Sweet Sixteen

Wow, how did that happen so quickly? Where has the time gone? Our oldest...ready to drive?!  The law says she's old enough and she says she's ready. All that remains is for us to take her in to write the test.  Then the fun begins.  Actually, the fun began 16 years ago when this girl was born to two eager, excited, inexperienced people.  We have been practicing our parenting skills on her ever since. :)  Justine kept us waiting, arriving 13 days past her due date.  That was a good thing, as Gerald was the best man for his friend who married my sister three days after the due date.  I wasn't too anxious about how things would work out if both events happened on the same day - but then, I didn't quite know what was coming. :{  Anyhow, I survived that and she seems to be surviving our inexperience.  Though she can't claim to be the tallest of our offspring, she makes sure that none of the siblings forgets that she's the oldest. :)

This year her birthday landed on Victoria Day.  We dusted off the canoe and got it wet!! It had been way, way, WAY too long since we'd taken it out.

There was a day when the whole crew fit - but that was when the crew was significantly smaller in size and number.  The youngest three (or is it four? not sure if Brent ever went...) had never even been in the canoe before.  Yes, it had been a looooong time.  Anyway, Brent and Thomas LOVED it.  Gavin did NOT.  Check out his face on the picture above.  He's sitting in the back, facing backwards. :) We could not convince him that the canoe was safe.

It was a lovely day and the lake was small and quiet, with no motorboats and few people to disturb the peace and tranquility.

Nadia didn't get a turn, but she didn't mind.  She sat watching and enjoying more than her share of the cookies.

The kids took the opportunity for a swim.  The water was certainly not clean, which meant that at home there was a line up for the showers and a pile of laundry.  But it was good fun.

'Til next time,