camp

Saturday we got under way by 715am to begin our 12 hours of driving. The kids did surprisingly well, especially Noah. Of course, the DVD player helped a lot. We stayed that night at Dan and Susanna Fongs' house in Northbrook, IL, who have always been so hospitalible to us, letting us use two of the boys' rooms (out of their four boys). Their house was probably the most fun for Noah b/c of their poodle mix dog and the Thomas trains...he didn't want to leave.

Sunday we went to Lakeside church, where Terry interned during grad school. We took two of the Fong boys with us and they were so kind as to keep putting Evie's pacifier back in her mouth since she hates her car seat. Once, she launched it back at them and hit the back of the seat. Funny. After packing up again, we headed up to Lake Geneva, WI, for camp.

I was a little concerned about what I would do the whole week since Terry was going to be busy a lot of the time. I forgot about adult camp and didn't know about pre-ChiKo for Noah. This camp is the coolest. This church goes up as a family unit and has something for everyone. Pre-ChiKo for 2-2nd graders. ChiKo is for 3rd-8th graders. Teen Camp for high school and Adult Camp for the parents. We all ate together in our seperate groups and it was so nice not having to prepare any meals or clean up afterwards due to the family style meals.

The REALLY cool thing about camp is that the church has been doing it for 60 years. Yeah.

Anyway, we had such a grrrrrreat time. I loved it. Here is a photo summary.

Evie sleeping the first day in the car.

The view from the back.

Mommy and son

Fun with Daddy

Traditional ChiKo cardboard boat races

Terry before the team 3K run.

Evie enjoying the shade during the race.

Run Terry run!

Mrs. Sugihara holding Evie while I take pics of the race.


Terry preparing outside our room for his lessons.

Me climbing. For some reason the people watching thought it was surprising that I was climbing 4 months post baby. =) I wasn't.

Terry's turn.

Horse shoe games.

Evie didn't appreciate not being involved in the game. Sorry girl, flying metal isn't your thing.

Final night. The Teen Camp used these inner tubes to smash into and knock one another off their feet.

We're watching the video for ChiKo from the week.

The week end baptism.

Noah stepped in mud.

So that's it for camp. =)

home

We came home Thursday evening (10pm!!!) after 2 solid weeks of travel - well, only 2 days short anyway. My house smells like someone else's (you know how that is, right? different house smells? well, it happened). My drains smell icky. And I'm sick. Here're some views of what it was like.

My entry way:

Here is the larger girl doing her sucking lips and drooling thing.

The crazy lawn...untouched for 2 weeks. The Chem Lawn guys said that it needed to be mowed before they could spray. Yeah.

All the papers.

One thing I did get done right away that morning: the dishes.

mess of things last post

Today is almost done. The packing is pretty much finished, although I keep thinking I've forgotten a bunch of stuff, which I probably have. Man, there is a lot that goes into packing a family for a ten day road trip, especially when they're so young!

Today was crazy. Mow the lawn, do laundry, go to Pizza Hut w/Noah and Evie and Terry's aunt, uncle and cousins and kids (Kellen with the heart defect), go to the park for the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new playground equipment, come home to finish laundry and pack, pack, pack, go to Pamida for diapers and more undies (b/c yes, I'm going to attempt to keep up the potty training while we're gone...we'll see how it goes, hence diapers), make 2 dinners - one pizza for us and one for a woman at church, Andrea, who just had a baby almost a week ago -, take garage sale stuff to Terry's aunt's, buy some stuff, pack, watch Oprah (never happens), blog, pack car, go to bed, leave at 7am for a 10-12hr drive to Chicago to meet the Fongs! "Oh my goodness" as Noah would say, after his mommy of course.

So on with today's crazy pictures!

Since I've had so much company, I had put away Evie's "toy" thing b/c there was always someone to hold her. I just got it out again and found that she can totally grab things now! She's 4 months now - or will be on the 31st!

