Mr. Miles turns 2 (and we get to play a little)

One of the joys of living in MI is getting to attend celebrations with my side of the family. A couple of weeks ago my nephew, Miles, turned 2. Here are some shots from that day.

(Miles with his truck cake)

And since we were already on the road that weekend, the Ronkettos invited up to their lake house for a day on the water. It was incredibly luxurious and relaxing. Thanks Rons for a great 24hrs!

We all got to ride on the boat, and by all I mean 6 adults and 3 dogs.

We got to wakeboard.

And Jay learned how to wake-surf.

Maybe. . . 

Sort Of. . . 

Ok - not really.

And to cap off this post, it will end the way all good posts should end, with a pic of Chango-Bongo.

Final Days of Summer

Okay, I am almost all caught up. The summer ended in a flurry.

We survived a few storms.

Witnessed some friends and staff members get married.

Continued working our crazy paced jobs and then all of a sudden . . . 

it was done.

We could rest, and so rest we did. 

We drove up North for a week of relaxation and sleep at my parents' house on Lake Michigan.

There we slept a lot, read, played games and ventured on a few occasions. 

We were able to see a spectacular Lake Michigan Sunset.

We went on a couple of day hikes. One to the Sand Dunes, and another to Light House Point.

(it was just a little bit windy that day)

(This one is from the Scenic Drive - Big Glen Lake is considered one of the top 10 most beautiful lakes in the world)

And then after that week it was back to work, but at a much healthier pace.

Only at Laura's wedding. . .

would the following event happen. . .

Laura Got MARRIED!

Not much to say about this.

It was a beautiful, fun, meaningful, and unique wedding.

I am so happy for you little sister.
(The Rehersal . . . It rained a little)

The Bachelorette Party

(the only boy allowed)

The BIG Day.

(one classy bride)

(a warning to all future brides - EAT!)

(In my personal opinion the coolest couple at the wedding)

(Ok, they may have been the coolest couple . . . )

(Jay did it)

(Wow, we looked a lot better before we danced for a couple hours)

(How we felt at midnight when the party wasn't over and we realized we had to be up at 5:30am for work:(

Enjoy!

Summer Catch Up - Our jobs

Jay and I were blessed to work for SpringHill Camps this summer. We were able to be part of sharing the Gospel with over 4,800 campers through the Day Camp program. Here are some highlights from our Urban week that we did in Downtown Detroit.

This particular week was not without its own particular set of difficulties. We worked in one of the most deserted and down-hearted neighborhoods I have ever seen, but the kids were so grateful.

We were centered in Carstens Elementary School. The picture below was my office in the basement gym. We knew the week was going to be rough when summer school at this un-air-conditioned building was closed due to the heat index being so high. But Day Camp went on.

Relief came when the Detroit Fire Department stopped by to help cool us down:)

Because of the threat of theft in the location of the school, we had to remove all of our portable activities every night. In the removing of our wall one night, the portable climbing wall decided it wanted to ride inside of the Expedition that was pulling it.

Another night we were tearing down the giant metal poles of the zipline in the lightning storm, to make it inside just in time to see the office/storage room flooding.

On our final night we lost the keys to the Budget truck that was hauling the majority of the equipment, so for a night we had to abandon it in a church parking lot.

But all of these disasters were not enough to prevent God from moving. Here is Jay leading a campfire song at our closing rally where we were able to hear from the kid's mouths how God worked in their lives during the week.

This last picture has no purpose, and the explanation would take to long, so all I will say is this happened on a weekly basis:

More later!

Summer Catch up - Vol. 1

Ok, here is the recap I promised. Let's take it back a couple of months and reminisce. . .


For Jay and I work ended in Nebraska. For Jay that meant Track concluding along with teaching. He had a couple of his athletes go to states and he was able to honor his team at an athletic banquet.

For me, I had to say good-bye to my little friends at work. Months later, I am still thinking about them and praying for their new school year.

Once work was done, Jay had to stay in Nebraska to help finish up his work at Parkview and that left me to drive this

across the country to Michigan. Yeah, I know. I am pretty cool.

I then headed up to Evart to meet my husband to begin training. We were a little late and had to jump right in since our staff had shown up a couple of days before.

(I know this picture doesn't really show it, but we worked very hard for those couple of weeks)

On top of our jobs, this was also the summer of Laura. My baby sister got married this summer, and showers and wedding prep helped to fill my days off.

Our first week of camp was in Fort Wayne (aka "Fort Fun") Indiana. The week was remarkably without incident until the last day. Because of transportation logistics, we ended up putting a trailer hitch on our Vibe to haul our Eurobungy. On our way back from Ft. Fun, we ended up in the middle of tornado warning/severe thunderstorm figuring out how to hook up the bungy to the car.

We were drenched, cold and ready to be home.

Well, I think that concludes the month of June. More stories, pictures and videos to come:)