Sr. Camp, Family Camp, and swimming...

Okay, so our last few weeks have been full of lots of summer time activity! Ann Marie spent 5 days at Sr. Camp out in the hills at Rolling Hills Bible Camp. The older kids got to go out in the hills because the fire wasn't causing an immediate threat. The usual weather for camp is rain, rain and more rain, but not this year...they had beautiful sunny days that probably gave more sunburn than anything. Even Ann Marie came home with a little skin peeling off her nose and forehead...didn't know she could burn too! Her skin hasn't seen so much sun in a few years! She had a lot of fun spending time with the other kids, riding horses, playing poison, and staying up really late on the last night so they could play pranks on the boys. Going to bed after 1am and getting up at 4am made for some very tired girls when they got home!! But it was oh, so worth it!!

Ethan, Tyler, Kailee, Alyssum, and Adams have spent the last two weeks in swimming lessons. They all had so much fun and have improved their swimming skills too. Ethan is now done with lessons...it was so fun watching him dive off the blocks and glide through the water. Tyler is a fish in the water and easily swims from side to side as he improves his swimming skills. Kailee just loves the water and is such a good little swimmer...she learned how to swim this time, now she just needs to gain the confidence that she can swim across the pool. Alyssum loves to float and do bobs as long as she knows she can touch the bottom of the pool...I never thought I would see the day when my fearless daughter might actually be a little afraid of something! She just needs to relax and then she will swim just fine! Now Adams is just so funny to watch in the water...absolutely no fear, but no coordination either!! When he would try to swim he was just all arms and legs going every direction, but he wasn't afraid! I think we have a little bit of maturing to do before it will all come together!!

In the midst of swimming we also went to church Family camp at my grandparents homestead. If you can call it camping when we stay in a luxurious motorhome!! (We are keeping the Germain's motorhome for them, so we get to use it while they are away!) We all enjoyed spending time with the other families at camp. We took the kids' bikes so they got to ride and ride on the flat driveway as opposed to our driveway which is a long hill...fun going down, but not so much fun climbing back up! Another fun part of camping at the homestead is getting to spend lots of time in the river. We have some small rubber rafts that we bought at WalMart last year that have been so much fun! Ethan and some of the other boys spent more time floating the river than anything else for the two days we were there. It wasn't particularly warm out, so they got rather cold and were very tired when we came home Saturday afternoon. Tyler had fun in the water too building a dam...he kept at it until it was time to go home and he got it finished. Amazing how much fun the river can provide for everyone!

Now hopefully we will have several weeks at home getting some stuff done around here before we begin the camping again. We always gotta get in plenty of camping during our short summer and if we don't hurry up and do it, the summer will be over before we know it! Camping always provides lots of fun family memories!

Happy 4th of July

Jr. Camp

Steve, Ethan and Tyler were all away at camp last weekend, and they all had so much fun! Steve went as the boy's counselor, Ethan went as a camper for his last year of Jr. Camp, and Tyler who is not quite old enough for camp got to go along because his dad went to camp!! (He was one excited camper!!) Usually our church camp is out in the hills at the Eden's cabin and is called Rolling Hills Bible Camp, but because of the Caribou Hills fire the leaders decided Jr. Camp should stick a little closer to home, so they opted instead for camp at the Engebretsen homestead and should appropriately be called North Fork Bible Camp. Tents were quickly set up, a makeshift arena was put together for the horses, an eating area was put up, and then camp was ready or at least ready enough for some excited campers who thought camp might be cancelled altogether!

The boys got rained on a little, but it didn't dampen their spirits for lots of campin' fun...riding horses, shooting 22's, playing kickball, poison, and helicopter golf (now don't ask me what that is), worship and devotion time, lots of yummy food, and just plain horsin' around!!

Tyler's group of three boys was called the Alder ala Mode and their cheer was...
We are the alders, the mighty, mighty alders; we stomp on the dandelions, crush the pushki, and eat the fireweed for breakfast...pthew, pthew!!

Ethan's group was called the Pushki Patte and their cheer was...We'll burn you, we'll sting you, we'll give you a rash; we're the pushki patte's or p.p.'s for short!!

Monday night the campers returned, tired and stinky, but full of lots of stories and tales from camp.