Here are some shots from the ribbon cutting ceremony. Of course they let the kids play afterwards (Noah didn't like having to wait since it was obvious that the fence that had prevented him from getting in there was gone now). Perhaps we'll have our picture in the paper again next week!

That's Terry's cousin's husband, Tim, helping Noah down the slide - it was HOT.

Thought I'd show off some more of my mom's handiwork since she's so talented like that. This is an ornament she made at Christmas and I put on Evie's door handle to remind me of the little girl that was coming. I think it's sooo cute.

Here is a shower robe mom crocheted for Evie. It won't fit till she's like a year but it's soooo cute also. I might have to put her in it for everything but after baths since it's so nice.

Some shots of her room since I don't have any on here (only some on facebook before it was finished). The colors are pink and green if you can't tell.

My mom and sister found the perfect bedding for the room. I love it!

camp

If you haven't been able to tell, this month has been crazy for Terry...and the rest of us. It began with Terry going to Salt Lake City for the E-Free Challenge Conference. Then a week off. Then Junior Challenge Camp, which was last week. Last weekend was Hills Alive. This Saturday we go to Chicago and Lake Geneva for the camp that Terry's the speaker for - well, for the 3rd-8th graders. It's the church he was involved with while he was at Moody, where he interned for grad school. Anyway, it's great and we'll have fun. I'm getting all my posts out of the way before we go. =)

Yes, so last week Terry was at Camp Maranatha. He was pretty much supervising (and of course, helping) the high school leaders that he brought. The high schoolers were cabin leaders for junior highers. Every day, me, the kids, my mom and sister visited Terry in the afternoon after swimming lessons. He had a good week but I can't really recall any cool stories...probably b/c he didn't have time to tell me and by now he's forgotten. =) So here are some pictures.

Terry yelling at the kids on the first day.

Kids playing a game w/the big ball after the leaders had popped it already - see the duct tape?
He also led the worship w/our high schoolers - Emily, Chelsea, Levi and Chris.

Here's the ball again, quite a bit deflated. Terry's practicing in the back.

Sharing some thoughts.

Smoring it up.

Keeping the order for a 4-way tug of war game.

Participating with the speaker, Out of the Box. He does "magic" tricks.

this evening

This evening I took Noah to get his hair cut professionally for the first time. I warned Mary, who goes to our church, that he really freaks out - she had reassured me that she'd seen it all and it would be fine. I thought maybe, just maybe, he could get through it since it wasn't me that was doing operating the clippers. Didn't happen. He did all the usuals, "Get down! Help me! NO!" Yeah, it was a screaming fest and there were other ladies in there. I wasn't that embarrassed b/c it just seemed like they thought it was funny and more felt sorry for me. I thought it was funny since I wasn't the one doing it. Mary did very well though. She worked really fast and tried her darndest to distract him, although he just wasn't having that.

So, his hair looks great. Take a look. They're all watching Terry play Lord of the Rings on our PS2... Evie's even contributing.

Man, his feet are big.

froggy

My crafty mom made this adorable hat for Evie last week. How cute! It's a little big right now but it'll be perfect for this winter.

swimming lessons

One of the things we did last week while Terry was at camp was take Noah to his first swimming lessons! My friend Kristin, who has been a lifeguard for quite some time, taught the class. It was just an introductory class so it was a little basic for Noah. It was meant to get your baby used to the water. I think Noah was the biggest and probably oldest there. But we still had a lot of fun.

On the last day of class a photographer from our paper came. She asked us all of our names and our kids' ages and took pictures during class. Yeah, thank goodness I had just got a top that fit my nursing style, if you know what I mean - necessarily more modest. Anyway, this first photo is the spread they did in the paper this week! I thought it would just be a little blurb with like one photo but here we all are. Kristin is in the top left picture w/her son Mavrix. Me and Noah are in the highlighted one! Yeah, pretty cool.

Here's Noah kicking his legs like any good swimmer should.

Here I am attempting to get Noah to push off from the side. He did pretty good most of the time.

Pulling him back after his push off.

Here is him jumping to me!