The Legend of "Squatter's Landing"

This is the story of the Drew's gang with a tag-a-long..ME! An adventurous day of scouting and playing!

The day started off with us putting in the boat at Island 22..which is straight north of Chilliwack, on the Fraser River. We took the boat down the Fraser, which connected to the Harrison River, and followed that to Harrison Lake. We searched high and low for a good spot to put some chairs out and start a camp fire, for what Alanna calls "Camp Fire Therapy"

Here's Nicole..she helped look for the right spot too.

Our trusty driver, Wes! And here is the little gem that we discovered! A neat little cove at the far north end of Long Island..an island in the middle of Harrison Lake that is about 8 miles long. Apparently, we were about 40km up the lake..but it was gorgeous!
The view of the secret spot from the boat. Alanna and Nicole guarded it while we went tubing!

Here are our guards! Nicole and Alanna! Speed + choppy water = FUN! Nice hair Mitchel!Chris' hair was equally as pretty! Too bad we weren't able to shake either of them off!
I entertained everyone with a special synchronized swimming routine!
Toe point!
Wes was the chef..he makes good wieners! What the girls do while we wait for the boys to stop playing with guns..Sittin' on the tree trunk We named the place "Squatter's Landing" for very specific purposes..some of which has everything to do with the picture below..hehe
End of a long day..poor Nicole..we tuckered her right out!

Harrison Regatta

We paddled out at Harrison Lake on Sat. for a full day of races..yep, we had 4 races! It was supposed to be raining all day, but luckily the rain didn't start until around 4-4:30..2-2 1/2 hours after our last race! Well..if our last race was on time, that is! Unfortunatly, the day was running more than 3 hours behind, so we didn't get off the water until about 5:30 ish. It was a long day, but we ended up coming in 1st in the Women's Competitive 'B' Division! Yay!

This picture was in the Chilliwack Progress this week..the only picture they used when they wrote about the regatta! Cool huh? I suppose that seeing as how the Water Warriors were the first Fraser Valley Dragon Boat team, that we're a bit special!

One of our cool racing pics.
Yep...that's me..I'm smilin'! That is a PRE RACE face..hehe
Our coach had the opportunity to drum for the MS team "Off Balance". It was so cool and inspiring to watch! They had a special boat set up for them, as most of the paddlers have MS, and have adaptive paddles or seats. It took about an hour to get them on the boat (some were in wheel chairs), and to figure out what race was their's. Shelly asked them what got them going hard, what they like to hear, and they all said "UNDER 3!" When Shelly asked them what that meant, they said that all they wanted was to come in under 3 minutes! Now, they aren't the fastest team by far, and are just thrilled to make it across the finish line, but how exciting to hear that Shelly got them across the line in 2:54! Here they are in their race!

Holidays!

Here are just a teeny sampling of pictures I took (or my sister took) while I spent 2 weeks in Devon. Enjoy!

A smiling Kennedy and Auntie Krista. If you missed the announcement, Kennedy Grace came on June 28 at 3:04am weighing 6lbs 8oz, 19 1/4 inches long.

Caleb posing in front of the neighbours teepee.
Riley..aka "Blue Eyes"
Caleb with his new costume Kennedy fits in the palm of daddy's hand. Can't wait till the day when she has daddy in the palm of HER hand!

Popsicles always taste better when eaten in the nude!
Bursting water balloons.
Mommy and Kennedy

Auntie Nicole and Kennedy
Me and Kennedy
I had the honor of being the photographer at Matt and Nicole's wedding while on holidays. Makes me feel old..I used to babysit Matt, and now he's married!

We did all the photography in mom and dad's backyard. The wedding party was a hoot..they were willing to do anything! Riley playing on the quad at the farm

Riley has an obsession with steering wheels..he sees 'em from a mile away and HAS to play with them! Here he is with his daddy in the tractor at the farm.
Caleb and Ben in the back of Dallas' pick up on the way to go see the cows.The 2 Calebs playin' on the bales that Caleb calls "marshmallows" at the dairy farm.

Ben making friends with the cows.

The kids waiting for the fireworks while sitting on the tractor. Tammy using her son to hide her face..the bum!
On the way home we stopped at Moose Lake near Mt. Robson. Caleb attempted to reach the stump.

He made it and then promptly fell in
Like a drowned rat! So, we decided to get his trunks on and play for awhile
Here's the beautiful scenery and Caleb Caleb pretending to be his Uncle Mike

Love this sillouette!

Fun in the Fort

Before I leave on holidays, I have many many things to do. One of those things was to get Karen her brand new, all the way from Target (if ya say it right..it rhymes..lol) water bottles for dragon boating. It was a great excuse to enjoy dinner on the patio at "Wendel's book shop" in Ft. Langley, followed by a walk, gelato and another walk!

I took a picture of the store name for my Aunt...Wendell! So, Auntie Wendy, Karen says "Tell your aunt we had dinner there to honor her!"


My pose..shoulda had my yummy, freshly brewed iced tea in the pic.Karen and her glass of wine that cost almost as much as her salad!Since the birds that kept coming on our table to nibble on our crumbs would fly away everytime I pulled out the camera, I took a picture of the other 2 sexy birds at the table! Stopped at the famous Ft. Langely Town Hall with our gelatos. After, we saw some dragon boaters doing some "survivor training", so we went over with our fully bellies and gelatos and chatted it up with them while they worked their tails off!
Karen's dreaming of Alpaca farming..

Ball time!

I had the opportunity to go out to Chilliwack on Sat. morning to take pictures at my friend's son's final baseball game of the year. I took about 300 pictures, as rather than just taking pictures of Bennett, I took shots of the whole team! I got some great ones, so I thought I'd just share a few!


This is Ben at first base! He's a poser!

Ben played in 3 positions, 1st, left field and back catcher. He's very versatile!
Not sure who this is, but he's one of Ben's team mates. I just like the photo! Another picture of "not Ben"
This one IS Ben.After they won their game (first in the league!), they had a skills competition. They had base running, fastest pitch and farthest hit. Ben won farthest hit out of all of the kids (by a LONG shot!) but this is of him giving the throw one a whirl. I believe he had a speed of about 44 km/h. The winner had 50 km/h.