We went to a friend’s cottage this weekend, a new experience for all. When you are used to going to a family cottage most weekends, a new cottage can be a little bit scary.  I was a little bit nervous, but excited to spend some time with great friends (the other guests) and make some new friends, as our hosts were Willy’s co-worker’s family, they were unknown to me.

We got off to a rough start by forgetting enough things that we had to turn around 20 minutes into the trip, but we managed to arrive well before lunch, as was our plan.  I was relieved to see that the hosts were nice (I had an inkling there), and that there cottage matched my expectation of cottage.

We unloaded and headed for the lake.  The kids dipped their feet in the lake and explored their surroundings.  Goose was a little fish and wandered around the shallow beach, hopping in and out to get toys, float boats and float boats while floating in a boat.

Woo spotted a kayak and was instantly intrigued.  He asked if he could sit in it, so we placed him in the boat with a paddle.  He was a natural. He did so well, paddling here and there, turning, staying upright!  We were all astounded.

The rest of the day was more of the same, time in water, around the water, playing with friends, crafts and running around.  We hoped that they wore themselves out, as we were all sleeping in a camper trailer.  Bedtime was sub-optimal, but Willy was a hero and took care of the little monkeys, even through the inevitable meltdown for way past tired Woo.

Unfortunately, Sunday morning came really early, our friends wee ones woke (LOUDLY) at 5:15, spelling the end of sleep for us.  The monkeys were really good about staying in bed until close to 7:00, much to our relief.  This was aided by Woo’s discovery that his pal A was in her bed, RIGHT OUTSIDE HIS WINDOW. Their conversation was really quite cute, and kept the peace for a good forty minutes.

Willy let me have a few extra winks, and headed off with the monkeys. I have no idea what they did for the next hour, but I am all good with that.  Sleep was great.

Our gracious hosts made us a wonderful breakfast, and then led us to the local playground.  It was an older playground, which meant that it had some cool equipment, stuff that is generally deemed to unsafe to include in our playground.  By far the most fun was had on the teeter-toter…

It was an overcast morning, so we stayed at the park for a couple of hours. The adults even got in on the fun by flying kites, something that I haven’t done in years.  The camera battery had died at this point, so there are no pictures of this fun.

Upon our return to the cottage, the boys headed out in the peddle boat and the kayaks, while I packed and played with Goose.  We had a quick lunch and headed home.  The kids lasted about five minutes before nodding off into a happy exhausted sleep!