Thanksgiving with Family

Our trip up north was nice.  The kids slept most of the drive as planned.  When they were awake, they were  easily able to enterain themselves. 

We enjoyed a nice trip to Tilden Park on Sunday.  It is an amazing park, almost similar to Irvine Park, but on a hillside. It was super cold and overcast.  It seemed as if the sky would open any second and pour down buckets of rain on us, but it didn't.We road the train and visited the farm.  The kids had a blast!

We had a family bowling outting!  That was fun! John was the ultimate winner, but we all had a good time. Even Charlie and Gracie gave it a try.

                                                                           

Thanksgving was a special time of traditions.  We enjoyed preparing the foods, setting a beautiful table, had a little family walk and a fun movie together!  As you can see, Gracie was the master chef for our meal!  

We played cards until the wee hours many nights, had fun playing with the kids and tried to get some family pictures.

Thank you to all who prayed for our trip.  We traveled well, no one got hurt or real sick.  We were glad to come home and we were pleasantly surprised to come home to snow.  It has been freezing here, but I guess that is what winter is all about!  Winter camp has started and we are enjoying being with the campers again.  We will get some updates for you about that soon.  Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLIE!

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY TO CHARLIE! So now you will all just have to deal with some super cute pictures! I hope you don't mind. The day began with waking Charlie up to the birthday song. As you can see, he was not happy at all! (that was sarcastic!) Charlie then took a very big sniff in and said, "I don't smell cake!" He was right, I was not making a cake at 7:30 in the morning! Actually, we didn't have cake, we had cereal... for breakfast. Again, he's not happy at all!

Later in the day, Charlie and Gracie were singing and dancing in the living room. I should have taken video, but this is what I got! Notice the cool new clothes from Grandma Sue. In the afternoon, we took a trip off the hill. Charlie was excited to play (work, as he calls it) on his new Cars Laptop. He looks so official here! We went to Toys R Us where Charlie used a special gift card and some money from Grandpa Blaine to buy a Cowboy outfit. For some reason, Charlie has been talking about dressing up and playing cowboys for about two months. I am not even sure where he got that idea from. But, as seems to be the norm lately, we got the outfit and Charlie is afraid of it! This picture was taken just before the tears started. We enjoyed a nice dinner at Red Robin. Charlie got an ice cream sundae and a loud happy birthday song from the waitresses, which he hid from. Overall it was a great day! The only exception would be that we should have had the ice cream for breakfast, maybe then the sugar high would have worn off before going to bed!!!

Just Got These Photos

Hey look! Another family photo. We just got this picture from Scott. It was taken on our vacation in September. Also, this is just a great picture of Charlie and Gracie. They were giving each other love in the middle of amphitheater time at camp. Just wanted to share!

October/November

Yes, this is the same picture that was on our newsletter, but it is a rare occasion that we actually get a family photo, so I will put it everywhere I can! I believe Van took about 100 pictures of us this day and this was the best one! Hopefully it will get easier as the kids get bigger!

It has been a busier season than usual. We spent a lot of time in OC for camp events. It was busy but good! We really enjoyed going to our home church while we were down there. It is always nice to reconnect with friends and family there.

We are looking forward to a few weeks at home with some regular routine. It sure is beautiful here. The fall colors have come and they just glow in the sunlight. Just when we think it is getting cold and might snow, the weather shifts again. Soon we will be going to my sister's house for Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to being together, playing cards, cooking, eating, laughing, Christmas shopping and more. Charlie and Gracie have not been before. Hopefully the drive up there won't ruin the entire time! We'll see. We'd love to hear from you. Please write or call. Maybe we can get together???

Fall Season

First of all forgive me for the lack of posts. I had great intentions of writing about every summer camp week. This obviously didn't happen. Needless to say, summer was awsome and we are blessed to be in our Fall season. We have plans to have Lisa take over the blog postings and me handling the Facebook side. I'm excited about this because it means that you will all get to hear from her. She has such amazing insights and perspectives. Not only that but she is the one raising our kids primarily and that means that all you people who don't read the blog you just want pictures of our kids, this will be the place.
All in all this season has been an amazing time of growing, learning, and preparing for the next year that God has for us. I am praying that as we learn how to use these cool new mediums of communication that we will all feel more connected as we serve Christ together. Looking forward to postings from Lisa!

Session 5 - All things New & Junior High

Session 5 was our last Junior High camp. It was well lets say a Junior High Camp. There is a special thing about Junior Highers and that is that they are Junior Highers. That amazingly awkward yet awesome age where reason and logic are being tested by social skills and peer pressure. Someone once said that if you live through your Junior High years then you may actually grow up to be something someday. Again I'm not sure who said it, but I did right now. We had a full group of Junior highers. We had what is called the perfect ratio, 24 campers, 12 counselors. We were amazed at how God worked out the numbers. The only thing that I was worried about was the fact that 8 out of our 12 counselors were brand new. Brand new to Camp ALandale, and some brand new to the idea of ministering to abused children through a mountain camping program. 2 Corinthians 5:17 is a verse that is common when it comes to new believers and the new life that God has given us. It was the verse that really was the tone of the week as well. It reads,

"What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!"



We had quite a few veteran campers coming to camp this week so I was anticipating not many issues related to campers acting out or really trying to test our faith and our love for them. For the most part that is what happened. We had a few campers that were needing a little extra love and attention. Most of the ministry this week was the healing of so many wounds. What blessed us the most this week was watching God open our campers up and clean out the wounds. Seeing them open up and Give their hurt to God was so amazingly powerful. The Lord Really blessed this week of New. For many of our campers it really was that 2 Cor. 5:17 became their verse of the week as they accepted God's forgiveness and God started the healing work in their lives. Praise to God for his amazing work!!

Gideon's Mighty Men - Session 3

Session 3 – Gideon’s mighty Men
This week was an amazing reminder of the power and work that is only God’s at Camp Alandale. The week started off with 3 of our 12 counselors that were signed up canceling on us, for various reasons that none of us could control. Romans 8:28 comes in real handy during times like these. We were definitely holding on to it’s promise. We ended up with once again a full camp and were wondering how it was going to go. Let’s just say that God made those 9 counselors seem like 12. He showed us how just like Gideon it’s all about having the people that God calls more than some number or a ratio that seems to make sense. Sometimes we make plans that seem to make sense because we’ve prayed over them and all the numbers sound like they will work. Then God throws a curve ball to remind us who’ really in control.
JH Camp. 7-9th graders. It was our first taste of JH camp this summer. What was nice was that we had about more than half of the campers were veterans, meaning they have been to camp before. That mix of veterans more than helped the situation. It was a camp that surprised us in so many ways. It was also the first camp that we got to do campfire talks. They are family style talks at the end of the night where we share like parents would to their kids about God’s thoughts through His word on hot topics that teens deal with today. The last talk we do for the week is called the “freestyle talk”. At the beginning of the week we ask the campers what subjects they would like us to talk about. Their suggestions are amazing and always great discussions. From Sexual identity, to questions about God, it is always so amazing to share God’s truth with hungry and thirsty souls in need of spiritual Truth.
We did have the typical Junior High relationship stuff. You know Girls giggly and flirty with the guys and some of the guys wanting it to much and others oblivious. The great thing though was that it seemed like for the most part they took our encouragements to not get caught up in a summer camp romance and to enjoy the week with everybody.
I wish there was more that I remembered. I admit that I waited too long to really do all that God did justice in these notes. I hope your hearts are as encouraged as ours are at the amazing things that God will do when we give Him are all.
Lord Bless, and can’t wait for session 5.