Summer

Sunny skies, BBQ's, the rare day trip to the beach, the smell of freshly cut grass (my favorite!), flip flops... these are just a few of my favorite things about summer... it's a little hard to fully grasp the summer loves when in the city, but I'm trying to be optimistic! :)

July has been a busy month...  I loved having my Dad in the city for a few weeks, and was thankful we could at least steal him on the weekends. Maybe next time we'll be able to convince Mom to join him and she can camp out at our place... since Dad did our garden, put out our garbage on garbage day, washed his own sheets and towels and made up his bed before he left (!!), I figure Mom could find a few ways to keep busy too... I have a list of rooms she can paint and recipes she can bake... oh, wait, what did you say? That's not the best way to tempt her to visit??? oops... Mom - I TAKE THAT BACK! :)
 
The July long weekend was also our anniversary - three years! We went to a little town called Gananoque for an overnight escape... you can get a short boat cruise from there to tour the "Thousand Islands"... we took the four hour cruise which brought us across the border to New York State and dropped us off to tour Boldt Castle.  Here are a few pictures of our little escape:

I love this man... (sorry, couldn't resist)

One of the smallest islands I remember seeing with a home on it... There's barely enough room for the chairs out front!

And then one shot of the castle (I won't bore you with house after house):

A few shots of the God's handiwork :)

The Inn where we stayed - we had one of the rooms in that one level building out front:

My view from my chair outside our room ;)

We got back Friday afternoon and then Dad joined us for the weekend. At noon on Saturday, we made a wonderfully impulsive (not very characteristic of us) decision to drive to Grand Bend for a few hours at the beach. So we jumped in the car and drove 2.5 hours... yes, the BEACH is worth that kind of driving time. :)

Here is Dad strolling along the beach... if you can spot him.

We met up with friends who cottage in The Bend, and this is their youngest... love him!

Dad found some shade as he catches up with old friends... I promised I wouldn't post any bathing suit pictures, so .... hence the crop. :(

Another weekend... Dad spent the day studying, and we experimented in the kitchen... Evan slowly cooked ribs on the BBQ for the first time, and I..... wait for it.... made my first ever pie. Evan's only been begging since we umm... met?? Why is pastry such a big hurdle to overcome?!

It at least smelled good... and looked "okay"... I found it too sweet though... will have to play with that...

On Friday, July 16th, my Man's boys were in town... Manchester United! I had no idea they had such a big North American following, but there was a good sized crowd wearing jerseys and singing "football" (soccer) anthems and chants... it was really quite fun!

1:1... but Man U pulled ahead in the end... not bad, boys, not bad.

The Rogers Centre with the roof open:

And then to finish off July, a picture of Dad playing the piano... something I miss very much about being home... he didn't play it nearly enough while at our place!

So while July is drawing to a close, we're looking forward to August! Summer is going quickly though...