Back

We're back from a glorious, if rainy, week and a half at the cottage. It was, as John put it, the best week he has had there in years. This was due mainly to the people we were with: Beth (my sister, Graeme (her husband), Sara (friend of Beth's that joins us there every year. It is now a requirement) and of course, us and the kids.

The week was coined as the best in a long time for a number of reasons:

1. Emily's age means she can play for hours on end there without getting bored or needing help
2. Hope handled being away from home like a trooper
3. Sara is possibly one of the funniest people we know
4. we spent hours in the evenings sitting, laughing, talking about interesting things, laughing again. Oh, and laughing again.
5. Graeme tends to keep a miser's hoard of chips in his room.we got good work done on the cottage. A cottage that tends to need lots of work.
6. I got lots of time with Beth. Awesome.
   
7. I swam, read, ate good food. I didn't sleep a lot. That's Hope's fault. She's forgotten how.
8. John and Graeme got lots of time for their writing and work which made the week less stressful for them.
9. We were the only ones up there. It felt like we had a compound to ourselves.
   
10. Finally, and simply, we were at the cottage and that makes the starting point for happy just a little higher anyway.

I'll give a full report later complete with photos. We did have a baby shower for Beth up there that was a lot of fun and the weather held for the few hours that we needed.

Last note is that the war of the mice has reached a pinnacle. Seems they gathered their forces while we were gone and came back with some mercenaries. We seem to be winning the battle, but I'm unclear on which side is winning the war.

Oh, and I'll have to inform you later on the weird discoveries that lead us to believe that someone has possibly been squatting in the cottage. Sadly, we've had to install a giant lock on the back door rather than leave everything unlocked as usual. I really liked that we've done that for so long. I like that we trusted the world to behave.

Okay, I better get some breakfast and then plan out what's going on around here. There is some stuff to do. Most of it laundry. None of it involving a stroller as there is a giant bin blocking our garage due to the roofing that was supposed to be done by now but apparently Ottawa has had a more rain that you can fathom and our roof is right now only partially covered in shingles. Rain. No shingles. Wonder how that will work out.