Our Tava Girl

Tava’s smile can light up any room!  We are loving her smiles and her growing desire to interact and play!  These days she still loves her exersaucer, though I’m trying to give her more opportunity to learn to sit on her own.  She’s rolled over a couple times, but it’s certainly not her favorite thing to do. She’s been introduced to daddy’s leg-rides and loves his “zerbert” kisses on her tummy. She’s eating cereal, fruits and veggies now too, and has grown much more interested in them over the past month. 


And humor me here…..I really do believe our children look mostly like Sam now, but come on….look at my baby picture below and tell me that does not look a little like Tava:)  That’s an 8 month pic of me and Tava is almost 7 months.

His Hobbies

We may live in small-town America, but this kid’s gonna be cultured…:)

What doesn’t he drum on?

The beret was completely his idea….

He’s as obsessed with guitars as he is drums….we are using my guitar as a reward now.  Today was a good day for him. 

Doing his rendition of the ABCs.  Coming to a youtube near you. 

The Night (Ski) Life

Sam was scheduled as Ski Hill Supervisor last night so we got got someone to watch the kiddos for us and I went out skiing with him!  It had been over 2 years since I’d been out on the ski hill (I’ve been cross-country skiing, but hadn’t been able to venture out down-hill skiing).  It was just like riding a bike and it came back to me…I was even going off jumps by the end of the evening…okay…mabye not very high…but I was going off of them:)

As ski-hill supervisor Sam’s responsibilities are to oversee all activity on the hill, enforce rules, get help for those needing lessons, and keep everyone as safe as possible.  I enjoyed skiing with him and watching campers enjoy themselves.  We had a couple large groups in this weekend made up of mostly youth so the hills, both tube and ski were steadily busy.  There were quite a number of snowboarders out attempting all sorts of tricks - they were fun to watch as I’m sure they were all aspiring Shaun Whites:)

Here are some pictures of the nighttime ski hill….mostly for those of you who’ve never experienced it.  Some of them are a bit harder to see….it was lightly snowing and the camera kept wanting to focus on the snowflakes…wasn’t sure how to get around that.  Nevertheless, here they are:

My favorite winter-time scene at camp

A view of the tow-rope, where skiers & boarders load and ride to the top of the hill

Look closely…it’s just been in the past few years that camp has created a section of moguls on the hill.  I avoided them.

A view of the main tow building at the top of the ski hill.  Inside this building is where the tow is operated from and where Sam is sometimes scheduled. 

We’re grateful for all of the recreational areas at camp that draw so many youth - but we pray and trust that amidst the fun and excitement of activity, God is drawing their hearts closer to Him as a result of their time away at CFS. 

Thank you to those of you who are a part of supporting, praying and/or encouraging our family as we serve at Camp Forest Springs! 

Supplies

As promised, here’s a pithy little update on basement progress this week.  We were able to make a family trip to Wausau on one of Sam’s days off and purchase many supplies that will help keep Sam rolling in his basement efforts.  We were so incredibly grateful for many things in that day….for time to prepare for the trip and know exactly what we needed, the means and ability to purchase the needed supplies (mostly lumber, insulation, recessed lighting and some other miscellaneous items), for kiddos that seriously did amazing despite strange nap times and being carted around many different stores all day long, for a fun time together as a family, for the use of our friends’ trailer, and that our van had the power to haul all of the supplies up our (very steep) driveway once we got home!  Thank you God for all that YOU provide!

Winter Family Camp

We’ve just wrapped up Winter Family Camp and here are a few pictures from the past few days.
These first three pics are “stolen” from our friend and CFS media specialist, Jesse Schutt, who took them.  They certainly capture some of the winter fun that families enjoyed in our recreational areas!

Playing a game of Broomball!

Father and son out on the ski hill

A camper on his way up the tubing hill lift

Enjoying supper out at camp

Session time!

The speaker spoke on creation - it was geared toward the entire family, so many of the kids sat were able to sit in on the main sessions with their parents, (usually we have seperate classes for all of the children during family camps).
And just some shots of our kids with people they love…and who love them! 

Katy is one of our babysitters, (fellow staff member’s daughter) - she does a wonderful job loving on our kiddos!  This turned out a little blurry but just had to get a shot of Tava with Katy at supper the other night.

Truman with “Ms Heather”

Truman is completely star struck with John and Diane Windle (who, if you don’t know, have a puppet/music ministry both at camp and as outreach.)  He LOVES them!