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He is PRAYING of course! 😉
I just had to snap these shots before dinner one night because I had been noticing how funny he looks when he ‘prays’. (Yes, sometimes I peek when I pray just to see if my kids are really praying. Shhh, don’t tell!) Not sure why Asher has to have his mouth open or his eyes squinty closed but it sure is cute!
When we got home from Pine Cove, we were very anxious to pick up Asher! We missed him! After we unloaded the car on Saturday afternoon, James wanted to wash the car. A perfect father/son photo op!
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| precious |
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| Asher even cleans tires! |
Asher got a little carried away with the soap and soon he looked like this:
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| soap in your eye is never fun! |
So naturally, someone had to spray the soap out of his eyes!
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Who volunteered to do this? Ella had no problem spraying him!
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| getting hosed |
Now that he was ‘clean’ and could see, he could get on to other activities!
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| soaked (and loving it) |
He got his truck and we filled it with water, and then his job became pushing it up and down the driveway!
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Friday was our last full day of camp. We took it easy because well, we were tired! James and the girls played frisbee golf during free time.
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| frisbee golf |
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| interesting form Ella… 😉 |
That evening, Wild Kids (Rilyn’s program), had a “Character Quality” ceremony. Her counselor, “Half Asleep” presented her with her certificate.
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| Half Asleep reading it to Rilyn |
It read: “Rilyn is a good listener and is thoughtful of others. She is insightful, making it easy for her to understand those around her. She is generous of her possessions and time.”
That night we prayed with “Spirit Fingers” and thanked her for such a wonderful week with us!
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| Ella, Spirit Fingers, and Rilyn |
We thank God for blessing us with the chance to attend Pine Cove family camp last week!
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| mommy and her girls |
Thursday was all about banana boating! I’m so glad Jen took pictures of our family because Ella’s expressions are priceless! (Once again, Ella was scared, but asked God for courage to ride!)
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| banana boating time! |
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| Rilyn can barely keep her helmet on! |
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| Ella is screaming! |
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| Jen said she made this face the whole time! |
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| ella: terrified |
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| Rilyn being a little daring! |
After we went, we decided it would be fun(ny) to have a ‘kids only’ banana boat ride. We were definitely the mean parents, making the boat driver go faster even though the kids would put their thumbs down to slow down. We were laughing so hard at their expense!
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| Cole had his thumb down pretty much the whole time! |
I’m sad this next picture isn’t clearer, but I had to post to show these bff’s and their personalities! Anna is holding her thumb up to go faster and Ella is holding her thumb down to slow down! 😉
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| anna and ella |
At one point, the boat started sinking because of the speed and it was hilarious!
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| sinking |
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| they were so scared but we were dying laughing!! |
After banana boating, we went to the pool where we all took turns going down the slide!
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| Rilyn |
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| Always following the rules! Her arms are crossed perfectly! |
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| The second time Rilyn went down, she didn’t enter as graceful! |
Wednesday morning started out with a 7 a.m. trail ride. (We had a counselor come to our cabin and take our girls to breakfast for us!)
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| James and I in the stable |
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| James |
After the trail ride, we had a southern breakfast at a little cabin overlooking the lake. So yummy and relaxing!
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| relaxing |
In the afternoon, during free time, the Richardsons and our family took the kids tubing!
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| Love this picture of Rilyn and Cole! |
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| Go Rilyn! |
Ella was very nervous about tubing. Once again, we took her fear to the Lord and asked Him for courage!
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| Ella scared before her turn |
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| Ella going very slow! |
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| looks like she had fun! |
After tubing we headed to the pool so Rilyn could go on the Blob. Unfortunately she landed wrong and slid off quickly and was too scared to try again.
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| Rilyn jumping off the board to the blob |
That night was the talent show! James and Rilyn did the Father/Daughter dance to Jai Ho with Dave and Anna Barrett that they did in their dance recital in May.
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| Rilyn almost hit her head on the beam above. The
whole audience gasped, but James had no clue how close she came! |
They got a standing ovation and if there was a prize for first place, I’m confident they deserved it!
On Tuesday, Rilyn got to shoot BB guns during her Wild Kids program!
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| wow, the counselor looks pretty intense here! |
During free time, our family headed to the zipline! Both Rilyn and Ella were pretty scared (you start ziplining at about 3 stories high!) What is neat is that at Pine Cove all the counselors pray with you and your kids before every ‘event’. So when Rilyn was up there with James about to zip down, one of the counselors prayed with her for courage.
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| Rilyn with James on the zipline next to her in the back |
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| rilyn |
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| rilyn |
Ella’s turn was next and I went with her. She acted so scared before she went up and I honestly thought she wouldn’t go through with it, but as soon as she climbed the stairs up there she never said a word and just went into ‘game time’ mode! She was so brave! We learned a lot this week about trusting God when you are fearful!
