Battle !!

Hey what's summer without a good 'ole water gun fight!

Landscaping

Yeah ... It's finally done! Our good friend Steve (the master gardner) planned out a landscaping project for the front of our house. He dug and planted. We shoveled rock! Jessica named all the plants after everyone in our family. When you visit she'll tell you which one you are!

Before (with the plants just sitting there
waiting to be planted).

Kyle was a big rock-mover!

Jessica smoothed out the rock.

After

A Full House

Okay so Leanne likes kids! In case you haven't figured that out by now check out the following pictures. She was watching the Trusty kids, the Sheppard kids (along with their cousins), and our two! They had a blast!

Instructions on long posts ....

Okay so there are several posts related to our 4th of July camping so you may want to scroll all the way down to "4th of July" and then read them going up the screen. That may be a bit more readable!

Zippin

The Camp has a duel zipline (2 people ride down next to each other). It is the longest one in the state and quite possibly in the top 5 of the whole country! The camp policy is that students have to be in 5th grade to ride it ... but since this wasn't "technically" a camp and since the requirement by regulation is 50 pounds ... Kyle got to ride the line! Jessica had done it during her camp week but she went again. In fact - all of us did .... Yeehaw!

Kyle zippin down the line

Jessica zippin down the line

4 Wheelin'

Matt let us borrow his 4-wheeler for some muddin' fun! Yeah - he's pretty cool.

Jessica said 4 wheelin was her favorite thing on our camping trip!

Water Fun and More

The kids enjoyed hiking down to the creek to swim and splash around. The also stacked rocks to block the water and make waterfalls.

Of course the pool was also open when you wanted
a little bit cleaner swimming water.

Kyle, Abby, and I were going off the board and Jessica was
scoring our dives. Here's a clip of Kyle's 10!


Kyle joined the Austin family for some Bocce Ball fun!

4th of July

Well Cayuga Christian Church hosted their first "Church Camping Trip" at our local church camp. We left Thursday after dinner and spent Thursday night, Friday, and Saturday at the camp. I spoke for the Saturday evening worship service.

We had an excellent time! It was nice to relax with friends from church. We had the privacy of the camp and didn't have to worry about rowdy or unruly campers (well except for maybe a few !!)

I'll post a few pictures here but then I'll have to add additional postings so keep reading ....

Matt & Kara Porter are some of our good friends. Matt just happens to be the associate director at the camp and since he was camping "at home" he let us stay in their camper. Sweet !!! It's the one in the center of the picture.

Jack joined us for our camping trip!

Check out the laid back Cabella chairs! Guess what's on my "gotta have" list?

Kids At Camp

Jessica and Kyle both had their week of summer camp. Kyle was at the residential camp with Leanne as one of the sponsors. Jessica was roughing it out in the wilderness at a Girls Wilderness camp.

Kyle climbing to the top of the rock wall!
(not a huge surprise that this is one of his favorite things at camp)

Leanne only saw Jessica once at camp. It was when the wilderness
campers were at the residential camp for swimming.

Kyle was the only boy from our church that went
to this week of camp!

A good picture of Charis climbing the rock wall.