Labor Day family camp PICTURES! :)

I finally had some time to upload a ton of pictures to share with you all. 

 

Andrew, Lauretta and I went over to the Crystal Springs campground Friday morning to help with the prep. work for camp.  Andrew helped several people with re-shingling one of the buildings there and part of the chapel too.

 

Lauretta and I helped some other young ladies with weeding flower beds (deadheading marigolds too) and paths and later I helped 5 other young ladies with cleaning the 12 showers/sinks/toilets in the girl's dorm bathrooms.  We had fun!  Here Hannah K. (Glory and Grace blog on my sidebar) and I were relaxing while waiting for the 15 minutes to be up for the chemical we sprayed in the showers...  :)  We look like we don't like each other with how far apart we're sitting, but we really do!  A certain somebody had just been sitting between us when she got up to get this silly picture and we were too tired to move.  Ha ha ha...

That afternoon, several people had fun on the lake.  I went out in a paddle-boat with Lauretta and a little girl we picked up along the way.  It was harder to steer that thing than I'd thought it would be! 

Later that evening was game night (until 11:00pm when the gym opened up for volleyball).  I don't think there was one night that we got to bed before 1:00am.  Then, in the mornings, Lauretta and I had Miranda over for a fun time of doing hair/makeup.  :)  The room we had was just perfect for us as it had 2 separate rooms.  That way, Andrew had his own room and Lauretta and I shared a room that first night and we just added people when more of my family came. 

Mr. Gregg Harris ( http://www.nobleinstitute.org/#/welcome) was the main-speaker at camp this time.  His messages were so encouraging and they really made you think about where your life is headed.  My mom, Lauretta and I had a good talk with Mr. Harris on Sunday about some issues that were on our hearts.  He seems to be a very wise man.  Sadly, I don't have a picture of him speaking, as I left my camera in our room during the meetings.

Saturday morning, my parents and Jacob arrived---just in time for brunch! 

That afternoon, there was some time for soft-ball (Dad and Andrew played) and volleyball and more water fun too.  Lauretta and I had a ride behind Kris S. on his Jet-ski.  We were on a 2-person tube and we got quite the ride!  I was pretty sure we were going to be flying out of that thing a couple of times, but we never did.  We did a lot of jumping over the waves from the Jet-ski though!  :)  My dad and Lauretta and I also went in a canoe around the island that's in the lake.   Next, several of us went down the water-slide a few times.  That was a lot of fun!!

Relaxing, visiting with friends, and watching soft-ball from the shade of the big tree...

Friends...  Maria U, Hannah K, and Anna U.

Volleyball is a forever favorite game at camp!  Saturday night, there was some time for rollerskating in the gym too, but my pictures of that turned out all blurry as it was a lot darker in the room at that time and people were moving so quickly.  :)

 

In the dining area...

This was during the game night.  During meals, there was another whole row of tables in that big open space.  Everyone took turns helping with clean-up.  The moms mostly got a break from clean-up though, so that was nice for them to have a break...

Some people were brave and went water skiing...

Sunday afternoon was loads of fun!  There were about 20 teams and each team had a little under 2 hours to build and decorate a cardboard boat that would need to hold 2 people.  Each team was supplied with one utility knife and 2 rolls of packing tape. 

A nice resting place...

We were paired up with another smaller-sized family.  Here the moms in our team are discussing ideas for a Bible verse to put on the boat...

Selecting cardboard...

Trying to figure out what to do!  Mainly, the guys worked on building the boat...

...and the girls worked on decorating it.

Sadly, my dad was not with us this day (he did chores/hauled water to the cows Sunday/Monday so  the rest of us could stay the rest of the time!). 

We just barely finished our boat in time!

It was fun, once we got started and had some ideas...

Making a cardboard oar...

Finishing touches...  Our boat was named "Victory".  It had a horse-head on the front of it and streamers in the corners.  We had part of the Bible verse, Proverbs 21:31 on our "Flag":

"The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance and victory are of the Lord."

 

Hauling our little ship to the water...

We girls made some armor and helmets for Andrew and Barak (oh, and a sword) who were our designated boat rowers...

Here they are!  They were both supposed to keep a straight face.  Barak just couldn't do it.  ;)

There were so many creative boats!!!

This boat (the U. family's) and one other (the Geiger's) held up the best and won both races...

All the team-leaders getting instructions for the great race...  See all the oars lined up on the sand?

Can you find my friend Miranda in this picture?  Hint:  She's right by her sister.  ;)

I liked the M.  family's design!

Everyone getting ready...

Our team is in the middle here (with Jacob taking his shoes off)...

These next few pictures were taken by a friend.  If you look closely, you can see some of us...

This is back to when we were designing "Victory"...

Getting ready to launch the boats...

We were apparently a little too eager to give our 2 guys a good start and gave them a huge push before Andrew was fully seated.  This apparently caused him to loose balance and our lovely boat quickly tipped over!  oops...  Awww, well, it was fun anyway.  They were able to get back in the soggy boat and stayed up for a while longer.

See our boat?

After a few of the boats crossed the finish line, the Sip family said everyone was supposed to swamp the other's boats (basically, get the other boats down by throwing water in them or by whatever means you wanted to try). 

That was pretty funny to watch...

My mom...

Others watching/cheering...

Once somebody's boat was down, they went back out and helped pull cardboard out of the lake...

That's a lot of soggy cardboard!

Andrew...

Lauretta....

Mom and Jacob...  :)

After all the cardboard was loaded into a truck, there was a baptism for 3 young ladies...

A special time!

Lauretta enjoyed her time at camp and got to be good friends with several of my friends.  :)  Here she and Anna U. are heading for the water to go tubing together on the more difficult tube!  This was Monday (Labor Day)...

I, meanwhile, went for another peaceful canoe ride with Tiera M..  Andrew is also getting ready for a canoe ride here...

Somebody gave us a helping launch (I don't even know who he was, but everyone is so nice and helpful there)...

That's Tiera and I going by the people waiting for rides behind the Jet-ski.  (See Lauretta and Anna?)

Canoeing was SO much fun!  I'd never gone before this camp...although the boys and I used to row in inflatable rafts in the creek when we lived at our other farm.

Of course, we had to make sure to stay away from these people while in our little boat, as we didn't want to get "Swamped"!

My mom really wanted to go canoeing too, so Lauretta and I took her for a long ride around the island and then off to a side of the lake that we'd never been to before. 

That's the island in the background of this picture...  It's pretty large.  Andrew and our friend, Nate explored the island and found some chokecherries on it.  :)

Later, I snapped this picture of my mom and Mrs. U, Mrs. T, and Mrs. M.---enjoying a good talk in the shade!

This looked hard to do...?

Mrs. Sip and Mrs. K. went for a paddle-boat ride.  :)  That's Andrew and Nate U. in the water...

A cute little fella...

Relaxing...

Oh, here's a picture of the water slide.  It's actually larger than what you can see, as there are more twists and turns you can't see in this picture.  :)

Of course, the ping-pong table was always super busy too.  (That's me watching the action early Monday morning--half asleep like.)

 

 

Once again, we say thank you to the Sip family for hosting such a great get-together!!!  May God bless you all tremendously!~

 

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Today was a babysitting day for me and I took the 3 young people to the Kintyre park for a couple hours when Amelia got home from school. 

 

The guys worked on the backhoe attachment and my mom had a yummy supper on its way to being ready when I got home, so it was a good day.  My dad also did another grain-cleaning job this morning.