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| I am ziplining first in the yellow shirt. Ella is next to me. |
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| ella! |
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| so ella screamed a little! too cute! |
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| ella |
At night, the kids went to their programs and the adults got to have a romantic picnic dinner and then a sunset cruise on the lake. Well, our boat never started and so we technically had a ‘sunset boat park’ 😉 It was still fun because we were with all our friends who came to Pine Cove with us (sans the Barretts).
Warning: kissing picture!
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| me and James |
The Pine Cove photographer took this picture of our ‘cruise’. 😉
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| can you spot me? I’m fiddling with my camera of course! |
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| from L to R: Shawnda and Jason Kovacs, Jen and Jeff Richardson, Kevin and
Leslie Peck, James and me, Olivia and Todd Engstrom…oh and our boat captain “Rando” trying to dodge our picture! |
We got some swinging time in Monday morning!
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| daddy pushing rilyn |
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| high flyin’ ella! |
In the afternoon, we had free time. James and I signed up for the ‘Superman Swing’ at the ropes course. (You had to be over age 12.) I volunteered to go first, (little known fact: I am an adrenaline junkie but have not had many chances since becoming a mom!)
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| all harnessed up-NOT COMFORTABLE! |
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| posing like Superman before the freefall! 😉 |
To explain how this ‘swing’ works, I will have to show you the picture I took of James because I got a good angle of how high up they put you. (Estimation about 35 feet high)
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| James at the top ready to free fall and swing into the trees |
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| Here I am free falling! |
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| I’m swinging in the trees free as a bird! |
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| James looking all manly and stuff before his swing |
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| James’ superman pose |
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| James swinging in the trees…I wonder why his arms aren’t spread out free as a bird… |
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| Looks like he’s having fun, but you can see he’s holding something… |
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Here he is being taken down and you can only imagine how much pain he is in because of the tight harness! And I thought I was uncomfortable…poor guy!
Monday night was a theme night and our theme that night was “Great Scot!” and we were supposed to wear lots of plaid. Warning: this next picture goes against every grain in my well-being.
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| We were supposed to mix and match and clash-the sillier
the better! This is the best I could do. |
I know I have officially engrained Rilyn with my OCD in fashion because when I took out the red, white, and blue dress for her to wear she stared at it for awhile and then said, “Is it still July? Oh, ok, I guess I can wear this dress. But NOT in August, ok, mom?” 😉
Monday night we played games in the field that were supposed to be “Scottish”!
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| we had war paint because we were in teams |
The pretty girl behind Ella is “Spirit Fingers”. She was our assigned counselor this past week and took care of my girls and loved on us! She is super sweet!
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| Ella and Spirit Fingers |
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| James participated in the dad tug of war. He was the anchor, but unfortunately wore
flip flops. So as you can guess, they didn’t win. |
We just got back from our week long family camp vacation at Pine Cove! We had a great time and I can’t wait to wade through all 400 pictures! 😉 Day 1 was last Sunday afternoon.
When you enter the camp you see this:
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| All the counselors are hooping and hollering while your car drives in! I should of realized from
this scene that my week was going to be LOUD!! (And it was!) 😉 |
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| We are about to enter into camp and we let the girls go through the sun roof to see all
the counselors going crazy for them! |
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| The couselors unload our car for us-so nice! We are shown to our cabin which was also
SO NICE! Two bunk beds and a queen with 2 showers and 2 toilet rooms! Living in luxury! |
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| checking out camp and the view of the lake |
That night we had a pool party and the girls were not scared at all to jump off the high dive!
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| Rilyn taking the plunge! |
I’m reminded again how thankful I am for the swimming lessons we took this summer!
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| Ella jumping from the high dive! |
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| I guess this is James’ attempt at a dive?!? 😉 |
Asher this summer:
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| blue frosted cupcakes! |
Ella last summer:
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| I can’t imagine what flavor ice cream this is! |
And just because I didn’t want Rilyn feeling left out, and I’m feeling patriotic:
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| Rilyn 16 months old eating ravoli. |
Growing up, I had the privilege of attending a Christian-based camp each summer (really all throughout the year!) at Forest Home in California. Some of my best memories come from camp. I went to mother/daughter, father/daughter, family camp, jr. high camp, high school camp, winter camp, and I worked as a childcare assistant one summer. It has always been my dream since we had kids to provide that same camp experience for my kids.
On Sunday, we leave with 5 other families from our church to go to Pine Cove for family camp! (Well, for us it really is ‘almost’ family camp. We opted not to take Asher this year due to his age.)
So, in honor of us going to camp I’m posting a few pics from my camp days!
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| Mud pit! (arrow is pointing to me) This is probably from freshmen year of high school. |
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| That is me flying off of ‘the blob’ at the lake. If you got a fat man launching you, prepare
to rocket! Fun times! I even bought a shirt at camp that said, “I survived the blob” |
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| me sliding down the tall slide. |
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| paddleboating with my dad, brother, and a friend |
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| That is me in the innertube sledding down at winter camp |
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| my mom and me in front of our cabin (did I have shorts on?) |
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| horseback riding on one of the trails |
the paquettes 