Kastle's Journey: Steve, Dianne and family come for the weekend. Auguest 24

Steve and Dianne arrived at 3 pm on Thursday afternoon. After carrying in their stuff, we sat out on the deck enjoying the afternoon with our bacon wrapped pork loin going on the Traeger. I also made a chocolate tart for Steve's BD today.

Happy Birthday Steve! After dinner, more deck time. So nice to see Steve and Dianne in person, especially since they're not going south this year, so we won't see them until Christmas.

Friday morning after breakfast, Steve washed out our kayaks as they were dirty from sitting on the beach all summer. We have lots of spiders. Then Ray and Steve blew up the tube for towing behind the boat. Dianne and I prepped for dinner and I got the ribs dry rubbed for tomorrows dinner. Dianne's son, Rob, daughter-in-law, Angie and their two boys, Conner and Bryce arrived shortly after 12 noon. I think they were a little excited to have some "lake time". Once they had unpacked their stuff and took it upstairs the boys were in the water down at the dock right away. It's a little cloudy and a little cool air temp, but the boys didn't care.

They spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and rowing in our little boat and using the kayaks. At three I was up at the house putting on my brined chickens on the rotisserie. Rob and Angie brought the famous Silver Rill Farm corn, so ate that both days as our veg. Cheesy scalloped potatoes into the oven. My biggest challenge with the kids is that they are picky eaters .... fortunately all the meals I made they ate! Yeah me!

Dianne bought a cake so the kids could sing Happy Birthday to Steve.

Picture by Dianne

After dinner the boys were back in the water until dusk.

Saturday, Dianne, Steve, Ray and I were up our usual time by 6:15 am. The upstairs crew did not show up until 7 to 7:30 am. Breakfast is blueberry pancakes, Conner helped with the measuring and mixing. Thanks to my kitchen crew for all the cleanup. I never washed a dish all weekend.

It's a much warmer day, but unfortunately with smokey skies. Next up, the boys were back on the dock for the "promisesd tubing" and swimming. Ray drove them around the lake for a couple of hours with Grandpa, Rob and Angie on the tube with the boys. Hard on Ray, but he so enjoys it. Even Dianne had a go of it in the tube with Angie. I could hear them scream from the dock. lol

Rob with Bryce and Conner

When Ray towed Rob and the boys, I saw them get some really good air ...about 3 feet up over the water!

Dianne's turn.

After this whip around .... that was it for Dianne. lol

The Colibaba Clan (Bryce, Angie, Rob, Conner, Dianne and Steve and mugs full of Margaritas

One of Bryce's multiple dives.

Grandpa in the water with Bryce

I finished the prep for tonight's dinner and got the baked beans ready to turn on All the lads went off to try waterskiing. Turned out our ski's are too big for the boys to handle. The crew spent the rest of the day down at the dock. It was 32C out so everyone swam. I got to sit down there for a while too before getting lunch made, hamburgers with the fixin's. After my kitchen crew cleaned up again, it's time to get the Pork Ribs on the Traeger and start my baked beans. With everything going, I'm able to spend some time down on the dock swimming too. Angie was my "spritzer" every 30 minutes for the ribs. Thanks. Once the tubing was done it was margarita time. Thanks Ray!

Picture by Dianne

Ray teaching Angie and Rob how to make "his" margarita.

Picture by Dianne

All of us in the water lol (Picture by Dianne)

The ribs turned out great, as did the beans. No one left the table hungry! After dinner, more swimming, especially for Bryce. I think he spent more time in the water than out all day.

Picture by Dianne

By 9:30 us old people went to bed. The boys watched some TV and Rob and Angie enjoyed some time together out on the deck.

Goodnight from Kyles Kottage

Sunday morning it was 8am before the last of our late sleeper crew got up .... Angie lol. I made a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and toast with some help from Dianne. Once the kitchen crew finished it's time for a little more tubing. This time it's Steve and Rob running the boat. Ray bowed out as his back is really sore from yesterday.

At noon, I put weiners on the BBQ for lunch and got the fixin's together. At 12:30 lunch was served. With lunch done, Rob and Steve carried up the kayaks to put under the sundeck, and deflated the tube and brought it up to the house. Thanks for the help guys. It's time to start putting things away for the winter as we leave for the USA in 2.5 weeks! Meanwhile Dianne and Angie stripped the upstairs beds and remade them. All the towels and bedding hit the laundry room in prep for me to deal with later. Sure were a lot of towels for 8 people lol.

The boys are going to Courtenay with Steve and Dianne for 4 days, while Rob and Angie head back to Victoria as they both work tomorrow. They were packed into Steve's car like sardines! No one could move, ready for their 2 hour drive home. Apparently the boys slept most of the way.