This year we missed the local Not Back to School picnic at Trout Lake, but for a very good reason. We were in Ontario and Quebec (more on that later), but before we left, we went to a Not Back to School camp out in the Fraser Valley, with about ten or so families.
The ingredients that made up three nights and four days of hanging out with like-minded folks?
- rain
- sun
- campfires
- campfire songs (all together now!)
- wind
- kids … lots of kids, big and small
- imagination
- friends
- tents
- duct tape
- sticks
- card games
- free play
- slack line
- food, food, food
- hot coffee in the morning
- gumboots
- mud puddles
- warm sleeping bags
- forest
- lake
- sky
- stars
Mix it all together and you get happy, tired kids, heaps of damp jackets and wet tarps, and a mama who quite enjoys listening to the rain fall on the roof of our cozy little tent trailer as she reads by flashlight.
And the secret ingredient that made the whole thing extra tasty? Friends took us on a mini road trip to a SECRET LAKE. Everyone who knows me knows that I love lakes. All bodies of water, actually, but my softest spot is for a nice, quiet, swimmable lake. This one is magical. And I am absolutely not telling anyone where it is.
The water was icy blue and very cold, and the hills rolled upwards into mountains on all sides, and the sand was ever so sand-castle-able, which is rare in BC. We had a little picnic (thanks for the chocolate zucchini bread, Jack!) and a quick, cold swim before heading back to supper and a campfire back at the other lake. So many lakes. So much love for the lakes.
Give this mama a lake to swim in, and she is a happy mama.
Oh, right. This post is supposed to be about Not Back to School, but being that nothing much changes at our house, I’m way more excited about the secret lake! WHOOT!
The icing on top? On our way back home we stopped in to meet our friends’ brand new baby, so I got to polish off NBTS Camp with a generous dollop of squishy, warm, newborn baby love. Love, love, love.
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