Another year brings another weekend at the Cottage of Al and Wilma with a group of Adults that are not too old, and not too young : )
This weekend it was Nov 24 - 26, a bit later than last year.
Our travel to the Cottage was a bit more interesting this time, as the swing bridge near the cottage was closed due to construction.
Wilma gave me directions to get there, which, if I had followed them, we would have gotten there no problem, but Google Maps suggested a slightly shorter route, so I thought, hey, why not. : )
Welllllll, it turns out that that shortcut brought us to a property where we were not allowed to cross because it was a right of way, so we had to turn around. Way to go Google Maps: )
Three hours from leaving we finally arrived.
The heat needed to be turned on, as they left the cottage pretty cool there until they closed it up.
Sarah and Megan are unpacking the groceries before the rest of the group arrives.
I think Miranda is gonna wait until the cottage warms up before taking her winter coat off : )
We are literally chillin until the rest arrive.
Devin and Phil were the first.
And then Rachael and Justin and Leanne arrived.
Jason and Jacob and Jordan soon arrived and eventually Liam and then we were all there, except for Pastor Joe who triple booked himself this weekend so he would be coming in the morning.
Socializing started pretty quick, which was nice : )
Not much was planned for the night, but we did do a 1001 question time. They picked the question number, and I found it and asked the question. They went from easier/shallow, to harder/deeper. It went pretty well. : )
After a short sleep, it was time to face the Saturday.
Jason and Justin (lots of names starting with J this year) started by playing Crokinole.
The calm before the storm : )
I made breakfast.
Bacon in the oven (yes, it's the best way to do bacon by far).
Miranda starting her really really thick book with really really small print.
Oh yes, last year I apparently got apples that were NOT from Ontario. I did NOT make that mistake this year. : )
Everyone waiting around for me to get the bacon done.
Eggs made to order.
Yeah, yeah, your eggs are coming boys. :)
Fellowship around the table.
My breakfast after serving everyone.
Satisfying.
Joe arrived and we sat down to discuss work.
Yes, you heard right. Work.
We followed a Right Now Media three-part short video series on work.
1. Your Work Place
2. Your Work Ethic
3. Your Work Life.
The group gathered looking over the material.
We broke off into pairs to discuss questions Joe had prepared (or gotten from the series, I'm not sure)
Joe is pondering as you can see : )
Devin and Jacob chatting it up.
Megan and Sarah and Leanne and Rachael doing the same.
Using the internet to find the answers??? : )
We covered two of the three sections in the morning.
Then time for Lunch.
Liam, Ryan and Jordan soaking up the view.
Time to clean up
Dishes are always fun : )
Thanks Jason and Megan for helping out.
Chatting while the dishes are finished.
It's always a nice view.
Several of the group went for our annual walk to the bridge : )
Leanne needed to pose for the camera.
It was a nice day for a walk.
Uh, Leanne, what are you doing?
They made it to the bridge.
I think that's a selfie??
The rest of us stayed back and chatted.
Joe checked on racing scores as he had extended family running races yesterday in Ottawa.
After everyone got back, it was time for some games.
Not sure what this one was called, but it had the number 5 in it.
I gave Jason my phone to take pictures of us teaching Megan how to play cribbage : )
You can see Joe is very serious about getting the rules straight.
Oh, and yes, time to check the racing scores.
Remind me to ask someone else to take pics with my camera next time : )
Jason found a unique puzzle in the cottage.
He took it apart, but really should have taken a picture first of it : )
Putting it back together required a Google search and several attempts to find a video on how to put this back together. : ) But he did manage to find one.
Pizza was for supper. Phil was in charge.
He got help with the cutting of veggies
Justin shredding cheese
A team effort.
Oh and before supper Jason and Jacob decided to take a swim in the canal. Actually, Jason did it in the morning as well. And Sunday morning too.
Crazy cold, but apparently refreshing. " )
They were in the water for about 15 seconds : )
Here's a short video of their swim.
Chillin waiting for the dough to be ready.
We didn't remember bringing a rolling pin so a wine bottle was substituted. It did the trick.
Uno broke out as we were waiting for the pizza. I learned of a new uno game we need to get, called flip uno. A lot more fun. : )
More games as the dough continued to be worked on.
Time to assemble the pizzas.
Joe was ready to pounce as this game was played.
The pizza is done. Whoot!!
Well, there were 5 others as well.
All eaten of course. : )
It was worth the wait : )
After supper we did our last work session.
Some good insights were gleaned from the talks. Hopefully, we come away with a better sense of how we can be positive about our work environment, even if we don't always enjoy our current work situation.
Then it was time for more games.
Massive Dutch Blitz was played.
Hard to do with a big table like this.
Good thing Justin has a long reach : ).
Very intense.
Rachael is a pro.
She was usually the first one finished.
Sunday morning. Whoot.
More Crokinole. : )
And more bacon in the oven.
Yum, Yum.
Miranda continued her tradition of making Sunday morning pancakes, with Megan offering to take the place of Courtney who has moved to southern Ontario now.
I call this "Synchronized Pancake Batter Preparation". : )
A nice morning view.
The pancakes were very good.
Fellowship as we ate.
For Sunday morning we had "church" : )
We did some more of the 1001 questions and sang and then I used an ollllddd book called
"JawDroppers"
It puts the parable into modern-day story form and we need to figure out the parable.
An old out of print book, but good.
We also shared our most-liked Bible verse.
Our group shot.
Well this one was in the direct sunlight apparently, so people closed their eyes : )
So we moved just a weeeeee bit to the right.
Clean-up time and people hung out until we were all done, which was nice : )
There, you wouldn't even know we were here.
Thanks, Al and Wilma for the use of your cottage yet again.
Thanks to all who came out to make this weekend fun and enjoyable.
Till next year D.V.
