Farewell Tears

This past Thursday we went to say good-bye to our dear, dear friends, the Johnsons. We helped them move boxes into their U-Haul and brought pizza to fee the masses (which was only about 10 people). It was good to be able to joke and giggle with them one more time before they left. They're moving to Pennsylvania. It's a long way from Maine. I will miss them terribly. I already do!

Angela and Jenna have been like sisters to us. They are super young ladies with hearts for the LORD and I pray that God will bless them in their new home and state. I'm looking forward to seeing them in August (Jenna in July too!) for Kayla's wedding and hopefully going down to visit them in Pennsylvania. But, in the meantime, I'm thankful for modern conveniences like telephones and the internet!!

We miss you Charlie, Tonya, Jenna and Angela- and even Sadie (well, sort of ; )!

Lucy Laughs

Ethel: Who was following us?

Lucy: A man on foot and a Private "I"

Ethel: Did you get rid of 'em?

Lucy: Yeah! I shot the "I" in the foot and the foot in the eye.

Family Camp Day 3 Part 1

On Monday we were blessed with a somewhat warm day. Some people went swimming and they decided to pile onto the boat and see if they could carry everyone! They did, but poor John had to row everyone!! I love Tasha's and Katie's faces in this picture- they're a riot!
For our afternoon activities we headed over to a large open, dirt area outside of the green cabin. The perfect place for relay races!! We had sack, three-legged, six-legged and stilt races all according to age. It was a blast. I actually won one of them! Very surprising! Kayla and I did the three-legged race together twice and we won the first one. There was a tie between Sarah and Tasha and Katie and Hannah for the second.
Ethan did a great job during the sac race, but I think Marissa had him beat! Look at how high she's jumping in the above picture!!
I tried the stilts out, but I could barely stay up on them! Kudos to Hannah, Kayla and John who kept on going with them and dared to try for the first time!
Being rather sick of my hair, I decided to tie them in all kinds of little braids- it took a considerable amount of time, but I had some great help doing them! Hannah and Shay put them into two little braids later on during the day. It looked pretty cool, but when I took my hair out the next day... POOF! I wouldn't mind getting a weave, but I think my hair would look atrocious afterward!

Family Camp Day 3 Part 2

Below is my winning sack race- I look ridiculous, but it was a lot of fun! I find that when I'm doing any kind of activity and somebody snaps a picture of my, I'm making the silliest and oddest of faces. It makes it easier for people to put captions by the pictures I suppose! Some people can make goofy faces (Ali and my sister are two of them) and still look good! I don't get it! Oh well!
During the six-legged race Josiah K, Seth and Lance started off not quite ready and ended up rolling in the dirt and falling on one another- it was kinda funny! I could see that it wasn't for them when they came sputtering up in a cloud of dust, spitting dirt!
One of the funniest events of the afternoon was the bike races. It started out normal enough. The three youngest raced a few times around the trees. Then some of the older kids decided to give it a whirl. That was great in and of itself, but the best part was when Pat and Dave decided to try it! Here was Dave, pedaling a little pink bike with a lovely basket on the front and Pat behind him, trying to keep up and eventually taking a little short cut through the trees. I think I was laughing so hard I had tears! So funny!

The grand finale of the afternoon was the tug of war. The V.I.P.s against the Den of Knights! (Pretty ingenious name- combining the Knights and the Denny's names) We lost soundly, but we put up a good fight! Our fingers were burning and our knuckles red afterward. When that was over, we young ladies challenged the guys to a tug of war. We slightly outnumbered them (I think there were eight of us and five of them), but we beat them the first time! Then we decided to give them something to talk about!! After the "go" we counted to three, the boys pulling hard, not wanting to be beaten, and then we let go of the rope! It was pretty funny- not for the boys, of course, but they were good sports about it!

