A Long Weekend

For the past three days, Geoff, Matthew, my niece M, and I have been at my parents' cottage, enjoying the sunshine.  It's rare that we've spent time there on our own and we quite enjoyed it.  The kids played for hours in the water, doing hundreds of jumps and flips (well, the flips were Matthew's!) off the dock.  It's amazing how swimming lessons have helped their confidence in the water.  We still have them wear life jackets in the lake as a precaution, but they're amazingly free about being in the water.

Matthew and M (my sister's daughter) are just over a month apart in age and they have spent a lot of time together in their young lifetimes.  In the past month alone, they have played their way together through five solid days of tennis camp, spent two weekends at the cottage completely absorbed with each other, taken a week of swimming lessons together (and will for another two weeks this month yet), and enjoyed several afternoon playdates (and a sleepover) together.  They are really like brother and sister...though I don't know if brothers and sisters always get along so well!  They're very lucky to have each other.  (I'm already dreading fall, when my niece starts grade one and goes to school for full days - it's going to seriously cut into their playtime.)

Here are a few photos of their weekend together:

Contemplating the water before the first jump:

For a six-year old, Matthew is definitely adventurous in his diving, throwing himself off the dock with abandon:

Feeding a pair of ducks that wandered our way: