Boys camp week for Austin!

 Boys camp ... I'm so proud of Austin going to boys camp!  It's for five days straight and it's packed full of things boys love to do!  He was so excited to go again this year!  I was really hoping that Adrian would be in his cabin.  Denied but they still got to see each other a lot all week!

He packed up a suitcase of clothes and a sleeping bag and pillow and got on the bus and rode to camp!

It was so quiet at our house all week with Austin not being home!  Ashlyn and I went to Goodwill one day and it's packed full of Christmas things!  We found us some treasures!

I was asked to help in the dining room on Thursday and I was happy to be there!  Jeremiah and Hadassah are one of the camp directors and they are there all week long.  I couldn't wait see Gunnar and Austin again!!!  Everyone is having the time of their lives!!!!

I helped set tables for food.  Serve food.  Clean up after the food was eaten and then reset for the next meal!  It was fun!  Some of the boys got to fish and they had a lot of fish to eat for lunch that day!  It was delicious!  I helped with breakfast and dinner and decided to stay for supper and help with the derby race later that night!  Austin looked so tired on Thursday morning because they didn't get to bed till late the night before.  But he was having so much fun and happy to be with Adrian at derby night!

Each camper makes a race car and on Thursday night, they race the cars to see which car can race the fastest!!!  Austin's was the pink one.

I came back home Thursday night so impressed with all the good fun things happening at camp.  Austin looks tired and I know he will be ready to come back home but he's doing just fine!

I picked up Austin and Lena's boys and brought them home.  Hunter, Adrian and Austin were falling asleep on the way home and their bodies are tired but their hearts are full!

I dropped off the boys and went straight to the laundromat to wash all his clothes!  Austin was so happy to be back home and take a shower and relax!  We switched Austin's bed with the bed Matthew used to sleep in into his room while he was away and was so glad to sleep in a bigger bed!  He was tired and fulfilled!  

Christian camps and counselors that take time to make young boys one week in the summer so much fun is a huge gift!  Austin loves it!  They have bible hour, bible memory, tons of activities, rope courses and zip line and swimming and good food and lots of dirty laundry at the end of the week!  We are so richly blessed to have this opportunity for Austin!  Thank you to all those who made this such a fun and safe week for so many boys!

Belmar Beach Day, NJ

We decided to take a beach day with cousins at Belmar Beach, NJ!  We started off early with the Canadian wild fires making our skies foggy!

We ate a delicious breakfast when we were almost there!

Everyone helped carry something as we walked to the beach!

 

These boys had so much fun in the ocean and digging in the sand and finding clams!

And Gunnar was along to and didn't have a nap all day long but did great!!!!

We grabbed pizza just off from the beach.  Ashlyn is doing gluten free, dairy free, grain free for a few weeks and this was challenging to her because she wanted to eat this or something fast too.  She's doing really well with this and under a nutritionist watch.  We are hoping it will clear up some headaches, give her gut healing and clear her acne skin!

Beach days are so fun and we came back home tired and sandy and sun-kissed skin!

Summer days of July.

 We are having some bad thunderstorms!  When we were at the cabin, a bad storm went through our area and many trees are down and people are out of electricity.  We only had a branch and many little sticks to put up in our lawn from the storm.  But with the unsettled weather, comes some rain drops at the ballgames!

We are picking many blooms from the garden!

And Mom and Dad are moving off their farm into a small rancher home and so the process of moving things out of the house has started.  I wonder what we will all find!!!!

Looks like old photos.

And I finished this book and it's an inspiring read!  You should read it!

Look at this baby dear that is suddenly turning into a toddler!  Oh how I do love this grandson so much!

And there are baby ducklings at the park that I see when I walk there!

Sometimes I like to take a walk outside and see how our property looks like in the dark.  We use the back porch as a living room every single day of the week on these nice summer nights!  The little play house looks cute in the garden!  And the cat has such a good life here.

I was invited to a garden party with my Mom and sister.  It was so lovely!!!!

I cut the lettuce from the garden!  This is one vegetable that I love to eat but this is a lot!  I'll have to give some away!

We watched Toy Story 5 as a family and loved it!  Night's like this are so fun!!!!!

And Gunnar was giving us kisses when it was time to leave the pool on a hot day!

The cornfields are growing all around our property!  I love the summer skies!

July 4th weekend!

 

We headed to the cabin over the Fourth of July Weekend with family.  Once again, whoever it suits from my family to welcome to come and join the fun!  This time LaVern's were on a trip out west and Jason's were boating of the river.  So, the rest of us headed to the cabin in the woods!

Good food was made!

A birthday celebration was for Austin!

Gunnar was a happy little camper!

The older kids said they would a breakfast for us all and they did such a great job!

We rode the mountain roads on four wheelers.  We went to the river to swim.  Pickleball and campfires and hummingbirds and sparklers ... all are now memories we made!  Matt left with his truck full of tree trunks!

I am always so thankful for our freedom and this year was our nations 250th anniversary!!!!

I made some treats to take along!

We had such a fun time at the cabin again!  On the way home we found ourselves quickly pulling off an exit because Mike saw a flat tire!  We pulled off the exit and right there was a repair shop where two men were outside.  They took one look at our trailer and waved us in!  The tire was changed in time flat, spare tire put on, and we were on our way home again!  I was reminded that there are so many wonderful people in this world!