Parks Creek Easter

Even though all my immediate family lives within a roughly 5.5-hour drive of each other (Toronto, GTA, and Ottawa) it still takes effort to find time to see them. It's particularly rare for all of us to spend any significant amount of time under the same roof.

This past Easter though we did just that. My parents, siblings, their spouses, and our children rented out a house and stayed together for the first time in...maybe 3 or 4 years? The place: Parks Creek Retreat, a beautiful place in the town of Roslin, Ontario, which is near the metropolis of Belleville Ontario.

The location was actually almost perfect. First of all, Parks Creek retreat is literally by a bubbling creek called Parks Creek (no false or misleading advertising there!). It's in the Bay of Quinte area, which is almost equi-distant between Ottawa and Toronto. That area isn't really a hot spot for tourism but it has a relaxing charm that is hard not to like.

The weather hovered between zero and seven Celsius degrees the whole time we were there, which was just just warm enough to go for a few walks and watch nature groggily start to wake up.

Being typical Canadians, we didn't let the cold temperature deter us from taking advantage of the retreat's amenities like the three-season room with outdoor living room.

Did you know if you read hard enough you'll raise your core temperature?

We ate, we chatted, we drank and we played.

Not posed. Don't tell the marketing departments of the beer companies.

Oi. Go long. I said LOOOONG!

  And of course the Easter bunny made a guest appearance!

Margot and her cousin A showing off the spoils

Let's be honest, holiday family get-togethers can be fraught with challenges. But at the end of the day you don't remember that. You remember sipping the craft beer sitting on the patio watching your daughter have the time of her life playing frisbee with her cousins in clothes that probably weren't weather-appropriate because dad dressed her and not her mom. Memories!