And then to Otter Lake We Go!

After our Vernon trip, we had a week at home for Brent to work and Matthew to enjoy soccer camp.  We visited the water park several times, and had a home day or two.  I love free stuff, and this summer we gto into our local library, which is a short bike ride away from our house.   You would think that a bookaholic such as myself would LOVE the library and be its most frequent user, but in fact I hate libraries.  Generally because I don't keep very good track of library books and wind up with lost or late return fees.  The kids really got into their summer reading club program though, so we visited the library quite a few times this year.  Now I owe the library $14.  Woot.

August long weekend (BC day, which is August first) is always the busiest weekend of the year on the highways, ferries, in the campgrounds, and on flights in our province.  Because our life rotates around a shift worker's schedule, we generally ignore August long weekend.  It's summertime, so the kids are home anyways, and for what other reason would we notice a long weekend but that the kids get out of school?  And also that Brent makes double time.  So we stayed home.  But the following week we left for our annual Otter Lake trip!  We really need a bike carrier for our van (who am I kidding, what we really need is a Nissan Pathfinder with a third row of seats and a bike rack and towing capacity, but hello dreamland?) but can't afford one, so Brent came up with this:

Yes, we are that family.  Yes, it held for the entire trip.  And yes, that is me breastfeeding in the background.  BONUS!

Many years ago, when Matthew was Amarys' age, we wanted to start camping as a family.  We had been on a few trips but nothing that we had planned for just us and the kids.  So I spent some time on google and found discovercamping.ca, which is the website for provincial campgrounds in BC.  I read the descriptions for dozens of different campgrounds and just randomly picked two.  One close, one far.  The first one we booked in May and was just across the river from us.  It rained cats and dogs.  It totally sucked.  The second one we booked in August and we have been back every year since (except the year Riley was born, since I was SO VERY PREGNANT).  I even took Ayden and Matthew BY MYSELF the year Brent went to police camp.  I mean training.  =P  They were three and four years old.  Yes, I am amazing.

Anyways, it is an annual Vose Family tradition to camp at Otter Lake, and we know it so well we always book the best site in the park.  #17.  It overlooks the lake and has a short, 30 foot path from the site down to the beach.  Good stuff.

Site #17!  Note Amarys wearing her "hat."  You never know when you might need pink head protection.

Cute, yes?

I was experimenting with roasting corn in the husks on the fire.  It was delicious

Ayden has been fishing for three years and never caught anything.  Here he is,
waist deep in the water (in his jeans), trying again!  Actually, this trip Matthew
caught his first fish (total mixed feelings from Ayden, who wants to catch something
 himself so bad!  But he was proud of Matthew), and was so excited he was crying and
jumping up and down.  He couldn't bring himself to have it killed, though, and
instead released it back in the lake and prayed for healing for his fish at bedtime

Roasting marshmallows is always a huge hit; keeping Amarys out of the fire
is a full time job.

Thunderstorm