Just When You Thought There Couldn't Possibly Be Any More Vacation Pictures . . .

This past week we had the chance to go to Cumberland Lake with some dear friends - Marshall and Becky Gipe and their 2 kiddos, Rhett and Halli. We've never done any kind of boating as a family (paddle boating doesn't count!) or spent much time in un-chlorinated water, so this was a real treat for us. The best part may have been that the kiddos actually slept until 8:00 at least 2 mornings out of the three we were there!

It was wonderful: we had all day to do whatever we felt like doing. We spent the majority of both days out on the boat or in the water, came back and ate a late dinner, and stayed up late talking or watching movies. And it was fun seeing the kiddos have a blast. Rachel actually got up the guts to jump into the water from the dock and get her whole head wet. Zekers just turned into a little fish. Karis loved tubing at approximately 2 miles per hour. And Malachi . . . . well, he discovered it's just as fun to drool on a boat as anywhere else. He did spend some time in the water and did OK, but the infant life jacket I was so excited to find at a garage sale this summer, was a complete bomb. By the second day he'd start screaming in protest as soon as he saw it coming.

I received a good dose of humility (humiliation??) when I tried to get up (about 7 times) on a slalem ski. I kept telling myself, "Come on, you gave birth to 4 children. You can do this!" My little self-pep-talk didn't work. The longest I ever stayed up was about 5 seconds before wiping out (with the utmost grace and poise, of course). After that, I stuck to swimming and tubing. It seemed much safer, and there was also the little fact that my arms, back and legs turned into Jell-O for about 3 days.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that we actually witnessed a police chase on water - flashing lights and the whole shebang! It just seems ludicrous to me that someone would try to outrun a police boat - I mean, there's really no where to hide and sooner or later he's just going to run out of gas.

So without further ado, here are . . . . you guessed it - more pictures!! (One of these days I'll actually get some pictures of the adults and not just the kiddos)


The cabin's large screened-in porch, where we ate a lot of our meals
Rachel and Halli
I don't know boating terms, so I'll just call this the "front" of the boat.
Rhett did a little wake-boarding; I included this pic because this was pretty much our view from the boat all day the first day - blue sky, lots of trees and water
Karis had a death grip on the tube
Because of some work being done on the dam at a different arm of the lake, the water level was way lower than normal and will be that way for another 3 years. So to get to the boat, we climbed down a series of stairs, and then made our way over the rocks that are typically covered with water. We were fortunate; we passed several docks made completely inaccessible by the low water level.
Malachi wouldn't go to sleep on the boat, so when we got back around 5:30, this is what I found after he'd taken 1 or 2 sips of his bottle.
Mommy, Malachi, and the hated life jacket
Karis sunning herself on the "back" of the boat
Zekers made some great faces while tubing


On the way back we stopped in Lexington and had lunch with my sis and bro-in-law, Sarah and Anthony, and the kids' cousin Addie. Here is a picture of them and and the disaster of a photo we tried to take of all the kiddos. Maybe someday . . .

We arrived home late Saturday afternoon, and I was reminded what a blessing a washing machine can be. I was able to do several loads of laundry at the cabin, so we had barely any dirty laundry to do when we got home!! Now that's what I call a vacation.

Another Week

There isn't much to report from the past week; pretty much just life as usual. I do have to share these 2 photos, though, of Karis at her first dentist appointment. She was such a big girl - she sat still the whole time and did exactly what the "dentist" told her. (I still can't get her to understand that the dental hygenist who cleaned her teeth wasn't actually the dentist.) And you'd have thought it was Christmas when she received her toothbrush, toothpaste, and little tiny container of floss - PLUS a sticker!

I had scheduled all three of the kiddos - and myself - for appointments together, and while Karis was being worked on, I could hear Rachel giving her hygenist way too much family information, and Zekers interjecting comments at the top of his lungs. ("I wanna be a RAINBOW FISH!!!!" "I'm gonna go to Cubbies again and wear my VEST!!", etc.) The highlight of the visit, for all three of them, was getting to wear sunglasses because of the bright lights.

