A day in the life...: August 2010

The Brown family is back from vacation, and ready to take on the world. Or something. The great thing about taking a three week long vacation is that you are pretty much ready to come home and sleep in your own bed again. It's always hard to leave the great weather, beautiful river, fun activities, and free childcare, but hey, it's good, to be back home again.

Every summer we pay the surcharges to check our luggage, to take two planes, to drag 3 kids through 3 airports, to drive 1.5 hours, to get to "the cottage." The Cottage has been in Paul's family since before he was born, and he has visited there most summers of his life. We plan to follow suit. Originally purchased by his grandparents, the cottage is now owned by Paul's parents. It is directly on the magnificent St. Lawrence River, of the Thousand Islands region. Yep, like the salad dressing, that's where it was "invented." Maybe I'm partial, but it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. That river gets in your blood and draws you in. We always spend the month following our visit lamenting we aren't still there, and scheming how to stay even longer the next summer.

We had lots of visitors this summer, and were lucky to be able to rent the neighbor's cottage for overflow. In case you didn't know the definition of cottage, it means many, many people sleeping in a very, very small house. With one bathroom.

The highlight of this visit for me was learning to sail! OK I know this sounds cheesy but honestly, that's checking one off my bucket list. Paul's mom found me a (tiny) sailboat at a yard sale (yes she bought a sailboat at a garage sale). We affectionately referred to my sailboat as the bathtub, as that's about the size of it, and you are sure to be taking a bath in the river while sailing it. But all was well, and after capsizing it twice and getting "towed" in twice (or was it 3 times?) I pretty much got the hang of it. Going out for a sail and returning to the dock from which you departed, on your own, gives one a sense of pride almost indescribable. I had the biggest, dorkiest, pat-myself-on-the-back grin you could imagine. I can't wait to do it again!

And well, Paul's favorite pastime at The Cottage is fishing. Every year, he gets excited, scours all the fishing reports numerous times before we even get to the airport, get his fishing license, determines the best bait, gets up early to get out on the boat, and finds the perfect fishing spot to catch the most fish. And catches two fish. The whole time. We are now sure that it HAS to be too hot part of summer/water level too low/wrong bait/boat too loud/climate issue, and will make amends so he can catch all the fish next year.

We had a great time this summer, and thanks to all the friends and family that helped make it so. Most of all to Paul's parents for picking us up at the airport, providing us with a car, feeding us, watching our kids, and putting up with us for three weeks. We were also fortunate enough to have my aunt come for a visit, and our good friend "Uncle Mikey" was able to finally make it up as well. Lastly, most of Paul's extended family came for a huge reunion as well, and our kids got to play with/ meet their only cousins (once removed/first?) for the first time. Life is good! Enjoy the pictures.