Where has Summer gone?

Summer here at Rivers Provincial Park is drawing to a close.  We are starting to have some fall weather with some rain and wind.  We have 2 more weeks to have the shack open and then it is time to board up the windows again.  We have had a good time this summer with all of our kids and grandkids around us from time to time.  I don't know why any kid would want to spend time here when all there is to do is swim and boat and mini putt and eat ice cream for breakfast.  We know we spoil all of them but the memories made here at the shack will last a life time we hope!!

Our buddy Dawson!!  Grace loves him.

We teach them young!!  Max

Donovan helping set up the Gazebo

Rio and Sheri and some Tardis thingy

Grace serving customers.   All the kids love to do this.

Dani Kayaking

Dani, Silas, Grace

Nicole, Abby, Emma, Max, Tyler, Donovan, Sheri.

Along with all the action we have had some relaxing times as well.

Hey we don't profess to have fast food, but this is ridiculous. lol

Susan always says "Let me take Max for a nap!!

And of course there are sometimes tears.  These tears are kinda self inflicted.  Grace wanted to have a band aid on her cheek because she said it was sore so her mom put one on.  After a couple days it was getting to be a bit of an eye sore so we tried to take it off.  Well thats what the tears were for, not for some major injury.

For the most part, we have had an extremely busy summer here at CJ's.   Susan has cooked up some special things which attract a lot of people.  She has awesome burgers, perogies, deep fried pickles, mozza sticks, onion rings, fries and lots more.  The ice cream is still the best in the country and Sue does up deep fried Oreo's, funnel cakes, and deep fried ice cream.  Here is the menu in case you want to order ahead of time.

One of the interesting things we did this summer was to hold a mini golf tournament.  Our friends, the Sawatzky family from near Portage la Prairie come here to camp every year.  The gramma and grampa started the tradition and they ask there entire family to take a few days off each summer and all get together down here at the lake.  What a great family and everyone of the kids are so polite and a pleasure to be around. There are a lot of them and the kids like to do mini golf so we organized a tournament and had prizes and everything.  What a great family and we will get the parents involved next year.  Gramma golfed this year and gave the young ones a run for the money!!

Our friends Dick and Jean sitting in the front.  They are fun to be around.

These kids were so much fun!!

Winner of the young golfers

Winner of the middle age prize

And the older kids winner.  (Actually her brother won!)

The Sawatzky family golfers

Our mini putt demands a lot of upkeep and one of the promotions this year was if a business would rebuild a hole, they would get free advertising for a year.  We had quite a bit of interest with quite a few businesses saying they would work over the winter coming up with something unique to put on a hole.   We will still offer advertising for $100.00 a year for anyone who just wants to advertise.

Canada Malt fixed hole # 17

Redline Transport fixed hole # 3

Walkers Greenhouse fixed hole # 8

We had real trouble keeping up to the ice cream inventory this year.  Our supplier is from Winnipeg and only delivers once a week so with the increased demand this year our freezer was often bare.  We generally stock about 24 flavours of Chapmans hard ice cream.  This is what our ice cream stock should look like:

 A couple times this is what our freezers looked like just before the ice cream truck arrived.

About the middle of July we had an awesome crop of wild Saskatoons around.  The bushes were loaded so we had to go pick some.  Saskatoons are in my opinion the best berry in the world.

Susan likes to make syrup from the berries and uses it for putting on French Vanilla ice cream and calls it a Prairie Berry Sundae!   We sell out in no time flat.  mmmmmmm good.

Our town of Rivers had the pleasure of hosting a Senior Provincial Ball Championship at our newly constructed ball field.   I checked out a few games and CJ's was proud to be one of the sponsors of the event.  Because it is a summer sport, we support the local Comets Baseball Club.

Kayak and paddle boat rentals went over quite nice this year.  Lots of people took them for some evening paddles.  We have really good rates so there is no need to buy a kayak.  Just rent ours.

Quite often the boat rack was empty!!

Sometimes I have to go and rescue people who get stranded in the weed.  These guys got in the wind and couldn't pedal home again.

Gotta show you our Mega Cone.  This young lady insisted that she could eat one so I go her picture.  I will confirm that she did eat the whole thing.

After all of the fun this summer we were reminded today that summer is fleeting fast.  Our daughter Sheri and Dani, and Donovan along with Donovans friend Tyler left today to head back to Alberta.  School starts there next week so we will not see them for a while.

Charlie has been doing fine this summer.  Probably gained a little too much weight for his own good.  He is now known as the "Lake Dog"!!   His joints in his feet are giving out so he walks on his ankles now.  This really hurts him because there are no pads there and the ones up high tend to get raw and infected sometimes.  I put a tensor on his paws and cover it with socks and he prances around like nobodies business.  Only problem is that everyone that sees him needs to know the story why he wears socks.  We are going to get a story printed and put is on a post for everyone to read so we don't have to keep repeating it.  Charlie likes the socks so much that he lays down in front of me every morning as if asking me to put them on!!

Well that is a bit of a catch up on our summer.  It has been a great one spent with good friends and family and some people we didn't even know were our friends.  We meet so many nice people in this business.   Here is the view out our front window.   The leaves are still green but it won't be long until they start to turn.