We are home! We had a great holiday. We were at Christina Lake in the Interior (Kootenay/Boundary region, for those in know…about thirty minutes west of Castlegar). It’s supposedly the warmest lake in Canada but it sure wasn’t warm this week! That’s the fun of going in the off-season. The cabin was dirt cheap and no crowds but you can’t really pleasure-swim. Instead, you clench your teeth and then just fling yourself off the end of the dock, come up screaming, shrieking and sputtering that it’s bloody cold 
before scampering back up the ladder to do it all over again because your life jacket-clad toddler is shrieking “AGAIN!” with such delight. 
Let me do a bit of a recap…
On Thursday, Brian called with the bad news that day that our computer had broken (the power/battery was irreparable) and that the shop can’t repair it for less than it would cost for a new computer. Bummer on that. 
We just bought it a year ago but it was used so it’s actually older than that. We decided just to let it go and figure it out when we got back from holiday. We did our packing and organising on Wednesday so Brian was just doing the food and the loading up on Thursday. I left work early and we drove out to Abbotsford to spend the evening with my parents. We had a great night. We ended up taking Anne to a local dairy on the Sumas prairie for her first taste of ice cream. They had these little baby cones and she had it clutched in her pudgy paw as she learned how to lick an ice cream. It was hysterical. 
My dad got a bit teary and said how happy he was that he’s here for so many of her “firsts”. Then we played on the playground for a bit before heading back to their place for a sleepover.
We took off on Friday for the drive. I was prepared for a stop every hour or two because of Anne. She’s a great little traveller but she’s only been in the car for 2 hours at a time and this was a 5-6 hour drive. But she just hunkered down in her car seat, looking at books and chattering away until we got to Princeton. Then we went for a walk along the river and let her throw rocks into the water for a half hour. She was thrilled and we ate lunch. As soon as we got back in the car, she konked out for almost three hours! We had planned a stop in Osoyoos but she was sleeping so we just kept going. We clicked through all of the towns until we arrived and then she woke up. Craziness. It was a tremendously beautiful drive, through the mountains so lots of “real driving” – up mountains, down mountains, around and around. Our mouths hung open for most of the drive, we never turned on music and I didn’t even crack open a book! We just looked around!
The place where we stayed was a rented cabin on the lakefront. As I said, it’s off season until Canada Day so we had the place to ourselves for a quarter of the price, which is nice. The place we stayed was actually owned by a group of about 20 families that bought it 18 years ago. They set up a campground for themselves with year-round trailers that remain as their cabins, then cleared an area to rent out 10 spots for other campers and rent out the two cabins on site. They have spent every summer together and their kids all grew up together. They couldn’t afford property alone so they just banded together and now they are even making money on it! We chatted with “The Owners” every now and again throughout the week. They were very nice and easy going. I think they were happy to see a young family and everyone wanted to play with Annie. There was one guy that was a scout for an NHL team so that was cool. Another guy had a mutt named Sadie that would fetch tennis balls out of the water. You launch the ball and she’d run down the dock, do a belly flop into the water and then swim out with the ball to do it all over again. The first time that Anne saw this, she almost took flight she was so excited. Then every morning, Rick came over with Sadie to throw the ball in the water; he loved watching Anne get so excited, laugh and dance over the silly dog.
The cabin was clean as a pin and filled with 70s decor like scratchy plaid chesterfields and harvest-gold appliances. No complaints here! It was also HUGE!
We brought all of our food with us so it was actually a pretty reasonable holiday. We just BBQ’d every night. We had the place pretty much to ourselves which was nice. We played in the water and in the sand all week. Brian went golfing a couple of times. My parents came out on Father’s Day for the night. Annie was very happy to have her “Papa” and “Ganny” there and we all enjoyed the time together. Then we had a couple days just us before Mandy and Adam stopped on their way back from Crawford Bay to pitch a tent and spend a couple of days with us. We played a lot of games and spent our entire time outside. Every morning, Anne woke up at 6 AM, too excited to sleep.
There are few places that I find as restful as a lake. So when you put a lake in the middle of the mountains with a forest all around, it’s ideal! It was incredibly beautiful and pristine, clean and quiet. We would have liked to rent a boat and go for a ski but it was too expensive, the water was too cold and I am far too pregnant to water ski, evidently.
It was a great holiday with lots of special moments and memories. Annie loved the water even though it was so cold. She seemed so happy just to be with all of her favourite people and have all of this s-p-a-c-e to run around and be outdoors. We had lot of good conversations and laughs as well. It was over too soon.
We drove back on Friday and again (bragging mummy alert!) she travelled better than us. She fell asleep just after 2 hours in the car but only slept 20 minutes before we had to stop for lunch (no other stops ahead). She woke up, ate her lunch and then just enjoyed the rest of the drive. We never actually took her out to stretch her legs as we thought she’d fall back asleep if we just let her be. She never did fall back asleep but she was so happy, it didn’t really bother me. We stopped again to let her out for a play in Princeton (more rock throwing in the water). She had been in the car almost 4 straight hours! Then we drove the rest of the way home. She slept for about 45 minutes around Chilliwack to Vancouver but the traffic woke her up. Quite a rude return to the city.
Then when we got home, we discovered our modem was on the fritz. Which, because we have VOIP, meant to telephone! No computer, no internet connection and no telephone. HORRORS! Particularly because we don’t’ have a cell phone, we were stranded. It was a very crazy evening as I tried to get ahold of friends (I was supposed to meet some girlfriends in Seattle), find a pay phone (evidently they don’t exist any longer…) and/or fix the stupid modem. We were out of luck. I ended up abandoning Brian and Anne on Saturday to drive to Seattle with Mandy to meet our respective friends, leaving him with about 68 loads of laundry and the rest of the unpacking to complete (poor guy). Mans and I had a great drive there and back together and I enjoyed my overnight trip with the girls. There was far too much laughter and silliness but also good conversations. I love girlfriends.
We arrived back on Sunday night and I was reunited with Brian and the wee girl. I was surprised by how much I had missed them but after having them all to myself for a whole week, I guess that’s expected. I collapsed into bed by 9 (I had gone to bed at about 3 and woken up around 7:30 that morning) and now am back at work, in email hell.
It’s nice to be back home, in our own beds in particular. But I certainly enjoyed our holidays. I didn’t necessarily need more time at the lake but just more time with Brian and Annie. Is there a way you can get paid and have great benefits plus the social side of work without having to actually GO TO WORK? 
So now we need to buy a new computer today or tomorrow, get the modem fixed and then hopefully reprogram our phone. Sorry if you’ve been trying to email or call us – we’re practically on a desert island right now.
Of course, with no computer that means no pictures just yet. We have a ton of good photos so I’ll do a proper photo blog as soon as possible as well.