In the evening the V.I.P.s became the "Very Investigative Pilgrims" as we figured out clues for the treasure hunt. We didn't quite make it, but we were only a step behind the Den of Knights. It was a neat challenge. The clues were portions of scripture, so not only did we have to figure out what the clue was, but we had to figure out which part of the scripture was the clue word or words. It was hard (for me anyway)!

After the treasure hunt, we took our usually night time swim. We girls played chicken and then all of us played Marco Polo. There's something exciting about swimming in water at night when you can barely see what's going on! It brings out the little kid in you.

"But let him who glories, glory in this, that he knows and understands Me, that I am the LORD, exercising loving kindness, judgement and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight," says the LORD.

~ Jeremiah 9:24 (Monday's verse)

Family Camp Days 1 & 2

We arrived at camp in the early afternoon on Saturday so that we could unpack all of our things and get settled into our cabin. It was as if we had been there since the last camp. We have a nice cabin, but the walls only go to the point where the roof starts to slant (the walls to divide the rooms that is), so even if you're whispering, you can hear what everyone is saying! It's still a great little cabin!
After we unpacked the Wardwells arrived. Their cabin is right next to us, so for a week we got to be their neighbors- lots of fun! Emily and Hannah came over to say "hello" and they helped Kayla and I arrange the above fruit bowl. It's sideways, but if you look hard enough, you can see the face that we made (he's eating and apple!). We're just goofy!
This picture needs explaining. I told Hannah and Emily that if a certain family in our church didn't come to camp this year I would be "shocked out of my socks." Can you guess whether this family came or not?

On both Saturday and Sunday we had sessions of the Basic Life Seminar. They were very convicting, insightful and thought-provoking. Some other time I'll write about what I've learned. I want to go through all of my notes again and read the scriptures that go with them.

On Sunday, after church, the Bartons and the St. Pierre's came over. We ate so much food that I felt sick and we had tons of chips left over! It was fun to fellowship with them, though. Every family in our church has it's areas of ministry and it's excellent qualities and I them all!

We found out early that we were on a team with the Wardwells for camp (It helps when your sister is going to marry into the family that runs it!), so we were just throwing out names and decided that we'd call ourselves the V.I.P.s, which stands for Very Important Pilgrims (our family camp is called Pilgrim's Rest). That's our original name, but we decided to change the "I" word daily, depending on what the main activities were. The above picture has Kayla, John, Hannah and Emily making "VIP" with their hands.

That evening, after the seminars, we were practicing our verses and we heard this loud noise. Dad looked out our window and saw that there was some sort of car parked outside of our cabin. We shook it off, thinking it was just some silly teenagers. Emily and Hannah were ready to go home and asked me to walk with them, just in case those "teenage boys" were still out there. For protection I took a broom. I know, I know! But hey, if I really needed to hit someone I could've! It ended up being a truck that had been driven into a tree by what we think was a drunk driver. He wasn't in his car and we thought that he had run into the woods somewhere. Josiah K, Pat, Lance and Dad all stayed around to look for him until the police arrived. To my knowledge, they didn't find him, but he never showed his face or made a ruckus after that. That was our big camp adventure!

We went to sleep that night a bit excited and wondering what else would happen during the week at Dunn's!

Gone Again!

We're home! Only for a couple of days, though. We arrived here late Friday, did laundry at the laundry mat all morning Saturday, had friends that we haven't seen in a long time spend the night and go to church with us in the morning. After church we went swimming at the camp again- it was soooooo hot and the water was extremely refreshing! Than this morning we went to the seamstress to get our dresses fitted. Tomorrow it's back to Poland for the rest of the week to paint our church, which is greatly needed, and then a weekend full of graduations and Father's day parties!! My, oh My! Will we ever be home again? I am missing visits with Lori and Ali and trips to hang with the Johnsons! But, Lord willing, things will slow down a bit after the next two or three weeks!!!

A Sneak Peak....

Here's something that we did a lot at camp. I'm planning on writing more about camp when we get back either saturday or sunday.