Family walk at Inland Lake with the Slacks and Tassells

On Sunday this past weekend we went up to Inland Lake with the Slacks and Tassells for a little family walk and picnic at Anthony Island. I went there thinking the island was 1-2 kms from the start of the lake, but it turned out to be closer to 4 kms each way! Not only am I out of shape, but we also didn't have a stroller because ours had a flat tire that couldn't be pumped, and a 4 year old that was tired and whiny for the last 1-2 kms of the walk! Even with those variables we still had a great time...but boy did my hips hurt the next day! This is definitely a walk that we would do again for sure. My goal by the end of the summer is to make it the whole way around the 13 km lake :)

These 3 ran ahead of all of us and stopped at each bench or picnic table and just waited for us until we caught up to them. I chose this picture as the first one of the post because it's such a good picture of these 3 handsome guys. 

Here they are at the first wharf of the lake. James had so much fun with Linden & Dane-O (which he still calls him all these years later!) and I'm so proud of how wonderful they are with him. 

And here's Jordie at the very beginning of our trek, little did he know how much walking his little legs would do in the next few hours! 

You can see the big boys running up ahead of us

Here is Kevin and a now restrained Kaleb! 

Such a cute little guy he is! 

Jaxon & Maddie Tassell

Me and Theresa waiting for the hubbies and little boys to catch up with us.

Kevin snapped this adorable photo of Jordie on his Daddy's shoulders

The girls were walking ahead of the boys and when the Tassell's decided they had to turn around and head back because they had afternoon plans we stopped and waited for them...and this is what I saw when Jim and Jordan walked up to me. He had actually fallen asleep on Jim's head like this! 

Poor little Jordie boy was tired!

Attempting a quick Tassell family photo before they headed back and we kept on going towards the island. Thanks for the cooperation with your smile there Sean! 

Thankfully the Slacks let Jordie take a turn in the stroller (we hoped he would fall asleep) but once he woke up he wanted nothing to do with being strapped down. Poor Kaleb had to take a turn in the carrier, which just wasn't comfortable for him or his Daddy. 

The cutest part is that he wouldn't let go of his snack cup

We made it to the island and we are heading to the picnic site for some lunch

Mommy & Kaleb snap (and Jordie photobombing in the background!)

This kid knows I love to take his photo and he smiles at me every time I turn my camera on him

Jordie and Daddy

We've hit the site and time for some exploring and lunchtime. Some iPhone photos from Kevin too.

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This food monster was happy as a clam to get his lunch

Lunch is done and we did some island exploring

An iPhone version of the same photo

All I wanted was one picture of me to prove that I was actually there too! Jordie was not interested in cooperating with me! 

Back at the picnic site and now all 5 boys were in the little house exploring

Attempting to give hugs

The only somewhat good one of the these two

Slack family photo on the bridge heading back towards the trail

And one of us too!

We were heading back and we wanted Jordie to walk a little bit so hopefully he would sleep once we got back to the van. Here he is just trucking along!

And here is just a few minutes later...he just sat down in the middle of the trail and refused to get up and keep walking. He was done!

hahahahaha...this is what he did when Jim went to pick him up, he actually just laid down and giggled at his Daddy

Kaleb loved splashing in the big puddles

On our way back we ran into another one of our favorite families...the Gurney's! They were also headed to Anthony Island for a picnic lunch. 

Big smiles from Jordie

A great photo of Kevin

Some shots of the beautiful scenery at Inland Lake. We are so lucky to live where we are, especially when other parts of our country are literally buried in feet of snow. 

Linden was laughing at me because he knows I love to take photos. I don't think he actually thought I'd take this one. I told him to be careful because by the time he gets married I will have PLENTY of photos of him to show at his wedding!

This one is a really good one though! 

Creepy looking wood owl statue

These 3 are best buddies and had fun for the majority of the walk. James was definitely fading for the last couple of kilometres.

He's getting tired again! But happy to be wearing his Daddy's hat

Oh oh...I can see it happening!

He's fighting it hard...

...but it's not working!

He kept fading in and out

Thankfully Uncle Kevin offered to piggy back James for a little bit. We all laughed when he started choking and couldn't figure out why, until we took James's stick away from Uncle Kev's throat!

And now he's really out

So much that he can't even hold his head up on his Daddy's anymore

How can that be comfortable? He was REALLY tired with so much fresh air and running around. 

Another couple of beauty shots from the head of the lake

hehehehe....these pictures are definitely for the memory books! He was so sound asleep he didn't even move when he was transferred to his car seat. 

Poor Jimmy, he carried that kid for probably 6 of the 8 kilometres we walked that day. His shoulders must have been sore. He did mention it was weird to feel Jordie breathing in his ear like this! 

This was at about 1:50 and when we got home just after 2:15 he woke up for a few minutes for a diaper/outfit change and then slept in his crib until almost 4:45! We were happy he stirred when he did or we would have had to wake him up to go to Nana and Papa's for Sunday dinner!

Overall it was just a fantastic outing spent with our friends and I already can't wait to go again. Another blog post will come when I meet my goal of walking around the whole thing! :)