Camping

So what does one do after coming off a busy few weeks?  Pack up and go camping!  Perhaps this was the wrong decision, but there were still some fun memories made.

We tried to camp at Maquoketa Caves, but that campground was full.  We ended up at another site in the city of Maquoketa.  It did not have quite the same camping feel that we are used to, but we made the best of it.

 Since I was packing on short notice we did the best we had for food too.  One night we had smore cones instead of real smores.  Besides a few burn spots on the cone, it worked pretty good.  Timothy was tired out the first night and just wanted to have tent time after dinner.  Troy and Teresa had some fun time together exploring a nearby pond.

 The next day we went to explore the caves.  We had a good time hiking around and seeing many of the caves.

 After lunch we headed to an Interpretive center not too far away.  It was a great place and we stayed for 3 hours!  The exhibits were interesting.  The pet snakes were fun to hold.  And the pond was very interesting to explore.  This was a definite highlight of the day.

By late afternoon we were all tired and there was a threat of rain.  We decided to skip the second night and head home.  But we did have a fire and our dinner at the campsite before packing up.  Teresa was sad to be at home.  It was a good choice, however, as some pretty heavy rain came through that night.  

I am glad we went camping, even though we were all tired.  It is fun to be away and make memories together.  And now it is nice to be home for awhile!

Family Visits

The last few weeks have been very busy.  We finished up VBS and then went right off to a weekend of family camp.  We were home for one night and then it was off on a week and a half adventure to visit family.

 Our first stop on the 4th of July was my parents' house.  We did not do much by way of celebrating, but we were very festive in our outfits!

 My mom was pretty sick when we visited, so I tried to do what I could to help her out and cheer her up.  The kids were signed up for day camp with their cousins, but they both caught colds and were a bit run down.  They went the first day which allowed Troy and I to have a lunch date.  They skipped the second day of camp--also the day Troy and I planned to go to a Twins game.  So that became a father son game instead and I stayed home with Teresa.

 The kids did rally to go the third day and I was able to meet a good friend for lunch.  And that night we had the family gathering with all the cousins.  The dinner was great--Troy's favorite foods to honor his 40th birthday and lots of other celebrations to note too.  The kids all had a wonderful time playing together.

 My mom did improve a little by the time we left.  I am glad that we were at least able to bring her some joy.

 Then it was onto Park River.  We celebrated Teresa's birthday a little early up there.  She was pretty excited.

 We had some fun times and continued some traditions--like cookies on the porch.  Timothy loves to dig out all the transformers and Teresa had fun building forts.  We also went to the Park River pool for the first time and had a blast.

 We spent some time at the school playground and Timothy and Teresa were Ninja warriors.  At one point they had all of us climbing around the playground--even Grandma Judy!

 We made a day trip into Grand Forks to see some friends.  It was fun to see friends for awhile, but we find Grand Forks feels less and less like home.

 It was a nice relaxing time with Grandma Judy and we had great weather for the most part too.  Lots of time to be outside and enjoy family time together.  Our last stop was at Susie's house.  Timothy and Teresa feel right at home there too.  They like the blow up bed and discovering what new toys there are to play with.  We had a fun playtime at a nearby park too.

It was a wonderful chance to visit family.  It never feels like quite enough time, but we are thankful for the opportunities we have!

Baptism day!

Timothy has had all kinds of fun days for his baptism day.  We have been camping, in Colorado, and this week the morning was spent at VBS.  In the afternoon we did some waterplay with Timothy, Teresa, Anna and Sophie.  We played some water relay games, did water balloons, played in the little pool and used water guns.  It was a fun time, but after a bit Timothy was done with water as it was not really, really hot and the water was cold.

To make it a special day for him, he got to choose what he wanted for dinner--pizza.  And we invited some of his neighborhood friends over for root beer floats. A game of kickball naturally followed the treat.  In honor of his baptism, the game became sprinkler kickball so everyone was sprinkled with the waters of baptism!