The birthday girl!

It was the day Teresa was so excited for.  And is probably sad that it is over, but I think it is safe to say it was a great day from beginning to end.  I though she would be up extra early, but she slept in until after 7am.  She was pleased to see the decorations and messages of birthday wishes around the house.  We had picture albums out to look back on her birth and when she was younger.  She decided to spread the gift opening out through out the day.  She had several smaller gifts, so that worked well.

We had church this morning, and she really hoped to be sung too.  I convinced her to have some birthday face painting, so that others could tell it was her birthday.  And Troy did get everyone to sing to her after the service.  She opened a few more gifts before lunch and then spent time using her new colored pencils.


Part of today's celebration was going to see Despicable Me 3 with Pastor Paul and his wife Lorice.  It was fun to have a special event for the afternoon and we all enjoyed the movie!  Apparently they did a funny pose while I was in line for popcorn!


After the movie there was time for some fun with friends.  Anna and Teresa were matching in their puppy dresses.  Anna surprised Teresa with a little puppy keychain too.



Teresa picked the dinner menu--Casey's sausage pizza, Fincils sweet corn and cinnamon pears.  Yum.  Troy and Timothy reminded Teresa of her age by being the number 7 right before dinner!

Since the friend birthday party will be next weekend with the cake and all that, Teresa also chose a treat for tonight.  Cookie ice cream sandwiches.  I even got a candle to stand up in the whip cream!

To make the night a little extra fun, we surprised Teresa with one last gift after dinner and she had to go on a scavenger hunt to find it.  She had lots of fun following the clues that Troy wrote out.  She found her puppy wall stickers under the guest bed.



We are so blessed with our beautiful girl.  She is full of joy and love.  She has a generous heart and lots of smiles.  Her love of animals, especially dogs, remains very strong.  She loves books and reading, art and drawing.  She likes time with friends, and some time alone.  She is creative and imaginative and still looks up to her brother.  Happy Birthday Teresa!

Family Camp

After our fun times in ND, we set out towards family camp.  Troy respected my request to break up the long drive with an overnight.  We stopped at Dickinson, ND and Troy wowed the kids with a "waterpark" hotel.  The pool had a slide and the floating discs.  They swam before dinner, after dinner and after breakfast!  I am pretty sure we got our money's worth out of that pool!

The next day we made a little side trip to painted canyon in the North Dakota badlands.  This area has lots of fond memories for Troy after working in Medora for a summer.  We started a 1 mile nature hike, but made it only half way.  Some fellow hikers warned us of a rattlesnake farther down the path.  That scared 3 of the 4 of us (although I attempted to not show my concern!).  So we turned around and did not complete the loop.

Painted Canyon

We arrived at Outlaw ranch late afternoon, met our counselor Colin and got settled in our room.  It was a bit overwhelming being there and not really knowing how things worked or what to expect.  But the first thing on the agenda was dinner and as the pic shows, the kids were pretty happy from the start.

Timothy clicked right away with Colin and wanted to spend every moment he could with him.  The kids both were also excited about gaga ball.  Any free minute at camp was usually spent at the gaga ball pit!


Our mornings were spent getting up for breakfast, doing chores, going to Round  up (worship), going to Bible study and doing an activity.  The chores varied day to day.  One day we were the KP crew at each meal.  One day we helped clean the bathhouses for the cabins, and one day we helped plan worship with our housing group.  We were a part of the lodge.  Others stayed in cabins.

After worshiping together the kids went off with their age groups for Bible study and an activity.  The activities included horse back riding, music, crafts and games.  Timothy and Teresa were in different groups and both of them made friends in their groups.  During this time the adults went off to Bible study led by Troy!  He did a great job!

The afternoons were ours to enjoy.  We could sign up for camp activities, or go off on our won.  Mostly, we went off on our own.  The first day we went to the Reptile Gardens.  We saw lots and lots of snakes.  We did get to see a rattlesnake too!  There were also tortoises and reptiles to see too.  The kids enjoyed it quite a bit.


Each night at camp had sort of a theme activity or dinner.  Monday night was the BBQ/western night.  It rained on us and shooed us inside.  But there was a beautiful rainbow afterwards.  That evening, there was also a carnival for the kids.  Other nights there was a mystery clue challenge for the kids, an adults only dinner (big kids even got to camp out that night--including Timothy!), and a talent show.

In Music time, the kids spent time with the musician in residence and wrote a song with their group.  Teresa's group sang about all the fun things to do at Outlaw Ranch.  Timothy's song was about the Bunnies of the Night!

Our second afternoon, we went on the wildlife loop in Custer State Park.  We saw bison, prairie dogs, antelope, donkeys and deer.  It was pretty fun.  The bison herd was right next to the road and caused a traffic jam, so we got some very good and long looks at them!

