Jamie and Liam Chew's Blog: 2009-08-21

2009-08-21 23:31 (Kristen) As John and I were not feeling our brightest or shiniest, we got off to a very slow start today on our trip up to Ryde Lake for the annual Hakobune Daycare Camp Weekend. Jamie protested the entire way that he *did* not want to go to camp, and I reminded him that there have been a number of activities lately that he did not want to do and then had a great time doing. He actually slept for a good part of the trip, while Liam was bright-eyed and bushy tailed, happy to call out when he saw cows or corn or hay, or something else exciting and new. We took an alternate route, as the 404 and other areas seemed choked with too much cottage traffic, and had a very nice trip up to the camp. Once we arrived, we went down to the water and had a dip before coming back up. John took the boys out in a paddle boat while sick me sat on the dock in a chair to read and take photos of the men out boating. As I sat, I saw a creature coming towards me on the dock out of the corner of my eye, and thought first "groundhog. A...skinny groundhog. No. A marten! Move feet! It's going to bite me!" I've been around too many ferrets with a taste for feet. This one, however, just wanted to be on its way, so it raced around me, and I could feel the wake in the air as it passed, as it headed to the rocks beyond the dock. John got the camera back from me (d'oh, I didn't take a picture), and the boys and he chased it in their paddleboat along the bank until it decided that it had had enough, swam across the little river mouth, and up and away on the far bank. Later on, we identified it as a mink. How cool!

We headed up to dinner, buzzing with our animal sighting and Jamie's concern that the river current was going to sweep them away (John did some hard peddling). In the dining hall, Jamie found a game of Battleship, which is now his favourite game. John lets him play two turns to his one, and with a little help from Mummy (and Papa being "helped" by Liam, who called the shots in numerical order across the board, logically), sank Papa's battleship (and everything else). Yay! Afterwards, we took Liam and Jamie to the campfire singalong, but Liam started to expire so I took him back to sleep. Jamie and John were soon back too, as they tired of being mosquito fodder. Liam fell asleep quickly on the Thomas inflatable bed, while Jamie was to fall asleep with me. Liam was asleep by 9. Jamie was asleep by 11, kept awake by excitement, the strangeness of his environment, and the hour-long nap he'd had in the car. Sigh.