Here are some belated camping pictures from 2 weeks ago:

Racing the dog:

These 2 have a love-hate relationship:

Proud of his big catch:

Thirty-five

It's true. I am 35 years old today. Kind of weird. I handled the transition fine, exept for one small moment. At 10:30 Saturday night, someone mentioned that I only had an hour and a half to be young. I was tired and wanted to go to bed, but all of the sudden I felt like I should quick be doing something fun! Anyway, I ignored the urge and went to sleep before midnight, wasting at least a good half an hour of my youth.

I had a good weekend of camping with our church. It was a good way to spend my birthday weekend. On the way down to the campground, Kendall gave me a great birthday gift- an eBook reader! It's like practically my first cool gadget ever! Well, not exactly, but maybe the coolest thing I've ever owned. And it fits me so well because I LOVE TO READ.

Random things from the weekend:
-Cinnamon rolls with birthday candles this morning- Thanks Glenda!
-A cool, refreshing (cold) bucket of water poured over me- Thanks young women whom I attempt to guide in good paths. Obviously I've failed. (Just kidding- they're awesome.)
-Playing a really fun game in which teams chose cardboard pieces, duct tape and random junk and had 45 minutes to build a boat which they then raced in the lake.
-A spur-of-the-moment spa complete with pedicures.
-Playing Lawn Dutch Blitz (thanks for the cards, Kendra). There were 2 individuals in particular that you really had to watch out for in this game or you would be trampled. But if you kept your guard up, you were fine. :)
-2 boys who played hard all day, then were more than willing to collapse into bed at night.
-Having everyone sing Happy Birthday to me. In the absence of candles, anyone with a lighter was asked to light it and let me blow it out.
-Our camper was so squeaky, I was embarrassed just crawling around in it making the bed!
-There is a close forest fire and Friday was very smoky around here, so I (wisely) took our computer and the safe with important documents inside along to the campground. I didn't want there to be an evacuation while we were down there and not be able to get back up to Red Lake! No evacuation was necessary and tomorrow it's supposed to rain. I was rather sheepish about being so (wisely) prepared, but later found out I wasn't the only one who did this!

The boys had a great weekend. We gave them firm boundaries and then let them roam. Eli said tonight that one of his favorite things was that the kids could do their own thing so much. They had their bikes and there wasn't much traffic. They loved it. We're spoiled right now. Eli and Evan are at a great age for camping. They are pretty independent and usually obey the boundaries we give them, so we can relax a lot more than we could have a couple years ago. Really, the main things they needed from us were meals, bedtime and supervision at the beach. Oh- and love, of course. Other than that, they were having a blast with their pseudo-cousins.

Oh yeah, when we got home, we were wearily putting things away, I opened the refrigerator door and lo and behold! There was a platter of delicious cheesecake setting there waiting for me! Thanks to my new-ish friend, Parla!

Too bad, I'm not good at pulling out the camera. Sorry, Grandparents. I'll snag some from facebook when I can.

Poutine, Haircuts and Kittens

Yes, it has been an eventful week in the Hochstedler household.


We made our obligatory visit to the Spud 'n Dog chipwagon for lunch one day. We split two large poutines. (I know this will make Duane and Ben jealous. I think Duane has a special place in his heart for this delectable specialty.) Homemade french fries smothered in brown gravy and cheese. Need I say more? It is true that our entire lunch consisted of greasy french fries, pop (from a pop machine which caused real excitement!), and one shared ice cream cone. (The cone came about because the driver of our vehicle was inspired by the healthy lunch and had a hankerin' for ice cream. So he counted the change between us and came up with one cone to share.)

Let this be the before photo on the haircuts. I should add that while I have buzzed Eli's hair before, I have been too scared to do it on Evan's head. Evan has very fine, very straight hair and he normally waits for his haircuts until he sees Grandma. (Kendall wanted me to tell Grandma that if she wants the boys to have decent haircuts, she needs to come up and do it. Hint. Hint.)

