Homeschool Camping

 Ah, the favorite camping trip of the year: Homeschool Camping.

It was the best! Most of the pickle fam (people I worked with this summer) were there, so that made it very fun!

It was much colder than our Family Camping, but great nonetheless. I hung out with the girls, I even went fishing at 6:30am Tuesday morning. That was cold. I, unfortunately, didn't catch anything. But at least I got second breakfast! A routine I daily kept, unless it was too close to lunch. Then I had second lunch 😋 which is also great 😂! Many of us ate second breakfast, especially when we went fishing.

But it was a beautiful day, and this was at about 8am! 

A waterhole in the dock.

V brought a book. At first I was with the girls, then went back to
 get the camera and joined some of the Cowans and Zach (from the pickle fam).
Zach is the photobomber.

It became very dark and it was quite pretty too.

All in all, homeschool camping was great fun! There was almost nothing I would've wanted to change. One morning we decided to wake up early to go to the beach (just us older teens), and ended up staying on a campsite, most of us wrapped in blankets, talking. It was extremely cold, well, for Homeschool camping, it was. But Grandma M gave me hot chocolate, and that was nice..

One night, it was just 3 of us girls and we listened to comedy for a while, then I went to a different campsite where everyone was and was there till about 11:30pm. (Our curfew was supposed to be at 10:30-11:00, but one of the moms came to get her children, and we got the memo that it was late!) That night, we decided that the next morning we would wake up early to go to the beach, but ended up staying on a campsite, most of us wrapped in blankets, talking. It was extremely cold, well, for Homeschool camping, it was. But Grandma M gave me hot chocolate, and that was nice. Then eventually I warmed up and we all had much fun. 
Later we sadly parted ways, and went home. That was a sad part. But it was nice to come home too! 

Summer

 My summer has been mostly filled with pickles and more pickles.
V and I have been working in a field picking pickles (well, cucumbers that will become pickles, but everyone calls them pickles, hence me calling them pickles 😊).

Everyone else has been swimming daily and staying home.

A couple days ago Cassia had a few friends over for a party. They had lots of fun. Our house was very noisy.

All nine girls posing for pictures.

While they were having fun since 11am, I was working since 7, got home about 2 and then Moriah & I left for Moriah's (a different Moriah, there are two Moriahs in our church) birthday party. We had a great time. There were only 5 of us, and we chatted ... a lot. During our dinner, we all struggled through many Quiet Contests, with laughing, hiccuping, and, apparently, my choking on food and water allowed! Moriah's dad said that you know you have good friends when you can be quiet for 60 sec without noise. I think we failed, if you count laughing and hiccuping, and choking. If you don't, we succeeded! Our party was somewhat quieter than my sisters'.

We went for a walk to Tecumseh Park and played Sandman on the playground then walked around for a bit. After about 10 minutes of playing and walking, we walked back to Moriah's house.

Some of the girls danced in the kitchen while I played piano, and we chatted. Then chatted some more. Then played a game, and then, well, chatted more!

We have gotten a lot from our garden this year. Tons of beans, kale, and tomatoes. There were some peas growing, but those didn't turn out very well, along with the broccoli and cauliflower and the garden squash plant which all died.. The compost squash plant is huge and is beginning to produce some squash I think.

Our lovely garden!

V and I are almost done working, and then we will be starting our school.
Pake & Beppe are now gone out west, and almost out of Ontario (they left on Sunday). On Tuesday, they were tempted to turn around and come home (I don't mind! 😊), but didn't. They are towing the camper out there. I definitely miss them, but am still living!

In 2 weeks, we will be going camping, then the week after that, we will be going Homeschool Camping, which sounds like it will be grand!

Then our life becomes busy and sorta full of school and random activities!

Summer has been busy for V & I and sorta for the rest of my family, but we are excited for fall and the cooler weather that comes with it. And, especially, camping!!

Long Point with our Friends

Ever since 2017, we have gone camping with our friends who live in Grimsby. We only see each other about twice a year, sometimes more. So, it's always special and very fun when we see each other.

Grounders or Sandman were our 2 most played games. On that small little playset with a really annoying telescope-type-thing that you keep hitting yourself on, I know from past experience. 😉

Ellia and Marike on the teeter-totter

Moriah

We tried playing hot potato with a bean bag, Dad used his phone for music.

We walked along the beach, maybe 1 mile one way, playing that we had all the deadly diseases and the worst possible things. That's how we walked so far!

Oh, we also pretended there were sharks in the water.

Us older children played a game & the younger kids blew bubbles and we all ate watermelon

Waiting

We had so much fun!! And we did this year too. The water is always behind our campsites.

-Alicia