It is time to go cottaging

Yesterday we packed up the whole family, and I mean all of us.  We have my parents, siblings, in laws, nieces and nephews, uncle Jim and aunt jean and their kids, so all together the count is at....21. We left home yesterday at about 11 am and headed out. I was able to drive up with Lisa because I have to leave early to go back to work, but that is not until Wednesday, and we had to stop in Woodstock to drop off some paperwork. Our journey lasted about 4 hours, and the drive through Toronto was a mess for a while, but it cleared up after Oshawa. Because we left a little bit before out family and had to take an alternate route to get to Toronto, we kept in touch using Voxer and texting each other. We were ahead of the group by about 10 minutes, when we got a text from Dad and Mom, asking if we were planning to stop before we arrived. We had planned to keep going but when they said they wanted to stop in Port Hope, we were really close and decided to get off the Highway. We went into the fairly new rest stop and it was BUSY!!! there were people everywhere and lines to use the washrooms, dad was thinking about getting a coffee, but decided he could wait till we got to the cottages, and off we were again! This time Dad sped off ahead of us... I am wondering if it wasn't his plan all along to get ahead of us, well Lisa and I are always up for a challenge, so off we go booking it onto the highway and after about 20 minutes, we caught up to him and drove up beside him in the passing lane with a smirk of Victory on our faces. Then we decided to pull back because we were not quite sure if we were supposed to take the first exit or the second. (turns out it is the second) We arrived at Sandy Bay cottages and parked our vehicles, started unloading our gear and off we went to relaxing! slowly other people started pulling, first Tom and Alida, followed by U. Jim and A. Jean, and then Bob and Candias. finally we were all together and we were all ready to get this vacation started. The kids could not wait to get the tube out and start blowing it up. The rest of us all pulled out our lawn chairs and sat our behinds down for the rest of the day. We did go tubing the next day, it started off with the three girls going in the tube; Nichole, Jessie and Sarah, they were bouncing around in the tube hitting every wave and all the wake, but kept hold of the handles. Then it was Lisa, Jon and my turn in the tube. Bob went easier on us because Jon is a little guy and doesn't have the strength to hold on through all of the waves. Lisa and I each had a hand through one of the straps on his life jacket and holding onto the tube at the same time. We were getting up to a good speed and about to hit a Huge and I mean HUGE wave. We saw ourselves coming towards it and this one was gonna hurt! all of a sudden *snap* there goes the tow rope and we got engulfed in the middle of a big wave, thankfully the water around us was able to stop the rope from snapping back at us, and that the rope snapped near the beginning of the rope and we could use it again... NOT a smart idea. This time it was Lisa, Steve and I in the tube going for the ride of our lives, since we are all older and experienced in tubing, Bob likes to try and get us out of the tube and into the water. So he is giving the boat all he has got, and the water is getting choppy from the other boats going buy and the wind picking up. Bob takes this opportunity to do circle eights in the water to make more waves. We hit a big wave once again, and once again *snap* there goes the toe rope, this time we were above the water so the rope came back and smacked us up. Lisa and I had lots of bruises from the rope and I had a cut on my leg where the end hit, but that was one of the best rides of my life. (not so much the day after... I was hurting for a few days) We only went tubing once after that, and my hand started to act up where I had a previous break. We were in the water and the tube was not picking up, it was taking in water instead. We realized that there was a rip on the bottom and we couldn't use the tube anymore :( . The main use of the boat was for fishing this summer, I am not a fisher in any way shape or form, so I was able to sleep in, and just get a good sun tan. The day arrives for me to head home, my mom decides she wants a picture of all her kids together on the slide. we have a picture from when we were all little doing the same thing and I think she wanted a grown up version. So off we get onto this big slide, piling one on top of the other, and we are not little people, but we did it, mom Got her picture and we all said goodbye. Time to head home, and what a nice quiet few days were had after that.