The Summer in a blur of pics...

This summer, like all summers it seems, went really fast.  It was enjoyable in many ways and hopefully memorable for the children.  Since I have been terribly remiss in blogging I am going to catch up with a little photo storytelling.  A picture is worth a thousand words...so here is my wordy post thanks to Rykauna's photography.   She took most of the pics.

We began the summer up in Northern Ontario at a Bible conference.  We spent the long weekend there and enjoyed meeting up with some family and friends we hadn't seen in a while.  Our niece S, came back with us and visited with our family for the better part of two weeks.  She was lots of fun to have around.  Too bad we somehow did not take many pics during that time.

Niece S, and Rykauna made us all orea-stuffed croissants one day.  I wish I had taken a few more pics of her;(

We took in the beach on a few afternoons.  For the record, the lady in the top left is unknown...not me.

 Steph and Rykauna helped out at a Vacation Bible School for the second week in July while the other kiddos, including S, went as campers.  We then headed to the Ottawa valley area where we camped in my parents' trailer for a few days, while attending some special gospel outreach meetings my father was speaking at in the evenings.  The weather was pretty wild, but the kids loved getting a chance to hang out with their "cousins" (actually their very young aunt and uncle, K and J).

The following week, Steph and his brother, helped out at another church day camp while our boys and K (our niece) attended the camp. The next event of the summer was a family reunion of Steph's mother's family.  It was the first official Godin Family reunion.  It was lots of fun, staying at the weekend resort, and meeting family members from near and far.  There was lots of family vs. family competitions including a t-shirt competition. I won't say who won, except that the red team dominated ;)  Steph's brother and his wife were in the country for the better part of the summer.  It was nice to spend some time with them before, during, and after the reunion.  We don't see them much, but when we are together, we just pick up where we left off.  The kids really enjoy hanging out with these cousins too.

In the middle of August, we took a little "nuclear family" time and did a road trip to Boston.  The kids are great in the car (thanks in part to technology;) and love seeing new places and learning about new regions.  It was fun being tourists and sight-seeing fun stuff like the old state buildings, Harvard University, Boston Tea Party Museum, The Children's Museum of Boston, USS Constitution, and fun shops like the Curious George Store.

Rykauna took some alphabet art around Harvard University

The kids are sitting on little brass ducks...relating to some famous Boston children's duck story

Loads of huge painted globes

Massachusetts State House is sporting some fantastic architechture

Steph and the kids cooled off in the heat.  Some of the kids were more than dipping their feet... pretty much swimming:)

The world famous swan boat tours

Desperate measures to avoid passing out.  As soon as I got on the Swan boat I felt like I was going to pass out from the intense heat.  I could feel my heart pounding and knew I was pretty dehydrated.  The others had taken a dip in the above pond so thankfully this shirt was nicely cool and wet!  We quickly ate and drank after disembarking and all was fine.

Not to be outdone...;)

We became Harvard groupies!  The three oldest kids wanted and bought Harvard clothing!

Niece T, I put this up for you...Who knew official Harvard wear is made in Nica?!?

'Chillin' at the Aquarium...pun intended

Group shot after the seal feeding presentation

Sea turtle <3>

Voted Boston's best ice-cream...so we tried it :)

Took a short ferry to another part of Boston

USS Constitution. Involved in wars against pirates, Brits, and wars for freedom

Saw this guy give a walking tour to a couple as he slowly led them to the Pizza Parlour...LOL!

All the kids, big and small, loved this store!

Night in the city

This place was lots of fun.  The kids got to throw the "tea" overboard in the reenactment of the Boston Tea Party

Rykauna had fun taking some low light photography with her Maritime cousins

After leaving Boston, we made our way to Saint John, New Brunswick and took the 11pm ferry ride to Digby, Nova Scotia.  We arrived at my sister's home at the grand hour of 2:30am!  Steph, Rykauna and Logan were only able to stay at her place for two days as Steph was helping out at an overnight teen church camp for the following week in the Halifax area.  I stayed at my sister's with Hudson and Li Lin and thoroughly enjoyed the privilege of spending time with my sister and her girls.

After the camp, we drove to Fredricton, NB for two nights to catch a few zzz before the long drive home.   While shopping, we ran into some good friends that were originally from around here and we enjoyed a good visit with them.  After a swim at the hotel, and a lovely BBQ at our friends' home, we started back home the next morning after church.

Once home, we quickly kicked ourselves into high gear in terms of school preparation and getting Rykauna's orthodontic treatments started.  After getting two teeth pulled on Tuesday, she started her Invisalign Braces on Thursday... just five days before starting high school.  Rykauna is still getting used to talking in them, has 'lost' them briefly already, and is not really fussed on the extra cleaning and chewing on what she calls "Mr Chewy" the grape-flavoured chew toy.  (Some rubbery looking, grape-flavoured, two-inch long, mini cigar-like shaped, chew toy she is supposed to use at regular intervals to make these removable braces fit better.)  It doesn't help that she finds the flavour nauseating.  At least she realizes that it looks better than metal braces so she knows not to complain.  The orthodontist figures he can fix her teeth problem better with these clear retainer-like braces than with metal braces so he is charging us the same price as he would for the "train-tracks".  This made our daughter very happy! :)

Today was the first day of school.  I was going to blog about it, but thought I should blog about the summer events first.  I will try to do another post soon, God willing.