I Heart the Islands x1000

I won't bore you with all the minute details of our recent trip to the 1000 Islands, but I would like to share some of the highlights and, of course, many of the more than 1,200 photos I took while we were there!  

I love the 1000 Islands!  It's a fantastic place with plenty for the whole family to find interesting.  

The shopping is great!

The fishing is intensely rewarding.

There was beautiful scenery all around us.

  

We got to see gorgeous sunsets every night.

Gigantic boats chugged down the St. Lawrence River.

There were family fun places galore, and it has a culture all its own.  

Every year we stay in the same state park at the same campsite.  We know what to expect, where all the amenities are located (close by!) and what time of the year to avoid if you want peace and quiet.  

We played in a lot of dirt and got very filthy.

We took a lot of walks around the park.  We walked to the beach, to the playground, over to the pier to fish or to the "store" to get ice cream.  We walked to get water to fill up the kids' pool for baths.  We walked to the "bath house" to use the potty or officially shower off the filth.  We walked over to the water to see the big boats go by and to catch a full view of the sunset.  Sometimes we just walked around to help the kids settle down or let Nate burn off some energy. 

We took in a lot of the beauty around us.

The kids loved the playground!

The beach was a huge hit, even on the "cold" days!  Nate loved to splash in the water while Alex preferred to play in (and eat) the sand.

Nate had so much fun fishing with Daddy!  

Here he is removing his own fish he just caught so he can "free" him back in the water!

Of course the week was not without injuries.  Within 5 minutes of us arriving Alex had his first head wound.  He stood up into the sharp corner of the door as we were setting up the camper.  (It's hard to see in this picture as I had just taken the ice pack off and the bleeding had already stopped, but the two raised lines on his forehead are the "cuts" he sustained).  

Here's Alex showing off his new head wound...he looks pretty proud, actually!  Believe me, it looked worse in person!

The next day Nathaniel fell off the picnic table and hit his face on the bench on his way down, leaving a fantastic bruise on his cheek that looked like dirt for the rest of the week.

We made many friends during our stay.  Another "Smith Family" moved in all around us on our second to last day and Nate was in his glory with kids his own age to romp around with!  

This cat wandered in from who knows where on our last day and Nate took an instant liking to him (dare I say he became an obsession?  Picture Nate running down the road yelling "Cat, Come BACK!" when the cat DARED to walk away!)

We rode a ferry to Boldt Castle where Nathaniel got to look for the dragons he insisted lived there!

By the end of the week, though, our smiles turned upside down.  A long week of bad sleeping patterns turned our children into cranky, non-listening, messes.  Temper tantrums were displayed with little prompting and melt downs were the fashion of the day.

So we were glad to get home.  Let the laundry begin!