Summer 2016, Post 4 - Riverside

Another year of Bible camp is in the books!  This year the camp saw about 180 campers during the week.  I think Robby's first year was well over 200 as was evidenced at the worship service that the parents can attend.  It was packed with people standing in any open spots.  This year had lots of empty seats but the kids were LOUD!!

Caleb was an Alpha camper this year, his first at Riverside.  The Alpha campers either camp from Sunday to Tuesday, or like Calebber, from Wednesday to Friday. This was his cabin (Aaron, on the right) complete with a basement with showers shared with the other cabin.

Robby was in the Apostles cabin which is barely visible in the photo.  It's down at the very end, towards the left side of the pic, visible only betwixt two trees.

Robby's making a grand entrance for the final worship program.

And Caleb's grand entrance.

The camp counselors sang Good, Good Father together this year.  It was beautiful!!  Robby's cabin mates had their arms around each other's shoulders and swayed back and forth thru the entire song.

Robby's cabin mates and some of the things they wrote about him. It's hard to read, but one of his counselors wrote: "What a blessing you have been to our cabin. I want to thank you for your constant attentiveness and curiosity about the Bible and God's Word".  The other counselor wrote, "You have had awesome questions this week in Bible study.  Thank you for your curiosity and starting interesting conversation. Your humor and personality have brought a lot of positive energy to Apostles cabin this week".   Can't beat that!

Caleb's cabin mates.  His counselors absolutely LOVED him and told me that he was amazing as a cabin mate as he would not let any of his mates NOT have fun!  They said they have never seen a kid who smiled constantly.  That's my boy!!

And so it goes.  When I first saw Caleb, he stressed that he was DEFINITELY going for the full 5 days next year.  He has 5 days of adoption camp coming up in about a month, so we'll see how he feels after that.  He also said he's less nervous about adoption camp after attending Riverside.

Summer 2016, Post 3

Another post documenting the busy summer that the boys are having.  

Last Saturday, they were invited to tag along with some friends of ours who had another friend camping at Lake Ahquabi State Park.  They spent pretty much the entire day there and we received the occasional update by photo.
 

Caleb volunteered to be the official dog-sitter for a while.  Again, I am amazed at how far the boy has come in the last four years.  The last post had a pic of him hugging Shadow, and now dog-sitting for two dogs he had never met before!

A little later in the day when the varmints were getting tired!

Time for the boat ride!  Caleb said that Curtis let him drive the boat.  Scary!!

And so on it goes...

Summer 2016, Post 2

***Update***  - I am NOT setting the font this small.  I change it to it's normal size, click update which is what publishes the post for all to see, and when that happens, it's changed back to small font...  ***End Update***
 

Camping is hard work... and sometimes ridiculously frustrating when you have kids who think that life returns to "normal" the second that you pull into the driveway upon returning home.   No-sir-ree...  it goes on for hours after that with laundry, putting crap back away and so on.  No matter, it was a fun weekend and a nice get-a-way from all of the recent happenings that were not so pleasant for the Pleasant Hillians.

 

Camping at the Des Moines West, KOA a bit Southwest of Adel, IA.  We camped out with my cousin Kay, her husband Matt and their two boys Adam & Logan (jumping into the pool with Robby). 

This was happening on the other end of the pool.  Mr. Cautiouswater, Calebber McCheese easing his was in.  It's notable that he's been swimming since then in both a lake and the neighbors pool.  He's getting there if you are a longtime reader and remember this post!!

A photo collage taken by one of our visitors, my sister Doris.  She arrived with her friend Dave and his dog Shadow about the exact same time as my aunt and uncle, Joyce & Larry Schmitz got there.  Much fun was had and much food (and beer) was consumed...  by others.

Calebber on one of the rentable John Deere "things".

That is Momma and Calebber on their riding mobiles!

My view from the hammock shortly before an afternoon nap.

Three of the four lads, with an unfortunate, unnamed female, on the bouncy pillow.  I hope she's ok!

Sleepy boys in our tent.

Not quite as sleepy of boys in my cousin's cabin, watching tv.  Yes, it was allowed... once.

Summer 2016, post 1

It's summer, which means the boys have a VERYdifferent schedule than the rest of the year.  

It's fun and refreshing that they get to do things that aren't part of the normal routine.

Critters across the road with their friends, Titus and Tobin, on the trampoline... after swimming in their pool and whatever other fun stuff they did.

It's Big As Mah Head!

Yes, that is ONE, pork tenderloin. No, he did not eat it all in one go.  In fact, we got about 5 meals off of the silly-sized thing.

IT'S HOT!!!

Just turned 12pm just now and it's already 90F outside!   I'm hot and tired so I thought I would take a quick break.

It's been this kind of weekend...

I wish I could say the same for myself, but there's wwwaaaaaayyyyyyyy too much stuff to be done right now, so the temperature cannot be a factor.