Family Camp 2014

Our favorite family vacation is family camp! This list is long on all the reasons we love family camp (see older posts on family camp for more details). For now here are a few photos from this year. Already looking forward to next year!

Summer Baseball

What do you do on a hot day mid summer? Watch baseball of course! With three active boys we love anything outdoors and/or any game that involves a ball. What could be better than a Sunday afternoon outside watching baseball? With tickets for our family and 2 extra we were blessed to have grandpa and grandma join us.

Of course the boys were delighted to get their photo taken with Madonna the team mascot!

 It was a hot day, but with the help of some shade from our trusty umbrella and a lot of water to keep us hydrated fun was had by all.

Post game the kids were able to go down on the field and run the bases (always a big hit for our crew)!

 

 

There is something extra special about being down on the field. 

What a great day! I am constantly reminded just how blessed we are to have opportunities to enjoy some family time. My heart is full.

Advent and Christmas

To say our family LOVES Christmas would be an understatement. We love everything about the month of December. The lights, music, giving, volunteering, service projects, craft projects, bible reading, singing, food, gathering with friends and family, worship services, cards, and JESUS it is all wonderful. 

This year was not an exception. We loved Christmas! We cut back on the presents this year for ourselves and the kids and focused more on giving to others in need. You know you can buy a sheep for a family in need for just $80?!

Here are a few photos of our fun from advent and Christmas this year. I wish I would have gotten a photo of the boys serving hot chocolate (we were surprised to see it was captured in the local paper). They gave out 100 free cups to people downtown. It is amazing to see the surprise in people faces when you remind them that Jesus loves them and give them something warm, free and with a smile.  Jesus would defiantly be giving hot chocolate in the cold streets on MN!

Ringing the bell for the Salvation Army

 

  Advent activity night at church - frosting cookies!

Donation drop off at the Ronald McDonald House for their kitchens.

















Sledding fun on the luge track!

Bible Reading

 Brother love!

 

 

Cousin Love!

 Game Time

Fun to have uncles that play with the kids! They love them and cannot get enough time with them!

 More Cousin Time

Praying that you spent time with Christ this Christmas. He left his perfect place in heaven to come as a baby, grow into a man, and be crucified on the cross and die for our sins.

John Piper reminds us of the awe and wonder of the Son of God.  As Piper puts it, “You can read every fairy tale that was ever written, every mystery thriller, every ghost story, and you will never find anything so shocking, so strange, so weird and spellbinding as the story of the Son of God.” Space thrillers of our days like Star Wars cannot hold a candle to the real living Jesus Christ.

“But these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:31

Take time this year to learn more about His perfect love in the Bible. 

Family Camp = Family Fun!

The anticipation has been building all summer for our first annual trip to Trout Lake Family Camp. We just returned from several days of fun and excitement. Trout Lake did not disappoint. Who could ask for more than family worship, rock climbing, zip line, archery, swimming, flying squirrel, rockets, leap of faith, carnival, sharking, black light dodge-ball, and the list goes on.... Family camp was awesome.

Here is a peak into the last few days of awesome. I should warn you in advance. It was very hard to narrow the pictures to a few favorites from a couple hundred. There were just to many things to be able to include them all, but here is a few highlights.

Rocket Building...

 Rocket Launching....

LOVE THIS PART .... Is this right up our alley or what?!

 And the overall winner, with a launch of about 100 yards is..... Jacob!

And this was just some of the fun. We also had archery,

zip line,

Chris is 2nd from the right.

Loves it!

and flying squirrel, which involves 9 people in a harness.

8 are hooked up as the "horses" running in 1 direction 
9th person runs in the opposite direction.

 

the effect is the single person is lifted 40 feet in the air, an adrenaline rush, and lots of giggles!

 Chris really liked this one!

Leap of faith is a climb to the top of a 20 foot pole, balance on top and jump to the bar. Much harder than it looks, but lots of fun! This is a favorite of mine. I am pretty sure Chris enjoyed it as well.

Ready, Set

Jump!

The kids had plenty to do as well. Family rock climb which is a big hit with Noah and Jacob!

 

Water Sports

Our guys are the first couple on the left (their left). Great friends are the first couple on the right. This equals fun!

Tango!

We left feeling closer to God, to each other, and yep a little sore. All in all it was totally awesome and we cannot wait to return!

Of course it would not be a family photo without some silly faces!