And now I thought I'd put up a few photos of the place we've spent a lot of our time this summer. I was debating whether or not to buy a pass, but since 3 of us are paying customers this year, I decided to go for it, and I'm so glad I did. We've already gotten more than our money's worth, since we've been going at least once or twice every week. It's worked pretty well so far: we eat lunch, go to the pool when it opens, around noon, and stay 2-3 hours, or as long as Malachi allows. Then we come home, and usually they're so tired out, they take great naps!

Malachi has gone from screaming at the mere sight of water, to walking up and down the length of the kiddie pool while hanging onto the edge of it. He has even started being OK with sitting in his floatie for short periods of time. Karis has become the water slide queen. She wouldn't go near it until this week, and now it's all she wants to do. The other day, she spent 2 hours going down the slide and climbing back up.

With the hot and humid weather we've had lately, the pool has been a lifesaver, and the only way to get the kiddos out-of-doors to play. I'm just hoping it takes them another several years to discover the concessions!







(The pool looks like a ghost town in these pix, because we went after Danny got home from work a few evenings ago and everyone had pretty much cleared out. Which is why I had a chance to take some pictures!)

Across the Miles: Millennium Park

We left Camp Forest Springs after breakfast on Saturday morning and headed back into Chicago. Since Wisconsin is known for its cheese production, we saw numerous billboards and signs to this effect on the trip. A couple in particular really made us laugh. The door to one gas station we stopped at boasted: "Squeaky fresh cheese curds inside". Other signs advertised heavenly places such as "Cheese Dreams" (or "Dreamy Cheeses" - I can't remember which), and "Naughty Novelties and Bakery". (The "and Bakery" was what cracked us up. Was it naughty, too?)

We made much better time on the return trip, and arrived at our hotel by 4:00 PM. The kiddos were excited to discover we would be staying in a room on the 12th floor! This too was an answer to prayer; Danny was able to find a suite for a very reasonable price, so we actually got our own bedroom. There was exactly enough room to put 2 munchkins on the fold-out love seat, set Malachi's pac-n-play up in the corner, and put the love seat cushions together right next to it for the other munchkin. We had to go get extra sheet sets, pillows and towels several times, and they must have thought we were a little nuts, but it worked out great. And how did we take advantage of the benefits of having our own room? We crashed almost as soon as the kiddos went to bed!


For dinner, since I'd packed all of our breakfasts and lunches for the trip, we decided to splurge for one meal and hit the Rainforest Cafe in the Schaumburg mall. We'd been there once before, in San Francisco, about 8 years ago, but it was so much more fun to go with kids. With its aquariums, life-sized jungle animals hanging off the walls and from the ceiling, and simulated thunderstorms, they thought it was the best thing since the invention of the mini-farm.

After dinner, we walked the mall, which has 3 levels and is, I believe, the 2nd largest mall in America (next to the Mall of America). Of course, we had to visit the Disney store for the kiddos, and the Apple store for Danny (the one place he likes to window shop!)

The next morning, we were up and out of the hotel by 8:30, and Danny had a surprise planned: a trip to Millennium Park in Chicago! This was a special treat, since I absolutely love the city, and whenever we travel up to Wisconsin every couple of years, we don't normally have time to go in and enjoy it, mostly because we've always said we wanted to wait until the kids were a little older and could enjoy it more.

It was a wonderful morning. The famous "Taste of Chicago" festival was being set up for the day, and since it was only 9:30 on a Sunday morning, we got to walk around it before all the crowds arrived. And Millennium Park was amazing. We walked to Cloud Gate, a huge aluminum bubble is the only way I can describe it. It was a really hot day, so afterward we headed to Crown Fountain, a large concrete (?) slab with 2 structures made of glass brick on either end. Water cascades down, creating a little pool for kids to play in. On these structures are digital video faces of Chicago residents, and every so often a fountain squirts out of their mouths. I think I must have taken about 6 pictures of these faces, because it was just hilarious.

We found a huge swing made of metal and went past a lot of beautiful gardens, all of which had names I don't remember. We walked around the loop area some more and then headed back to the van.



