Mike’s Family Blog

Another long fun day out in the Whiteshell. Today, went out with Friends, Ross & Bev plus daughters Laura and Isabelle. (Isabelle’s the young one.) I introduced Ross to some Geocaching and had quite the successful day of it. Batted 1.000 going 6 for 6 and also knocked off one that troubled me last Saturday.

(Some images are clickable for larger ones.)

Here’s Ross taking pictures of the falls at Whitemouth falls. (Last week, I incorrectly called this the Seven Sisters Falls.)

Then we had a stop at Otter Lake so that Jonathan and Isabelle could have a quick dip.

On the way to the next swimming hole at Rainbow falls, we stopped for a few caches. On the way up to the Firetower, we spotted this really big juicy caterpillar. Reminded us of the character from A Bug’s Life.

All of us went this time, though the two wives and Isabelle stayed down low, I carried Jonathan and Ross and Laura came with us. Jonathan’s comment… ‘high!’ Below are Jonathan with Laura and then the Bottles under the tower.

The next stop, was a fun little one out front of someone’s cabin. Aptly named, Fox on the Rocks, we had a nice chat with the cache owners who also own the cabin.

Then it was off to Rainbow falls. There was a cache nearby, so Ross and I went off to do that one while the womenfolk took the kids into the water.

Then Ross and I had a chance to cool off.

Ross was creative and invented a new shoe drying rack.

Then off to a couple more caches before a late supper. We were going to skip them, but the kids needed some driving so they could nap. The first is one cache with a geocoin find. The other is a neat one that was at exactly 40 degrees south of the North Pole.

After supper, we took a walk along the beach.

And then Bev suggested a new use for our hatchback trunk cover. Baby changing station!

A fitting photo to end the day.

Almost forgot!  Jonathan went potty all on his own this week!  The first time we posted about him going on the potty, it was quite by accident.  This past week, we started him with the training and he’s since gone 3-4 times.  No #2’s yet, but so far so good!

Today we took off for a day out in Whiteshell Provincial Park. Boy do I miss shield country, it’s so beautiful. In addition to just doing a picnic and some swimming, I did some geocaching as well. If you’re unfamiliar, that’s the hobby of hunting down hitten ‘caches’ using only your GPS and a few clues. When you find it, you log it, rehide it in the same spot and then log it as found on the worldwide geocaching website. It’s not as easy as it looks. I was batting .500 today. Attempted 6 and only found 3.

Below is a bit of a photo log of our day. (click on the pictures to see them larger.)

The nice thing about Geocaching is that it takes you to some really neat spots. The first stop where there were 3 caches was around the Seven Sisters Falls and Hydro Dam.

Here’s the Dam.

My first cache of the day came up empty, save for a rusted out tin can… this wasn’t it. LOL

Here are two photos of the falls themselves. I took theses while I searched (and found) the other two.

After another search and find, it was time for lunch and a bit of swimming for Jonathan. This was at a beach just West of Dorothy Lake.

Actually, we took Jonathan to the water to dip his toes in and he promtly sat down so he could splash around. Here he is watching the minnows swim around.

Further down the road, I attempted one up by a fire tower. While I didn’t find it, I was awarded with a spectacular view. The second picture is a 180 degree panoramic shot facing south.

After one more failed find, we called it a day as far as geocaching. It was, after all +34C and getting late in the afternoon. Before finding a great place to eat at Bereton Lake, we found a little gem of a place called Rainbow Falls. Here Jonathan and Lisa are standing in the water just below the falls. Jonathan, our little water-boy, was having too much fun to leave.

That was the end of the photos. We carried on, had supper, went for a quick swim and then headed off home. Next week, we’ll most likely be heading right back to the Whiteshell for another day trip. It’s a big park and there’s a lot more to explore.
TTFN

… this was the new hypnosis trick that Lisa’s Uncle Wally used on Jonathan. Enjoy the photos in the gallery. I added 24 new ones to July/August.

Wally, Colleen, Elain and Kurtis were all out for a short visit. They couldn’t wait to see Jonathan and he had a blast visiting with them. He’s a bit tired, however, from all the attention. Now that they’ve gone, it’s back to some sort of routine. LOL

Okay and this last sentence is for Kurtis Muller who, I found out in discussion, was disappointed that his name, Kurtis Muller, doesn’t show up in a Google search. So now it will at some point.

You know, I’m supposed to be on summer holidays. But it’s been busy! Ah well, even amongst everything, I’ll be able to start getting caught up on some stuff.

Here are a couple of pictures of Jonathan. One of him eating a cupcake on Canada day. The other one of him sleeping. Boy he looks peaceful. More pictures in the gallery as well.

What a long couple of days I just had! I was in Vita, Manitoba, one of those one gas station towns whose main mode of transportation are quads and 4×4’s. They have an annual Canada Day celebration going on there and I helped out a friend of mine doing security for the beer gardens. Usually, rednecks and beer (lots of it) means trouble… fortunately, it was a quiet weekend. It was just really long. I finally got home at 6am this morning only on 5 hours of sleep from the night before. I slept in the spare bedroom so that Jonathan wouldn’t be pounding on the door to express his desire to play with Daddy.

This afternoon, we went out for a drive and stumbled across this place called ‘Grotto of our Lady Lourdes’ in Cook’s Creek. Below is a panoramic photo of it. Jonathan was sleeping, otherwise we would have gone in and gone for a tour through the grounds and the neighbouring church.

Next we ended up in Lockport and spent a few minutes watching the pelicans frolic in the water. The group pictured below were quite entertaining. They would all gather about two hundred yards upstream from where I was standing and then just float down with the current. Once they had gone about 300 yards, they would all fly off and repeat the same procedure.

All for now! I think I’ll be hitting the sack early tonight.

(click for a larger image)