left because there was nowhere to land. The temperature was down to 5C and everyone became very worried for the girl. Nobody slept well for the rest of the night.

At 2:30 am a Search and Rescue helicopter arrived from Trenton and two men repelled down on ropes into the camp sending everything blowing! Talk about an exciting thing to happen on a camping trip! The men got the story and made off into the night looking for the lost girl.

In the morning the gang was met by a really nice group of Canadian Military personel making their way through the camp. They were out on the river on a week long exercise and were very friendly with the kids.

After breakfast the OPP Search and Rescue team showed up with a police dog to join in the search. They set up their operation right in the campsite as our gang was packing up.

This was definitely not the usual camping trip by any means! This was adventure that the kids have never experienced before.

As the gang made their way down the river they were met by the OPP helicopter as it landed right in the middle of the river next to their canoe! The police got out and talked to Mike, Nana and the kids about what they had seen. This was all very exciting of course.

Around 10:30 am word arrived on the river that the girl was found in a swamp and was safe. She had survived a long cold night in the woods that surely must have been terrible. The kids were very relieved to hear that news.

Back to camping!

Nana (66 yrs) pitching in on one of the portages! What a trooper! Throughout the trip our gang ran approximately 30 sets of rapids, did numerous portages and caught a lot of fish. The gang made their way down the last section of river alongside the Military. In the end everyone had an amazing time and Nana is looking forward to next years adventure.

Unfortunately I can't say that Isaac and I had as much adventure as the rest of the gang this past week. We made it to the beach and got a lot of cleaning done around an otherwise quiet house. I'm just glad everyone had a wonderful time and made it home in one piece.

Last week we met our friend Kelly and her kids at the Toronto Zoo for a day of fun. Unfortunately I forgot my camera but Kelly just sent me this great pic of Isaac that I just had to share. And the five of us.

On another note....

Mike, Cam and Avery have been gone since Saturday canoeing the Spanish River and I miss them soooooo much. There is no cell service on the river so I haven't spoke to them since they left and its been tough. They are due home Saturday and I can't wait to see them.

On the good side of things Isaac and I have been super busy and the days have gone by rather quickly.

Avery's Christmas gift comes alive.

Last Christmas Cameron had given Avery an Ant Farm. She loved it. With the farm came a coupon to mail in for the ants but unfortunately the ants could not be shipped out until the warmer weather. Well guess what arrived in the mail today!?........A plastic test tube full of ants. Unfortunately only about six of the twenty ants arrived alive but Avery was ecstatic none the less. She has yet to come up with names for her newest creepy crawly friends but I have no doubt that soon enough she will.

Farewell to a fantastic weekend.

This past long weekend our town celebrated a reunion that happens every ten years. It was huge and the list of activities went on and on. Nana came up for the weekend so Mike and I could enjoy some of the night time festivities. The biggest event of the weekend was the Sunday night "shirtail parade". Now this being our 'first' we didn't really know what to expect. We very quickly discovered that it was an anything goes parade...literally. Mike and I were both wearing...clothes...and we were VERY overdressed. People were giving us a hard time because we were dressed. It was crazy. Most of the outfits consisted of duct tape, string and beer boxes. Yes, you can only imagine how many bare butts I saw that night. People were dragging wagons with coolers filled with their nights supply of beverages, some were even pushing baby strollers filled with refreshments. Fireworks were being let off all around us. There were thousands of people there. It was so much fun. The next time this reunion happens Cameron will be 19 and I am sure he will be participating in the weekend events....how scary is that.

Here are some 'family' pictures of the weekend.

Stunt man Cam breaking all the rules. It just looked like too much fun so what the hell...me and Avery decided to join in. This was Avery's first ever jump off the pier.
Avery and Isaac enjoy a ride together.....although I don't think daddy enjoyed pushing to much.

Hangin' out at the beach.

Hangin' out.

Just us hangin' out.

Campin' out.

Cam and Avery camped out in the fort last night. It was pretty exciting. Daddy slept in the tent just to make sure the rugrats were safe.

Our Massassauga trip.

Well The Massassauga is absolutely breath taking....more beautiful then Algonquin I would have to say. We will definitely venture there again but next time we will wait till later in the summer...the black flies and mosquitoes were wicked. Poor Isaac...the bugs LOVED him.

Isaac having a snooze in the canoe. Me and my boys.

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I did! I completed the 2008 Kincardine Womens Triathlon/Duathlon ( I did the duathlon part ...run-bike-run...I sink in water). I placed 55th out of 100 duathlon participants with a finishing time of 1hr 6min 8sec. This is the first time I have ever done anything like this so I'm pretty proud of myself. My goal was to 'complete' the race and since I have been fighting a cough for the last two weeks I wasn't feeling too optimistic about the whole thing...but I did it and didn't do too shabby either!!!!
Mike and the kids were at every transition point and at the finishing line cheering me on. Our neighbors came out to support me too. What a great feeling.
When you cross the finishing line you are given a medal....everyone gets one...but Cameron thought because I got a medal I won the race. Well I am proud to say that I did win, I won for me. And it was a good experience for the kids to see the end result of all my hard work.

This pic was taken just after I completed. Notice I am wearing my "winning" medal.
The most amazing part of the whole day was being able to cheer on the final athlete while crossing the finish line. She was 78 years old and completed the race in just over 2hrs!!!!! The crowd was going crazy cheering her on, I can't even begin do describe how amazing it was.

Algonquin, Mosquitos and a Moose

We just returned from a week long camping trip to Algonquin Park. We had terrific weather, great fishing and tons of bugs. We got to see a moose up close (it was my very first moose sighting ever)!!

The moose! The first catch of the week.

Isaac's first encounter with a big, bad chipmunk. The kids name him Oscar.

My fishermen and girl.

Isaac on his first ever canoe trip!!

Cameron waiting patiently for Oscar.

Avery just being beautiful.

Isaac's first steps.

Those precious moments that moms love to share with the world.