Cloud Gate


Crown Fountain
Spewing from Crown Fountain
The beginning of Route 66! ("It winds from Chicago to LA")

I feel the need to mention that on this trip, I had some of the worst coffee experiences of my life. On the way up to Wisconsin, I was craving an iced cappucino, so we stopped at McD's since that seemed to be our only option. Danny got me the LARGEST size - I mean, I never even knew a cup this large existed. And it was nasty. I do not recommend McD's cappucinos! But we were thrilled to discover that the hotel we stayed in both on the way up and on the way back through Chicago, had a Starbucks. Our joy turned to a grimace, however, as soon as we tasted our long-awaited beverages. It was nothing but sludge. I even got another the second time we stayed there, thinking "Come on, this is Starbucks - it has to be better than this on a normal day." But no deal - the drinks were just as bad the second time around. I only mention this because, of course, coffee is such an important part of life.

The only other noteworthy experience on the trip back was our time in Gary, IN. We intensely hoped that we wouldn't HAVE any time in this really scary city, but that was not to be. We had just made it out of the Chicago area, when we found we were nearly out of gas, and every one of the kiddos had to use the bathroom (except for Malachi, who went as soon as we got back into the van).

It was like we had entered a sort of twilight zone. The gas station we stopped at had a glass wall between the customers and the cashier, who wouldn't even look up or answer me until I'd asked him for the third time if there was a bathroom. He mumbled a barely audible word that sort of sounded like a "no". A lady in the gas station informed me that there was a "K Market" across the street with a bathroom. We entered, and again, couldn't get anyone to look at us or answer us, until one employee muttered that there was a bathroom in the back of the store. I dragged the 3 kiddos into a back storage room off of another back room, where a table full of people were smoking and glaring at us. I half expected to see someone on their knees with a gun aimed at their head. Needless to say, I encouraged the kiddos to do their business very quickly and we high-tailed it out of there. The whole place smelled of cigarette smoke, alcohol and unwashed bodies.

But, as soon as we were safely back on the highway, the trip flew by. I ended up sitting in the back with the kiddos, who were pretty tired of traveling by that time, and spent a full 30 minutes laughing with Malachi. We made it home around 8:30 that night - our beautiful home!! It's nice to get away for a while, and it's nice to come back home. I'm so grateful for God's provision and for the time we had as a family.

Across the Miles: Camp Forest Springs part 3

Fireworks With the Hofflands

On Friday, July 4th the kids and I drove over to the home of our friends, Matt & Tarah Hoffland, where we spent a fun evening. Matt and Danny had a session that started around 8pm, but they were able to join us for the last half of the fireworks around 10:15.

Matt and Tarah have been blessed with neighbors who have 3 baby-loving daughters. So, for nearly the entire evening, one daughter played with Kari Bou, one played with Leah, their youngest, and one carted Malachi around in the stroller. Yahoo! And their dad took Rach, Zekers and Anna out on the lake in his boat, which they thought was great fun.

We roasted (read: burnt) marshmallows, ate watermelon, and the kids got to do sparklers and smoke bombs. Then we had our own private fireworks, which were pretty impressive. And aside from one of them, which got set off upside-down and came flying at us, it wasn't too life-endangering.

Around 10 we all hauled blankets out and watched fireworks over the lake. Since it was chilly, I got to spend the whole time snuggling both Kari Bou and Zekers. (Malachi was inside sleeping and of course by now Rachel had become best friends with one of the neighbor girls.) It was a great way to spend our last evening at camp.

Boating on Rib Lake
Anna, Rachel, Zekers, Kari Bou, David, and 2 of the neighbor kids

Rachel and Anna
Kari Bou got more marshmallow on her hands and face than in her mouth!
The sparklers spooked Zekers a bit in the beginning, but after a while he became quite the pro.


OK, only ONE more post about this trip, I promise! (I can't not post about Chicago!!)

Across the Miles: Camp Forest Springs part 2

The Mini-Farm

Camp Forest Springs offers a huge array of kid- and family-friendly options. We spent one afternoon at the waterfront, where the kiddos went paddleboating with Danny and Malachi sat with me, trying to eat sand. Rachel and I also got to go out in a kid version of a kayak, called a "funyak".

On Danny's evening off, we went to a pizza place in Rib Lake, about 5 miles from the camp, with another family, and then came back and hiked some of the trails until dusk. Thank goodness for jogging strollers!

