Good stuff

My last post was honest, but a little bit of a Debbie Downer. So I thought I'd be sure to highlight some great things happening over the last couple of weeks. First, Carson started his last year of preschool. We weren't in the classroom or with the teacher we had anticipated, and most of Carson's classmates are in a different room this year. But he has taken it all in stride and his teacher says his first two days were stellar. School seems to be a great place for Carson to thrive by being stimulated socially, academically and physically.


Here's Daddy and Carson checking out the new classroom. At the end of the first day, he said this new room is "The Greatest!"

Here is Carson and his teacher, Mrs. W. I love the way he's looking at her! Over the Labor Day holiday we had an amazing weekend at Camp Winema. We were anticipating moderate to lousy weather, so you can imagine our sheer delight when we had THIS:

Family Camp for four days is almost always fun, but when the weather is sunny, it opens up multiple options for activities and is just the icing on the cake. In fact, I wanted to enjoy the time and the moments, so often I just left the camera in the cabin. But here's a few of the things we did to keep busy: we took our first family canoe trip! (Thanks to the Johnsons for taking and sending me these pics!)

At this camp we have morning and evening sessions, and this year I had the treat of helping to lead worship with my brother and sis-in-law.
And just to show that I have a sense of humor, here's a pic that Bill took from the tech screens. Josh the lead guitarist is standing directly behind me and makes me look like I have a mullet. Yes, yes. Haha.

Here's some rehearsal time with the babies. They were both wondering why Mike stopped playing.

When the weather is like this, our kids can stay on the beach for hours! They get soaked and muddy and sandy and could not be more thrilled about it.

This was the first year Carson did the BIG water slide all by himself!

After a long day, we're all dirty and tired. And some of us are perfecting the Princess Pout.

Have you ever noticed how good food tastes when you are eating it outside? Here's some sleepy heads having chocolate chip pancakes in the morning.

My sis-in-law Michelle has a tradition of making elephant ears out of frozen rolls and oil on a camp stove. They are TO DIE FOR! Well, Uncle Chad decided to take it up a notch. This is his fried S'more/elephant ear:

I think it was good.

This is what it's all about! We were so busy and having so much fun that the kids got along great all weekend. Carson barely made a behavioral misstep all weekend. Grateful for special family times like this that remind me of how blessed I am!