Okanagan Lake: A season to soar

‘Twas an awesome week-long family reunion at Okanagan Lake in British Columbia where we:

What else was there left to do? Turns out, plenty! When we weren’t boating, swimming and kayaking, we:

Caught plenty ‘o fish off the docks.

Played a lot of Rook, Scum and inhaled Jane’s delicious cooking (we’re not talking sub-par food, either. We’re talking a menu that included grilled tenderloin, Eggs Benedict, pina colada chicken burgers and smoked pork tacos).

And the woman even hand-delivered Screamers in her “spare” time when she wasn’t busy cooking and teaching everyone to wakeboard and surf.

We also:

Had campfires on the beach,

Spent hours building sand castles…

Mothering from my hammock

Or rather, sand toilets which are so much more practical.

We brought our volleyball net. My brothers and I were all MVPs of our high school teams and what started as our Return to Glory Tournament…
…ended with the one-bounce rule.

There was plenty of time for just hanging and chilling out.

Superhero cousins

Is it just me or does The Pumpkin Man glow orange?

We visited charming Davison Orchard Country Village where the six cousins posed for cheesy family tree photos.

Touched the sky.Toured the beautiful orchards on a “Johnny Popper Apple Train,” sitting in authentic apple bins as we were pulled by an antique John Deere Tractor.

And we bought jams, syrups, fudge, cobbler, fruit and lots of pies from the Country Market.

Aunt Sue and her pies

We had plenty of cousin time and on the last day, I asked cousin Connor (the blonde in the middle) if he had a good vacation.

“I’m glad I don’t have sisters” was his only reply.

Of course, a family reunion isn’t complete without family photos. Do you know those people who color coordinate and micro-manage every last detail of their perfect pictures? We are not those people. We were unshowered. Unmatching. Unclothed.