There were several playgrounds at the camp - one I've already mentioned behind our building, and the other near the ministry center and cafeteria. I was grateful for both of these; the kiddos and I would hang out there while Danny was at a session and it helped the time to pass more quickly for all of us.

I think the sandbox contained more trucks than sand!
The play area behind our building
At the playground by the cafeteria


But the hit of the week was the mini-farm. We must have gone there at least 4-5 times during the week. The munchkins loved hanging out with the animals, feeding the lambs and riding on the burros. And I got to experience milking a goat! Good times . . .










TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Across the Miles: Camp Forest Springs Part 1

Saturday, June 28 - Saturday, July 5

Every 2 years, Danny receives an amazing opportunity to speak for one of the jr. high weeks at Camp Forest Springs in Westboro, Wisconsin. There are several perks to this arrangement:

1. The camp is absolutely beautiful (see pix below), and very kid/family friendly.
2. No cooking for a week!! We ate in the cafeteria, which serves remarkably good meals for a camp.
3. Danny gets to do something he loves - teaching God's Word and connecting with students, counselors and other staff. He taught 10 times throughout the week, beginning Sunday evening and ending Saturday morning.
4. We get to spend time with friends - Matt & Tarah Hoffland and their 4 kids - throughout the week, as well as meeting new friends. Many of these were families and couples at the camp taking classes and training for future camp ministry.

A HUGE praise for me - they put us up in one of the student apartments, with a kitchen, living room and 2 bedrooms!! Everyone had a bed or mattress to sleep in, and we were able to set up Malachi's pac-n-play in the walk-in closet. Behind the apartment building is a playground, on which the kiddos spent many happy hours.

Our first time as a family at CFS was 5 years ago, when Rachel was 10 months old. We went again 2 years ago, when Karis was 10 months. This time, with Malachi being 9 months and having three others . . . I have to be honest - it was fun, and even rejuvenating, but definitely not very relaxing! The first 2 days were downright miserable. Have you ever wondered if your kids were under demonic influence (I'm only half kidding)? They whined, and fought, and cried, and did everything in their power to make life as difficult as possible. And Malachi, who has always been somewhat of a puker, got even worse. He threw up after every meal - usually all over me, himself, his high chair and / or whatever surface happened to be near. By Tuesday morning, I literally came back from breakfast, put them all to bed, threw myself down on the floor of the apartment and cried out to God for help. There was no way to tell whether this was all due to lack of sleep, change of schedule, spiritual warfare, or all of the above.

That day was a turning point. I think we all started getting into the swing of things: Danny had been spending the mornings preparing for upcoming sessions and getting other church-related work done, and then speaking. He finally saw what a mess I was, took pity on me, and spent the next few mornings with us, which helped a great deal. Plus, the kids started sleeping better. So, from then on the week was a blast. I even took the kiddos to a few sessions, until Malachi crawled under a girl's seat and started tearing pages out of her notebook and eating them.

I'm always proud of Danny at things like this. It was quite stretching for him to speak for 150-200 jr. high students; he felt out of practice after not having spoken to this age group for nearly 2 years. But he did an amazing job. He spoke on doing everything for God's glory, and it got pretty deep sometimes, but the counselors reported that it allowed them to have some surprisingly good conversations with their campers. And the campers seemed to be following right along and tracking with him, and asking some great questions. so that was encouraging.

Once again, there's way too much to write, so I'll post next time on all the cool stuff the kids - and Danny and I - got to do during the week. For now, here's some more pictures.

On our way from the apartment down to dinner. Normally Rach & Zekers walked, Malachi rode in the jogging stroller and Kari Bou sat in the backpack.
Snozzle, the camp's celebrity puppet. During junior camp, and for the first 2 days of jr. high camp, John & Diane Windle do puppets during the sessions. During the remaining days of jr. high camp, Matt leads worship.
The cafeteria
View of the lake from Pine Point
I lost my camera for 2 days, so I didn't get any pix of our family at the waterfront, but this is what it looks like in the early morning, before the day's activities.
The camp speaker in action
The sky was brilliant blue all week with fluffy clouds and clear, clean, crisp air. Aaahhhh . . .
The building where we stayed had 10 apartments, a lounge and a laundry facility (yea!)
One last family picture overlooking the lake