Rain, Rain, Go Away - AKA Port Burwell 2011

Another year at Port Burwell with my family has come and gone.  It was another good year, though it had its moments we could have done with out! (RAIN!!) 

Our first beach day (Friday) was fabulous and ended up being the best beach day by far. It was sunny, still, hot enough to go swimming, and the water was extremely clear and warm on top of all that!

Kade getting tossed.

Kevin's turn.

 Kate (with Kyra) is making the water seem kind of chilly here, but it wasn't.  It was quite comfortable to just sit in the shallow part and relax.

 Summer and Richard

 Landon

 Ella and Saige. Both of these girls LOVE the water and probably have far too little fear of it.  These water wing/ puddle jumper things were marvelous. 

 Tim and Anna

 Kylie, Meika, Summer, and Hunter

 Saige

 Ella

 Opa with his grandchildren!  They thought it was great fun to try to get him wet.

 Then it was Saturday.  Jonathan has had the idea that vacations are a wonderful time to wax your vehicle, so Saturday morning, him and Kev were out there making her shine!

 Next on the agenda was a canoe trip.  I dropped Jonathan and the boys off in Vienna, and they canoed back to Port Burwell

 Setting off.

 Farewell!

 On their way.

 Saturday afternoon, we rented the seadoo again.  Great fun.  (We also got our first drizzle Saturday morning).

 Jonathan water skiiing.

 Summer and Kylie

  . . . and Jeremy!

 Not sure if they are having a peaceable discussion here or not, but thought it was cute and somewhat characteristic of these two either way.

 Ella

 Mom and Dad getting ready for their turn on the seadoo.

 Planning and plotting . . .actually I think Ken is getting ready to take a turn on the skiis.

 Savannah and Kyra - What cuties! And they were both great campers too!

 Ella

 Carrie, Meika, and Kevin

 Saige

 And then it was Sunday  - which was a pretty nice day - as long as we were at home and at church.  When we got back to camp - It poured!!!

 Some mothers were rather prepared for this and had their kids in boots and slickers and let them roam.

 Yep. It was that good!

 Monday was lots of rain and clouds too, but we managed to do a few things.  Here Mare and Kate are playing some badminton.

 Kids on a bus?

 All slicked up for his quick trip to town.

 Then Tuesday was Kevin's birthday and was also rather rainy most of the day with clouds in between though we did have a few good beach hours in the late afternoon.

 Hunter

 Ella

 Beth enjoying her book and coffee.

 Kevin opening his gifts from Opa and Oma

  . . . and from us - at night - and once again, in the rain.

 Wednesday morning the sun rejoined us and stayed the rest of the trip - well - there were still plenty of clouds, but no more rain!  Here is various family members gathered for "Opa/Oma Porridge"

 Meika

 Dad and Mom left on Wednesday. Here is their post picture of the year with some of the available grandchildren.

 Summer

 Meika - love her smile on this picture!

 Hunter

 Meika with her post picture.

 Landon

 Beach day on Wednesday was windy, cool, and very wavy!  We didn't stay too long!

 Kade, Jeremy, and Kevin

 Eating and staying out of the wind.

 So cozy! (Hunter)

 Kade - this boy has no fear of water and it is very scary for me.  I had to swim more times than I wanted to in order to tell him to stay shallower!  His memory seemed to be very short.

 This was definitely a life jacket day!

 Waves are so much fun - they had to go out, even though it was chilly.

 Parting shot of our campsite (119) on Thursday before we packed up.

 And when we got home around noon, we unpacked and Kylie who already fell asleep on the way home, had to catch a few more zzzzz's on the deck. Tiring business!

And that is it for another year. We had a good time, though I don't find the rain is conducive to relaxing - b/c even when it stops, there is all kinds of stuff to try to get dry etc.  But I am glad we had lots of sunshine too and everything was dry by the time we packed up - which is very helpful!  We were all very thankful that we decided to stay for a full week this year. If we had left on Tuesday like we usually do, it would have been pretty miserable!! And even a week goes by way too fast!  There is something about camping that is just so great - especially for kids. It was so fun to watch them (actually I didn't have to that much) play all day and spend time with their cousins. Family is such a blessing!