Fire tower look out in Custer state Park.

The donkeys were pretty tame!

Teresa loved the rocky path up to our lodge.  She named it Geode mountain because of all the sparkly rocks on it.  The kids preformed their songs right before lunch each day.

Our last two afternoons, we ended up at Legion Lake in Custer State Park.  It was really hot and the cool water felt very good.  The second afternoon another family from camp joined us and the kids had a blast playing.  Timothy did sign up for one camp activity too--the ropes challenge course.

Timothy with two of his favorite people at camp--Hudson and Colin

Our last morning at family camp.

A view of our lodge before we left.

Our experience at camp was wonderful.  I was not sure how I would like it, but it was great.  The kids loved it so much and are hoping we can go back next year.  I don't know if that will happen, but we will definitely cherish our week at camp!!

A visit at Grandma's!

We just returned from our summer travels.  Our first stop was MN and a quick visit with Aunt Susie.  We arrived at her home before she was home from work, so the kids found ways to amuse themselves!  They played with toys, read books and played Pie Face.  That game was pretty much the hit of the afternoon and probably the evening too!  We had a great dinner with Susie and visit with her in the evening, but it is hard to top whip cream on your face!!


Our next stop was ND to see Grandma Judy.  We made a brief stop in Grand Forks to see our old house.  It looks pretty much the same.  Teresa does not remember much. Timothy remembered a few things.

At Grandma's the kids were quickly into swimsuits and enjoying the little pools in the yard.  We also checked out books from the library.  Our first full day there was a little cool and rainy.  (Troy was busy with some online Greek stuff, and I was preoccupied with the weather back home and whether our basement would stay dry.)  But in the afternoon we journeyed out to Odalen to see where the original Troftgrubens are buried.  The kids were intrigued to see their last name so often!  We also celebrated Teresa's birthday.  She had several scavenger hunts to find her presents.  And after dinner we shared some blizzards--she did not get all that ice cream herself!



Another favorite activity of the week was zooming around town in the golf cart.  Grandma borrowed one while we were there and the kids could have spent all day cruising around town!!  Equally fun was a tour of the town cemetery where Judy does the flowers.  She gave us a tour in the gator (little truck) and of course the kids loved zooming around in that too!



There was eye spy and cookies on the porch as usual too.  We also made another trip to the town pool.  It was not warm enough for me, but the kids had lots of fun all afternoon.

It was a great week and there were some sad kids when it was time to leave.  We made many great memories and are glad for the chance to get all the way up to ND!

Chicago fun!

Chicago was our destination for a long weekend.  We went to some neat places, but I have to say, the favorite part of this trip might have been the hotel pools.  Our kids have turned into little fish and they could hardly get enough of the water!

We arrived for dinner and did a rerun of last year eating at Lou Malati's pizza for some Chicago style deep dish.  # of us loved it and one tolerated some way too cheesy pizza.  We found our way to our first hotel and it was right too the pool.  Timothy and Teresa loved jumping in and diving for dive sticks.


The next day we headed into the city to explore the field museum.  This is where Sue the T-Rex lives.  We also saw all kinds of neat animal displays.  There were an awful lot of big cats on display and I think we have a picture of Teresa with every single one!  We had fun learning and enjoyed a 3D movie about the Galapagos Islands.  It was a nice day and the kids enjoyed playing by the edge of Lake Michigan as we walked back to the car.  For dinner we walked to a fun place called the BBQ Patio.  We had yummy hot dogs and hamburgers.

. 


The evening was of course filled with more swimming.  Troy got into the action a bit more than me at the first pool!  On the second day we headed to the Lincoln Park Zoo.  It was a hot day and that had us dragging some, but we enjoyed seeing many of the animals.  The reptile house was a highlight and of course seeing some of the big cats.


We found our way to our second hotel.  This one was a bit more plush--bigger room, warmer pool, breakfast and evening appetizers.  I was more into the swimming at this second place.  We spent a good deal of time in the pool once again.

On our third day we went into the city again and went to the Alder Planetarium.  Some highlights there were the two shows we got t o watch about space and the children's play area.  We all loved walking through the room that simulated walking in space.  We had a fun picnic lunch outside overlooking Lake Michigan.  We were worn out by the afternoon and returned to our hotel for some more swimming!  We had a picnic in our hotel the last two nights and made some fun memories!



On our way out of town we stopped at a natural play area.  There were neat climbing structures and equipment for open ended play.  There was even a little stream to wade in.  Eventually we were on our way home.

We celebrated the 4th of July at home with fireworks on TV.  Then as we put the kids to bed, there were fireworks in our neighborhood.  This was the first real live fireworks the kids have seen.  The loved it!  It was a wonderful trip and wonderful family memories!!