Zipline!

Our Laborday Vacation to Camp Barakel!

On Fri. evening we arrived at camp for our family's 2nd. family retreat at camp Barakel! After unpacking the first thing that we did was go to the Zipline. It was our first time going on it, unfortunately the boys could not go on it because it is only for ages 12 and up. I have some pictures of the zipline.


We are waiting for the people to come help us get our gear on.



Here we are getting rigged up in equipment. The workers were very nice. One we saw so much that she said, " I have been seeing you so much that I think I should learn your names!"



It looks very high especially when it is time to jump! 1,2,3, jump! It is scary the first time, but then you gain trust in the equipment!

After you are off the platform it is a nice smooth ride until you reach the end, and they are suppose to catch your ropes so you don't slide away again! Quite often people would not get caught and they would get stuck in the middle for a little while!

Friday night there was a beautiful moon! We had to go take a picture of it!

Another part of Camp that we enjoy is Boating! Noela LOVED the boats!

We won the family scavenger hunt. One of the things that we were suppose to get was a bluegill! None of us could catch one, so dad went out to show us that it wasn't that hard! It was a small one, but it worked for the scavenger hunt! When we showed this picture to the man that was judging the scavenger hunt he said, "I hope it didn't go any farther!"

Happy Birthday Haley!!!!!!!!

I am glad that you were able to come last night to celebrate Haley's speical day!!

Even thought we did not surprise her much, it was great!


Marie, Mandie, Haley and I deccorated the board. Thank's Marie for helping me with the banner!

Johnna and Madalyne were the first to get into the pool and they stayed in the longest! It was only 65 degrees, but we still had fun! Most of us ended up getting in! Annika, Olivia, Alexis, and I think some other girls, (but I don't remember who), said that they would get in if I did, so, in I went followed by the girls! It was a blast!!!!!!!

After swimming we all went in the house and took turns getting changed into some warmer clothes! We went down stairs to have the meeting! Mom brought us all some warm blankets to wrap up in, everyone shared! I think that the meeting went great! Don't you?

Thank you for doing the skit and playing your guitar Mandie! Do any of you play instruments? If you do e-mail me, we would love to add some different things to our "band".

I thought that it was very nice that Leah asked Faith (her sister) and Silas to come sit with her!

Haley LOVED all of the presents! We have been going through them over, and over again, saying who brought it, how lovley it is, and many other things! There is only one present that we don't know who brought it. It is a book mark that says, "A friend loves at all times" let me know if you brought it, so that Haley can send a thank you note! You all gave her so many beautiful presents, that "I don't think I will have to get one for her myself" Smile!

A lot of people brought snacks this time! So, thank you to all!

We all had fun pulling people up our contraption on the swing set!

Witnessing story!

We did a chalk art class at our house a few weeks ago. We bought the home study DVDs from Eternity Arts and invited some friends over to have a class together. Building the practice easels was a good family project!

I have a fun witnessing story that I thought you would like to hear!

The day before, we needed the black light for the chalk art class that we were doing. I went with Dad, Mom, Vince, and Noela to the store to get the supplies that we needed for black light the next day. We were also going to Meijers to buy Vince a swimming mask.

As we drove into the parking lot I noticed a bus stop with a group of very sad, quiet looking people waiting for the bus to come. I said, "We should go to that bus stop." Dad answered, "Yes we should witness to those people, see how sad they look." Almost nobody was talking, they all looked very sad, everyone was just sitting there with nothing to do. We drove the van to the front of the store and dropped Vince and Dad off to buy the mask. Then Mom drove me over to the bus stop. I said, " Are we really going to do it?" She answered, " Let's just think, first we should pray for them." So we prayed, then Mom said, " Get at least 10 $1.00 dollar bills, and put one in each track. When you hand the person the track say, ' Here is something for you to read and money for your bus fair.' " I was asking Mom to please go with me because I was scared, but I knew that I would be so glad that I had done it when I was done.

We got out of the van and started to walk toward the closest person, I stepped up and said what Mom had told me to with a big smile. He looked with a very surprised face and said, "Thank you!" I did this to each person and every one sat up with smiles and started to share them with their friends. As we walked away, all seven people were reading and laughing!

The man and some girls waved goodbye, as we drove to pick up Dad and Vince.

It was amazing to see how just a little thing like that could make their day! It made mine too, just think seven more souls hearing about Jesus!

We have been reading the book called, "One Thing You Can't do in Heaven." I have learned a lot from reading the interesting examples and stories.

Since then I have already done it a few more times, and gotten a lot more excited about witnessing!

Bright Lights

Hello all!

We had a great time at Bright Lights last night!

We talked about contentment, and how we will just take things like eyesight for granted.

What is the most frequently used excuse when you encourage someone to memorize scripture?

The topic of the month: Memorization.............

Some tactics on how to memorize scripture.

1. Read the scripture at least once a day.

2. If you find it hard to remember more than one verse a week, than just pick a verse that you like, and work on that verse until you have it perfect. Then move on to more verses per week.

3. Sometimes if the verse is too long for me to get it in one day, I will just work on it line by line, or even word by word.

4. If you are trying to get the scripture memorized word perfect, it will take a little more time. I suggest that after you have the verse pretty well, have someone read along while you recite, so they can help tell you when you have made a mistake (try not to get too irritated when they keep correcting you! I must confess that I have a hard time with that one). Even if you aren't trying to memorize word perfect, it helps to have someone read along.

5. Keep on working on the scripture, if you take a break from memorising for even a few days it is harder to recite when you start again.

With that said, I encourage each of you to memorize your Birthday Proverb. I will explain what this is. Since there are at the most 31 days in a month, and there are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs, each day of the month has a Proverb for that day. Since my birthday is on the 9th, my Proverb would be Proverbs Chapter 9. Do you understand? If you don't, PLEASE leave a comment to tell me so I can explain it more, because I want as many people as I can get to memorize scripture.

This is a great excersize for your brain!

I hope to get many reports on how well you are doing on your memorization!

Vacation part four

Remember to read parts one, two, and three first!

When we got to the sand dunes one of the first thing that we saw was a big cross some one had made out of driftwood up on the top of the dune. Then we said,"Let's write Jesus Saves up there by the cross!" Everyone thought that it was a great idea so we climbed up the dune and started gathering driftwood to write Jesus saves. It looked very good! You could see it perfectly from the parking lot! Haley took some pictures of it so that you could see.



Here is a view from the parking lot of Jesus Saves.


After we were done climbing on the dunes and swimming we came back to our uncles house and started packing up our things. We were cleaning up the house when our Aunt and Uncle got back from their vacation. So we spent a little while with them, finished packing up, and left.

As we were driving home Dad said, "Look at the fire works!" Almost all the way home we could see fire works! After we got in town dad drove us around to see if we could find a good spot to watch fireworks since we got there at 10:05 and the fireworks started at 10:00. He succeed and we tried to get a few good pictures.

Haley has some things about Camp Barekel (the place that we are trying to get a group of girls from Bright Lights to go to) on her blog. Go check it out! http://bright4him.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday Noela, and Mary!

I am sorry you could not be at the meeting on Mon. Mary. I only have pictures of Noela so I can't post some of you.

Happy Birthday!

Noela turned one on the 1st of July.

Here are some pictures..............

So innocent!

How precious!

She is wearing my old dance wig.