Church family retreat '08

Every year we have gone to our churches annual family retreat at a wonderful camp called Camp Mush-a-Mush, and this past weekend was when it was. It isn't just for families, anyone can go, and any age too :D! This year we had a record turn out of youth, and not too many adults but for the most part it is the same people who go which is sort of frustrating for the organizers. We want new faces and new families to come, but not too sure how to go about getting more new people out.
This first picture is of my father in law setting up the "Flying Fox", yep that was a popular thing I must say with all ages as well. I know that my mother in law, my father in law, our senior pastor and myself all went down the flying fox but I think I was the only one who bailed out half way down the ride. See my problem is that I am 6 feet tall, and the other problem is that there was a tree root sticking up out of the ground half way down the line and then there was a tree that was too close for my liking. So you can see where I am going with this...I started out with perfect technique, then I noticed that my backside had it's name written all over that root (I could feel the pain before I even got to it) but I missed it :D! Then along came that tree shortly after the root, and it had my name written all over it...so I bailed before I got to it but I also landed awkwardly (the only way us tall people know how to fall or bail out of things) . Anyways, I was thrilled to see that my trip down didn't deter my mother in law, one of the senior pastors of our church and several other people to continue down this zip line. Lol....I am hoping they will find a new spot for this zip line next year, one without roots and trees to hug :D!


The next picture is of a fun family game called "The Great Canadian Egg Drop", but this year we did the "Great Canadian Egg Float"!! For this you can use anything that the leader gives you, and in our case here is what we were given:
~Egg
~elastic bands
~popsicle sticks
~balloons
~2L pop bottle
~string
~tape
~several plastic tie offs
and a few other things I am sure that I have forgotten, but the items you use could be anything the leader wanted these are the things he chose. The goal is to work together in a team of people of all ages to create a boat that will carry your egg in the lake from point A to point B without sinking or breaking. Let's just say my teams balloon boat didn't do so hot!! It was a lot of fun though :)! Incase you were wondering what you do for the "Great Canadian Egg Drop", here is what you do: do everything you did above but the goal is to not have your egg break when dropped from great heights. This picture is of one of the teams, trying to create a winning egg boat!
Here is the Youth pastor of our church trying to blow up one of those long long skinny balloons for my team, since my team couldn't get it blown up or even started. Look at how pink he is turning...he gave up shortly after this picture was taken and we don't blame him either! No matter how many times you streched your balloon, and no matter how many different ways you tried to blow up the balloon it wouldn't work (break out your bike pumps).







Here is my middle child with his "own" egg boat creation, pretty good I thought :)! Sorry, that this picture is kind of dark...the main lodge didn't exactly have the best lighting for picture taking.







This next picture is of one of the Youth leaders who was taking pictures of the whole weekend, and I thought she should be included in a picture. I really like this picture, lol :)! Thank you so much Heather for all your wonderful work you do with the Youth :)!

Now these next couple of pictures are taken during the "free time" we had, and here are some of the things you could do:

~play paintball (my dh was running this)
~baseball
~play at the beach
~go for walks
~help in the kitchen preparing meals
~do cross stitch (my mother in law usually does this during free time)
~or just sit and enjoy eachothers company over a cup of coffee
~Enjoy the "flying Fox"





Here is a picture that I took of one of my children with another friend of his at the beach they have their at the camp. Here they are just digging a deep hole using the Tonka Trucks we brought, am always amazed at how popular these trucks are.









Here is Heather again taking a picture of a flower, and this time she didn't notice me taking this picture of her *tee hee*. I just love getting those candid shots, just because they make for great photos. Perhaps it is because they are unexpected, and they are fun :)!






Ahhh yes, I forgot I took these two pictures of my middle son...here is my scientific child, my cause and effect child. What a guy, this is something he just LOVES to do...play with water!!! It is actually one of the tools we use to help calm him down when we feel he is having a sensory overload...and boy does it work...he stayed here doing this for 1/2 hour or more. I love watching him explore his world the way he does, because it is so different from what you or I would do.




Here is another picture taken shortly after the other one, wanted to sort of get two different shots of what he was doing. It is really interesting to see things through the eyes of a very sensitive child, by sensitive I mean that all his senses are hightened more than yours or mine. Things that don't bother us, bother him 2 times more or worse!!





Here is one of our Senior pastors enjoying time at the beach too, he is talking with lots of the little children that are running around the camp as well as some of the adults. Glad to see you at camp this year Pastor Bob :)! I think I must also apologize now for whom ever that is I got the back of...didn't realize I got them in the shot too.







From right to left we have the pastors wife, mother of the little boy who was playing with my oldest at the beach, the grandmother and not too sure who the other person is. Sorry person I can't tell who you are from here...lol...oh boy that's bad!









At last here is my dd finally posing for mommy, what a cutie pie she was but for some reason the angle of this shot looks kind of odd. Lol, and I wasn't at an odd position or angle either...hmmm!!!








Here is my dd trying to be Miss Independent, *sniff, sniff* she isn't allowed to be Miss Independet yet (she's not 2 yet)...but she certainly knows what she wants and when she wants it. Lol, what a face!!! Beautiful looking campground eh??










Here is one of the Youth taking a turn on the "Flying Fox", I had to take this picture to show her Mom ( a good friend of mine). She made it past the root and the tree :)!








The last picture I have is of my oldest son and another friend of his helping serve up lunch at the camp. Each person is to sign up for 2 meals, either to help prep for it or clean up...it works really well I must say :)! I think the kitchen is where you'd find my oldest for probably most of the retreat, after every meal he would help clean up and then he'd be there to help prepare for it. What a guy :)!



Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a great weekend :)!

Hugs,
catherine