Sue and I had so much fun having a birthday overnight for Mia who turns 7 on the 24th. What a time we had with her, as you'll see from the 29 pictures we took!

11:00am and Mia, and The Beau Dog are ready to head out from the house for the drive up to Sue's brother Alan's camp on Ossipee Lake.

Arriving at the camp on basically one of the only days this summer it was available. Great timing, and thanks to Alan for mentioning it so we could take Mia up there.

What a great location the camp is on - right on the lake in a quite cove.

It took a very long time to coax Beau onto the dock, but once out there he was fine.

Sue and Mia testing the water to see if it was warm enough to swim in. It was, but only because it is so shallow there; further out it would not be so nice. There were advisories posted on the weather channel that the waters on all of the lakes in the region were still so cold that visitors were advised that hypothermia in just a few minutes could very well happen.

Sue has been wanting to take Mia out in a kayak to see if she'd enjoy it. As soon as she spotted one under the deck at the camp, they were in it, and off the dock.

And out to the island in the cove they headed....

And way, way out to the island they go....

I know that it's been years, 10 or more for sure, since Sue had been out to the island, and I just knew how excited she'd be to share that with Mia.

They were out there quite awhile before heading back into the dock.

Mia had enjoyed it so much she wanted to give it a go herself.

With strict instructions as to just how far off the dock she could go, Mia paddled all around the front of the cabin with Sue calling instructions out to her from the end of the dock as to how to back paddling could turn the kayak. Mia picked it up immediately, and spun that thing around like a pro.

We were so fortunate to have a loon swim past the cabin before disappearing in a deep dive in surech of fish, not to appear again far away across the cove.

It's only 2:30pm, and she took just a few minutes on the swing, and then she was on to something else.

At 4:00pm, after wearing Sue out playing a tic-tac-toe game, she coerced me into playing a few games with her.

What a spectacular view of the lake from inside the cabin.

Mia is very much into reading, and had brought quite a few of her books with her. Here, she's reading one of them to Sue. It's amazing how well she is at sounding out some fairly difficult words. I wish when I was learning to read that it would have been under whatever system she is being introduced with!

She must have gone through 4 or 5 of the series of books she had.

Another view of the inside of the cabin - rustic, and a true summer lake cabin.

And to complete the day: we stopped for ice cream at 'Bobby-Sue's Homemade Ice Cream' on the way back home.

And it wasn't long after we pulled out of there (6:30pm) that our birthday girl was comatose, and remained that way until we pulled into the driveway.

But by 8:30am Wednesday morning she was full speed. Here sue is reading her birthday card from us.

Sue had found this rock box to go with a rocks and minerals book to give her. She became obsessed with both, and had more questions than there was time to answer!

To distract her, we loaded her and Beau into the car for a walk on the trails at the 1772 Meeting House. We had brought her here last year at just about the same time-frame during her 06/12/21 Visit.

Mia just loves the Town Pound, so had to get a picture of her, Sue, and Beau inside it.

As last year, the New Durham Public Library had posted story boards along the trail for the kids to read.

Heading back home, Sue had me stop at this field of wild flowers so that she could show Mia.

Because we didn't have to get Mia back to her home until around 4:00pm, there was time for Sue to show her how to make her other birthday present: a collage of different pieces of sea glass forming a wave rising high in the air with a mermaids tale poking up through the wave as she dives.

Sue had a picture for Mia to go by, and helped her position each piece of sea glass. After it was done, they poured some sort of clear acrylic glue/sealer over the entire board so that it looked like this! We'll have to keep it here for a few days to dry and harden, but she did it! Mia had far more patience than I would have, that's for sure, though Sue was constantly slowing her down.