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Ice Skating the Three Lakes Chain on Theo's 5th Birthday

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We had so much fun at the cottage a few weeks ago for Scott's birthday that we planned another trip back for Theo's birthday. Theo also asked to go camping for his birthday. This was the best we could do. 

He'd have to wait for Brooke's birthday for something akin to winter camping. We're not quite brave enough to try out true winter camping in a tent.

I guess my Bundt bird feeder was a hit.

My guess was that the squirrels ate it.

We had hoped to come up to go snowmobiling and skiing but in the last week it warmed up a lot and rained. 

We almost didn't bring our ice skates but thank goodness we did. 

While it wasn't suitable for snowmobiling it was perfect for ice skating 50 or so feet from shore.

We took a little walk in the morning to check out the ice conditions on the Lake.

I'm really hoping someone fixes this place, but seeing as it hasn't been touched since the storm damage it's probably too late. 

We had to check out how the ice was on the other lake.


When we got back we set out our dock bench out by the good ice.

The lake was amazing, the recent rain made it smooth. 

There was a little dusting of snow over much of the ice, but you could just skate and skate.

You only needed to watch out for the old snowmobile tracks.






We haven't been able to skate the whole lake in like 12 years.

To be honest, it was never this good. 

From above you could see the tannin lake water bleeding through the fresh coat of melted snow and frozen rain.



After a skating for a bit, we got the kids to come back out and skate with us.

We did this all day.


Theo would follow us as far as he could. He's gotten pretty good at skating without a walker.



There must've been a mean fight on the ice between some birds of prey.

Eventually my parents showed up.

We just kept on skating.
 
I guess my dad was inspired by the kite festival last weekend and spent the week building his own kite.
 
And it works!

Oh, Mr. Mike, ever clever.

I asked if he found instructions on YouTube and he said he just made it up as he went. 





We should've went back out and skated again during this amazing sunset.

We spent the rest of the night inside.

A 5 pancake for Theo's 5th birthday.

I'm also glad I packed our ice tracks last minute.

I was like, why not put your skates on, but honestly it's kind of fun to walk on ice with a pair of ice spikes or whatever you call them.

While we couldn't do any snow activities this was making up for it. 

We brought out the hockey gear.


Brooke kept on venturing out further and further.

Skate. Explore. Repeat.

Usually it's just Brooke ditching the kids, tbh.
 
They were fine. 

We didn't have room in our car for Theo's trainer but he's been doing so good without it. 



G.G. came out and joined us and spent the rest of the day "getting her balance." Honestly, have to be proud of her even lacing up her skates.

Actually both my parents are pretty cool, don't see too many people their age still skating. 

My dad needs to make my mom a trainer. I told Theo he needs to teach his Gigi.

Theo was proud of being faster than G.G.


We quickly went to town to pick up stuff for Theo's cake and pizza.

Hot chocolate for the kids and cake baking for me. 

Apparently Meadow can carry Theo on her shoulders. 

Not making me nervous, no, not me.

Part of the driveway looked just like Dog Lake from above.

Their snowman from New Years is still hanging on. 

Scott and I took a walk around the lake during sunset. That was when I noticed my chest was hurting. 

I'd had a cough for the last week, but didn't think much of it. It was just a run of the mill cough.

I wish we'd brought our skates. Apparently the area cut off by the main snowmobile ruts had perfect wild ice.
 
I like that you could see my snowshoe imprints from our last visit.
 

Meadow helped me finish decorating Theo's birthday cake. 

I asked him what is was missing then surprised him with Peppa Pig characters. 

This was the cake he requested this year. 

Peppa Pig...doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo, doo doo.

Meadow made him a crown too.

I made my famous pizza for dinner, but it didn't quite rise like normal. The kids just wanted cake and Theo wanted to open his presents.

Present time! Present time!

Meadow made Theo a Breath of the Wild Zelda pillow. She couldn't wait to give it to him and he loved it. 

He gave her a big tackle-hug, he was so excited.

He also got 2 sets of Legos from us. And a Bluey playset from Gigi and Grandpa.

Did Theo sneak some frosting before the birthday song?

This cake turned out pretty, pretty good.
 
The last few days I had felt sick but not that bad. I had a cough but only occasionally and only when I was inside or in the evening. I assumed it was just a cold. My cough was really sounding bad so dad said, are you sure you don't have Covid? I always pack Covid tests when we travel. Sure enough the Big C finally got me after 3 years. 

You can blame me. I'd avoided a test a week earlier because I didn't want to ruin Disney on Ice. After being careful for most of the last three years, I'd become complacent. Thankfully G.G. and Mike didn't come down with COVID, nor did the kids.
 
Today was pretty windy and much colder. After a quick skate my parents headed home. They didn't want to be more exposed to Covid.

Probably a good move, though we were sad to spend our last full day at the cottage without them.

The naughty squirrels had taken down my new Bundt birdseed feeder I made. I saw a squirrel and deer fighting over it and that was the end of that. 

Brooke had even tried oiling up the bird feeder pole, to no avail.

I decided to go skating before sunset.

Since I was on my own, I went all the way back to the perfect wild ice near Deer Lake. It was amazing.

Getting over those snowmobile ruts was not easy, but well worth it.

I guess Meadow didn't hear me and was wondering where I was.

The wind died down and we all got a quick skate in before it got dark. If it had been colder I would have made luminaries to light the rink.


Theo's 5th birthday weekend was a bit weird with the COVID diagnosis, but we'll always remember the amazing wild ice skating.

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