Summer Fun Re-Run?

Since homeschool/learning is a year-round thing for us (now), the "end" of summer has not seemed so imminent, and in fact I'm more likely to argue that summer doesn't end until September 21st, actually... But. Everyone else is caught up with back-to-school. So we were grateful to have the opportunity to spend a "final" summer weekend in McCall, once again with our friends the McCammons.

This time we made it before the magical deadline of Labor Day which marks the closing of both the condo pool and Ice Cream Alley. Besides the addition of those two activities, we tried to recreate some of the fun we had last year.
We boated to a (mostly) uninhabited island and went for a hike...

Except these were the only kids that made it. Charlie fell off a log and cracked his head pretty good on the first hill, and Sam & Lily both objected to the heat, scratchy grass, etc. They played in the water's edge instead.

The hikers were rewarded with getting superduperclose to an osprey's nest.

Cool, but really the hike was not so successful as last year. And poor McCammon's, I should mention that they'd already dealt with a late-night emergency tire replacement on their way up and a failed hike the day before. So picnic lunches followed by Ice Cream Alley salvaged this day. The next day had fishing, kayaking, swimming and the beach.

And after dinner we went boating again, this time getting the dads all wet: skiiing and tubing. But in-between this:

and this:

We had the handle on the ski rope break and poor Mark probably nearing hypothermia waiting for a new rope to be found, untangled, tied on, and tossed to him. He did awesome once he finally got up and the boys had so much fun watching him.

The most fun however, was watching Tony's tubing wipeouts, but I'll let Melissa post those pics herself. Our down time was spent cooking, eating, watching movies, and with lots of great conversation. Sunday came too fast, and we enjoyed as always visiting the McCall 1st ward. Loading up the car after lunch, Charlie wanted to say goodbye to "his bear" and ended up getting on for a ride (hope you don't mind Aunt Evelyn).

So it was the same vacation as last year, but of course completely different too. (Thank goodness no repeat of drunken golfer entering the condo!) I guess it won't be as "completely different" as it could be next summer when we have the addition of an 8-month-old baby... Wow! Life is good, with no time or need for re-runs.