Lessons in Sun Worship

And then, some stuff happened in between.

Last weekend, a vacation was in order, so I drove a whole 40 kms out of my way to get to Crane Lake, camping utopia (or, more accurately, the only place I could easily make a reservation without being discrimated against for being a twentysomething), to meet up with my cousins and friends from the city.

I didn't take many pictures this past weekend, so most of these photos were stolen off Facebook courtesy of Chloe and Katherine, who are both excellent photographers.

Once Alex, Greg (Alex's friend from London, ON) and I got to the campsite, we set up our tents. Chloe's huge tent, where she slept alone, is on the left. Greg's huge tent, where he slept alone, is on the right. And what we like to fondly refer to as the Barbie tent, or where Alex and I slept all weekend, is smack dab in the middle. (For the record, I was a little skeptical when Alex erected our little sleeping hut for the weekend. But after two good, dry nights sleep, I was sold. The plastic life is good.)

Once we were ready for action, we settled into our roles for the weekend. Chloe took pictures.

Greg drank out a paper bag.

Katherine and Erica lounged.

Alex read and Andy visited with everyone.

And the girls (and Graham) spent as much time as they could floating.

We got up bright and early on Saturday morning to head to the beach around 10 a.m. By noon, the sun was more than intense, and we were finding any form of shelter we could.

By 5 o'clock, I was losing my ability to answer basic questions and Chloe was giggling at everything. After 7 hours in the sun, it was time to go back to the campsite.

Back at the campsite, I laid down in the tent a while, chugged some water, and ate something to cure myself of what my clammy skin assured me was a sure-fire case of heat exhaustion. Once I started to feel better, I knew that only one thing could happen: beersbie.

This is the winning team.

And this was team family (me and the cousins). Despite a strong start, Team Win started kicking our ass. Everytime Andy was up to bat, he hit the can direction off the filmsy ghetto beersbie posts I had made the day before.

We all got our game faces on: Greg and his new best friend/idol, Graham.

Yer Mom!

K-Flo

And Andy, beersbie pro.

Anyways, after about 15 minutes, I realized that heat exhaustion and beersbie are the worst possible combination ever. My stomach agreed with this analysis of the situation, and I took what we'll just politely refer to as an "extended time-out."

On the plus side, I got to hang out with my friends and I didn't get a sunburn, so. . . SUCCESS!

This week, Monique came down to visit from Ottawa for the first time in a year, so Naomi and Brent invited us over for supper.

I didn't take any pictures of Monique.

But I figured that taking pictures of her food and blogging them are the next best thing. She made red pepper jelly served over cream cheese.

And the most amazing almond cranberry brie pastry ever. I basically ended up eating half a block of cheese.

Only three weeks left. And I'm sure some more stuff will happen.