All great things come to end ..

All great things come to end ..

Vacation of three weeks is over :(

Really sad as loved it .

Besides a few pretty big twists and turns that had to do with the kids ( emergency hospital for one and suspension of three days for other from work ) ... That both turned out ok in the end ... 

Was super relaxing !

Oh ya and one son not being able to get home from 15 hour shift in car as big accident on bridge so had 2 Hr sleep and went back ( and 15 days of work in a row ! )

Let's just say three nights out of three weeks we stayed up on text with our kids until 4am 

The rest ? So so so relaxing 

Besides two big kayak trips and a couple of bike rides and some eating out and a couple of shorter social things - I can't say we did anything at all except for boat , reading , swimming , sleeping and watching tv and movies !

Heaven !

And lots of time with our kids too ( more than expected bc of these turns of events ) not  all together at all expect 21 hrs but lots individually it seemed . And lots and lots of time with Beauty and her boyfriend which I assumed would stress me  as she is too young - but I ending of loving every minute of . We had so much fun with the two of them . It was actually incredibly fun .

Also thought would bother me more not to have our family together this summer much at all - but it is actually not too bad . Different dynamics and routines and getting used to it more 

Back to reality it is ! And of course after 3 weeks a very busy reality it will be with work work and more work .

Very very scared to step on my scale tomorrow! And answer all the emails I ignored while away ! And deal with the pile of work that is my real life 

Was worth every precious minute though ! Of that I am sure ...

Vacation pics took me when I have a moment .

Again for those readers who have followed my blog since 2011 - I know flavour has drastically changed and is now  used for my own family record keeping . I guess you still like it as still lots of readers following but my energy on the more creative philosophical side is going into my next book :))

My happy place

no time to edit again... here it is as is!

We all have our happy places in life .

Clearly mine is Trent 

And before Trent it was LDF

Cottages 

Outdoors . Nature . Escape 

When we are here for 3 weeks of vacation I truly have no need to go anywhere else or see anything else . Neither does my husband . This is it for us 

It often can take me a while to settle in from the transition from work to play ( hubby does immediately ) but when I do .... I really really do 

It fits us perfectly this place 

So far has been a lot of great weather days and downtime and relaxation. This last week a bit more on a schedule as I committed to facilitating two virtual training sessions ( something I won't commit to again as very much getting into the way of our kayak excursion plans ! )

So far a few moments of many not to forget :

Sleeping outside on sleeping dock almost nightly 

Skinny dipping in the lake almost daily in mornings when waking up 

The ducks awaiting for us :) our audience :)

Simsim making us the best dinner ever ( in the magical apron !! )

All five of us for 21hrs !!

Having bear here for 6 precious days and making him laugh all the time 

Planning Bali

Watching my daughter in love 

Chase and his hospital visit and me being on text with him all night 

Simpler meals 

Banana Popsicles 

The girls here and bonfire 

Barely being able to fall and stay asleep inside anymore 

Never coming inside unless late at night to eat 

Converting Simsim ( beauty's beau ) to our crazy eating hrs . Dinner at 10:47 pm anyone ?

Swimming everyday 

Finding our new cove : green peace

Spending so much time with our girl 

That's a few of them 

Many more 

I love Trent with my heart and soul 

Special Weekend

written 2 weeks ago...sorry no time to edit!

Up until about 2 yrs ago we used to so cherish the two weeks of summer all three kids were away at camp . Every year for maybe 10 yrs we had a week where we worked like crazy in day but morning and evenings to ourselves . Then always 6 days of vacation at the cottage alone together before 2 weeks of vacation as a family 

Times have changed ! Now we have 1 week with 2 kids , 2 weeks with one kid and 36 hrs max with the third as family vacation .

And these five days alone that we have on vacation starting last night with a romantic 21 marriage anniversary dinner ? We spent in the best way possible - with our son Chase who came down from Bromont . Was so incredibly nice and fun and not rushed .

Then Hubby and I left for cottage and arrived at 1am . We got a surprise text in morning and Chase said was coming for day to use seedoo and hang out ! Yahoo ! Boated and seedoed all day on the lake and swam in the hot and gorgeous weather . Took a long nap all three in the sun on the boat and woke up and snuggled .

Made the little prince his two fave meals since he has been deprived for 4 weeks now where he works .

After he was planning to leave but decided to stay and sleep here and leave at 8:00am the next morning and drive 4 hrs to his job .

We ate and did our tradition of leaving the dishes out and a mess until later on saturdays and moved to his fave couch. As usual we chatted and laughed and massaged him ( me his feet and hubby hands and back)

Was truly the best day and there is nobody in the world we prefer to hang out with than any of our three kids 

Quality over quantity is working for us around here quite well 

Will be interesting to all be back under the same roof come later august after both boys have had completely independent summers away working.

Beauty away for 2 weeks now but has also been incredibly wonderful to be alone with her so often just the three of us . She is maturing so much and with that getting so so so much closer and connected. It is the thing i feel most grateful for many days of the week 

This weekend felt like on of the first times where one of our kids came to the cottage out of pure joy vs being expected to. He got here and ran to the water . He slept in the sun . The next morning got up 15 mins early to go out on seedoo for a last ride .

The tickles on the couch, the special meals and spending no tech moments together , falling asleep on the couch .

Chase has the cottage bug like his mom and dad have always have .

Its what we had always hoped ... and he caught it !

Was a fabulous spontaneous and unexpected weekend of letting go and letting in .

Of sharing a weekend and time with an adult child ( did i say that ??? )

Other moments to remember :

Nic

Getting Beauty at camp 

Seeing Bear as a lifeguard at camp 

Kayak and biking with my new electric bike ! 

Lazy days 

Dancing latin with kids 

Kids finally finally doing what i  have always wanted  them to do ( cook , waterski , want to be in boat, clean up instinctively after themselves )