Ahoy Matey!!

I can honestly say this has been a very rewarding & fun-filled summer for the Smith Household. We’ve been very active and are sad to see it coming to an end with school starting in just over a week. Lucky for us it won’t stop there though – Cooper & I are headed out camping mid-September – close to where Clark is working so he can come stay with us at night but we’ll be on our own during the day. I had some sorrow well not on my pocket books behalf but in the fact I am now only buying for one student – you know supplies, clothes, etc. It’s strange as it’s been many years since I was only buying for one – it’s a realization that my time is coming to an end of being involved in the school environment. I’ve decided to join the school council at Harry Balfour this year – Cooper still has 3 more years there and I want to be involved.

I started this post with Ahoy Matey – with a purpose to the discussion – I have finally went out in our boat!  I prepared for this venture by taking adult swimming lessons a few weeks at the Eastlink Centre which was AWESOME!!  I now know how to do the front crawl (or freestyle as they call it in the Olympics), back crawl & elementary backcrawl – so I am set to start going & swimming laps once Cooper is back into his routine. Cooper & I went swimming last week and he figured I was ready to jump off the highest platform there but alas I am not that fearless – told him I’d work up to jumping off the smallest diving board first. If your from Grande Prairie and have never been to the Eastlink Centre I highly recommend it – what a beautiful facility for all members of your family!

So Clark, Cooper & I set off for One Island Lake (http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/one_is_lk/) – really is a nice, small campsite – and the lake was a good size. I had been there back in 1981 on my first real camping (when I was young our camping was at rodeo grounds only) with the Neitz family that I called my second home – it was a bit nostalgic as Cooper is the same age I was! We went out on Thursday as Clark was on day’s off – and had lots of spots to pick from. They aren’t great, treed in spots but we picked an end one and had an extra-large area where Cooper did some shooting with his bow & arrow (no animals were hurt in this activity).

Of course he gets the laugh

first before being serious.

It was quite windy and cool while we were there so we had to dress warmly while out on the boat – but it was great. There are quite a few private cabins built on the shore – so we had a peek at them and went as close as we could to the “Island” which it was quite shallow & weedy around it and we didn’t want to chance it so only went as close as we felt comfortable. There was a huge eagle’s nest on one of the trees though so we sat watching it swoop down & then return to his perch high above. If I am reincarnated as an animal/bird I have always wanted it to be an eagle not sure why just felt that connection to them – I know my friend Sharon would say it’s a past life thing….to which my husband would roll his eyes!

Apparently Cooper has decided to not have a serious face in any pictures…probably until he is an adult as he finds it funny to be such a dofus!

We sat around the camp fire at night – enjoying the peace & quiet – listening to the loons on the lake and just being in the moment. Ahhhhhh now this is what life is all about!  The boys went out the second day – in hopes of catching a nice big rainbow trout that we could cook over the fire….but alas they were not as lucky as one hoped. While they were out I sat toasting my feet by the fire and catching up on some reading. The campground was pretty quiet so no noisy neighbors or should I say annoying people or dogs or children for that matter.  We had two trailers pull in beside us – looked to be Grandma & Grandpa with one of their children & their family (2 kids Cooper’s age). Cooper joined them for a friendly game of bocce ball and then played tag hide & go seek with them until it got too dark to see.

The next morning we were getting up to go fishing once again then considered moving camp to Stony Lake for a few more days of R & R. Clark wandered over to where we had the boat tied up (right behind a group of campers and was shocked to see the boat motor missing….I’m sure he said an expletive but since we weren’t there to hear it I am not sure which one he used.  He chatted the campers up and they didn’t hear anything through the night but let Clark know that 2 weeks ago at this same campground 2 boat motors went missing.  He came back to camp to let us know and Cooper & I were very sad-faced. We felt like all the air was let out of the balloon – bummed right out.

Rather than sit around moping we decided we may as well pack up then and head home. An older fellow wandered over as we were cleaning up and let us know that his motor went missing as well – that damn thief got 2! We went to the Park attendant and reported the thefts and he confirmed 2 weeks ago the same thing had happened – and that the thieves had also hit Swan Lake and got 4 boat motors there!  We called the Dawson Creek RCMP to report our motor and got a file open for insurance purposes (although is it worth making a claim to see our rates jump up for the next how many years…..that’s a whole other blog to write about).

Homeward bound – we tried to look at the positive that the thieves left our boat – the motor can be replaced – we did have fun while we could and such is life. This world is a different place where one has to doubt so many. Who would have thought you should be wary of leaving a boat/motor out in the open where thieves would have to be quite brazen to steal it.  Especially that it’s not a light object that one can pick up and easily carry away.

This fellow came and visited us while we were camping – not sure what kind of bird it is – looks like a blue jay but a much darker blue color.  It was quite interested in us and stayed around quite awhile – swooping around in the trees and then getting down on the ground for a closer look. Pretty looking bird.

There was a playground across from our camp that Cooper checked out as well – not too big to jump on the swings and play around for a while. He found the “digger” to be the best thing going – didn’t have the heart to tell him that Grandma Sheila had bought a pattern for his Dad to make this exact thing for him when he was young… I best be finding it as I’m sure once we have grandkids Clark will be more than ready to build something like this.

 Over all even though our motor was stole we had a great time camping – loving our new camper – it serves it’s purpose quite well.

Cheers, Shannon