Evan was very happy with his haircut. He told me that he doesn't like when people say he's cute. He wants to be "cool." So I gave him a "cool" buzz.
Here are Eli and Evan with cool haircuts and their new kittens:

The kittens are so cute. I'm not sure what is happening to us. We're not so much animal people, but now we have a dog and two cats! Well, we do for now...Our dog really seems to want to eat the kittens. Not quite sure how to handle that.

I have to smile because Eli's kitten is so mellow. Evan's, on the other hand, is quite active and curious. She's...independent. Hmm... Sounds a bit like her owner. (They're even both cute, but don't tell the owner I said that.)

Goodbye

And just like that... It's gone.

The heat, that is. Today we hit a high of 59 fahrenheit.

Goodbye beach. Goodbye fast-drying laundry. Goodbye sleeping in the cool, dark basement. Goodbye 3 showers per day.

Kendall said last night that he wasn't ready to be done with the heatwave. Neither was I. It was actually fun to go out in the lake. The water games at VBS felt good. Somehow the heat, while it sapped my strength, also invigorated me. I don't expect to see another hot spell like that again this summer. Maybe not for a few more summers. Goodbye.

In other news, we also got rain. That helps with the forest fires, though they're still a problem.

Style

Evan shows off his fancy homemade shirt. (If you can't see, that's tape holding some awesome fringes to his shirt.)





We couldn't quite find the right pose, so I included all of them for your viewing pleasure.

I was one of those cool moms who let him wear his shirt out of the house. (Okay, it was just to swimming lessons and I don't know if I would have been okay letting him wear it somewhere more public. But at least I tried to be one of those cool moms.)

Weather Update

I'm just giggling through the heat.

You would not believe the heat wave we are having. At 9:20 pm it's 88 degrees outside and 85 degrees inside. This is a very rare occurrence in Red Lake, Ontario. So rare, that no one puts central air in their houses. I mean, why buy an air conditioner for the 6% of the year you need it? So we set up a makeshift bedroom for the entire family in the basement.

People are complaining about the heat, but I'm soaking it in. I'm really trying not to complain because it will be gone before I know it, never to return again. It definitely makes going to the beach more fun! The heat index for tomorrow is 106! Hee hee hee!

The other weather-related thing happening around here are lots and lots of forest fires. Click here to see a glimpse of what surrounds us.

This was the view from our deck yesterday morning.

No, that is not fog. It's smoke. Smelly smoke. Today wasn't as smoky as yesterday. We hear that the smoke from Northwest Ontario is moving across Canada, into other provinces. Even the weather conditions on the weather forecast have been saying "smoke."

We have fire restrictions right now. There is a chance of thunderstorms tomorrow. Rain is good. Lightning is bad.

We live really close to the fire base where firefighters stay and get ferried out to the fires. So we hear and see lots of activity. All day long there are white MNR (Ministry of Natural Resources) trucks driving past our place and helicopters coming and going. From the lake, we've seen a group of firefighters coming back from a fire.

Several remote communities north of us are evacuating people. From what I understand, it has a lot to do with the smoke. Click here for an interesting article from CBC.

As far as I know, we are not currently in any danger. It does make you think, though...

P.S. Kendall just got back from a quick bedtime dunk to cool down at the beach near us. He ran into one of the firefighters there. He told Kendall that Red Lake district is currently the busiest district in Canada and that columns of smoke are visible from here. Interesting.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Here you can see our lovely home for a week. We had a tent and usually camped at night, but really, this van is what we lived out of. Throughout the week in this little silver bullet, our stuff seemed to grow and take over. By the time we finally made it home to Red Lake, our van was so full of stuff that there was only room for two little fists to fly back and forth toward each other, occasionally making contact. (It is also true that after we finally made it all the way home, the owners of those two little fists ended up sitting in the van playing nicely while Mom and Dad unpacked. Hard to explain. My guess is that all the space of a yard and their very own house was just too overwhelming to take in all at once.)

Here's a little guy we found waiting to cross the road:

We had just been missing the snow so much! After all, it's been like at least a whole month since we've gotten to see it gently falling! (I, personally, wasn't too impressed with the icy whitness.)


Elk!


Some other wild creatures...