summer camp

We feel very privileged to be a part of an awesome leadership training program here at NTBI.  We have had some really great sessions and talks on all things related to Biblical leadership--really great stuff.  A huge part of this program is the Dean's department takes all of us students who are involved to a camp in upstate Michigan.  We left Jackson on Saturday after lunch and we just got back right before supper today...it was so much fun!  We took all of our kids and they had a blast.  Although I think all of us are pretty tired now!  5 days camping with 4 kids ages 6 and under can be pretty tiring:)  But it was worth it, for sure.  We built some great relationships!

(I also just noticed that Jill just blogged about this, too!  Check out her blogpost, here).

So...4 days after we moved all of our stuff back up to MI from our summer in IN, we once again packed our van to the brim with stuff!  The camp was about 3 hours north of Jackson.

We stayed in a cabin with an adjoining room to Aaron and Jill's room.  In this picture, it is looking into our room and that open door back behind Layla is to Aaron and Jill's room.  The other two rooms in our cabin housed all the single girls, so that was so fun!  It was great to get to know the single girls better, and they are so great with our kids!

 They planned some "Olympic events" for our week...we were all separated into 6 teams and there were lots of events throughout the week.  The points all accumulated throughout the week and today (the last day of camp) we had results...my team won!  (not that I really helped much--I didn't participate in much because I was usually holding a kid or 2:) ).

There was an obstacle course, complete with leapfrog...

a "stick your face in a plate of whipped cream to find a piece of bubble gum and blow a bubble" event...

and a rock wall climbing contest...

They also had a fun zipline!  It was actually pretty long and high.  This is a terrible picture, but here is Kaine doing the zipline...

And I still cannot believe this, but Halle was brave enough to do the zipline!  If you know Halle, you will know why we were surprised:)  I was so proud of her.  The camp people said she set a record for being the youngest to ever do the zipline!

There was also a rope swing behind our cabin, which swung way out over a (dried up) creek...Kaine absolutely LOVED the rope swing!

And Nathan took our girls on it, and they loved it, too!

Well, I guess I'm not sure if Daisy loved it...she pretty much just had a stunned look on her face the whole time:)

What a great bonding weekend! 

On Sunday and Tuesday we took day trips an hour away to Higgins Lake Beach...it was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL lake.  It was awesome because it was just knee deep for so far out---almost as far out as you can see in this picture.  So it was perfect for kids!  And perfect for tackle football (which Nathan is still sore from!)

Daisy loved the sand, and she kept getting closer to the water...

and then it started washing up onto her!  It was pretty cold:)  She was surprised at first...

But then she ended up loving the water, too:)  Notice she is reaching into her snack container for goldfish crackers in this picture...and yes, her hands were covered in wet sand:)  Yum!

It was great to see our kids making new friends...

Some of the students brought some cool hammocks...

"bumper tubes"...

The Dean of Students (Dan) is so great with kids!  He built a fire for Kaine and his friends, and Kaine was seriously entertained by that fire for at least 2 hours!  He just kept putting leaves and sticks in it to "keep in going"...and Dan faithfully hung out with the kiddos the whole time.

Kaine and Savannah trying to trap a chipmunk:)

What a great time!  Thanks NTBI...we really appreciated our time away with some great brothers and sisters in Christ!