VBS!

Sorry it has been so long.  We got back from our trip Up North and immediately threw ourselves into the final of the summer's whirlwind of activities.  

The first up was VBS.  Being the director, the week after we returned home was filled with collecting donations, making decorations, filling out pre-registrations, organizing schedules, coordinating with volunteers, and so on.  It is always hectic.  This year, partly because we weren't borrowing from someone else so ALL of the decorating was on us, we did a lot more with decorations than we ever have before.  I can't help but share a picture of my favorite room:

 Crafts - otherwise known as the "Butterfly Garden."

Psst!  Remember the twins making the butterflies?

For Ryan and Allie, this was their second year attending.  This year went much more smoothly than the last.  They skipped away from me without a second glance, and didn't seem to need me at all during the week.  It was helpful, but in a very bittersweet way.  Regardless, they had a BLAST!

Playing games.

 Is there any sight that melts your heart more than little children praying?

Snacks.

 Crafts

 Choosing prizes at the store (yes, that is me helping...)

 Singing.

 Coloring at the Bible Story Station.

One of the new things we added (a week before VBS started), was a store.  Kids could earn points throughout the week and then "purchase" items at the store with them.  The theme this year was service, so one of the ways kids could earn points was through Acts of Service at home.  Each night they were sent home with "Service Cards" their parents could fill out and sign to send back the next evening for points.  Group Leaders could also give points for Acts of Service they saw throughout the evening.  Volunteers told me this was the best behaved the kids have ever been and parents thanked me for coming up with the idea - kids were cleaning their rooms, doing dishes, even washing their neighbor's car!  The last night I taped as many Service Cards as I could collect throughout the week to our wooden cross to show them how many times they had Served Jesus (the last night's theme) throughout the week.

One of the items they could purchase (with the most points) was throwing a pie at a volunteer.  This was, as you can imagine, a popular prize.  While we will change this up a bit next year, it was fun (especially since Lucas was a popular target!).

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank my parents for all of their help.  Many people in the church associate them with VBS (because they almost always come for the week), but many people don't know how much they do for this particular ministry.  Besides financially helping out, my parents are a huge part of making VBS happen.  We start talking VBS in January, and I took the materials with me to talk about it each trip to Nebraska this summer.  My Dad (a former VBS director) helped me pick out a curriculum, problem solved station conflicts, picked out crafts, and manned a brand new station (that I LOVED) for the preschoolers that became known as "Papa's Story Time."  My mom was planning on hanging out as a floating helper (since I promised her it would be a relaxing week), but gamely jumped in at the last minute to not only run the store but also set up a system of organization that we will probably use forever.  On top of that, they watched the kids before and after VBS so I could be there early and stay to close up, they kept my house clean and my laundry caught up, and they ran last-minute errands.  They are my VBS angels, and I doubt I could do it without them.  It would be a lot more stressful and hectic at the very least!

The week went by so fast, and suddenly we had another year filled with food, faith, and fun under our belts!  And that was just the beginning of our end-of-the-summer adventures!

Nautical Festival

We were only at the campground with our friends through Friday, and then we spent the rest of the weekend with Nana and Poppy (who got off the boat on Saturday).  We spent the weekend enjoying all of the fun activities that are part of Nautical Festival.

Saturday, once Poppy arrived, we enjoyed the carnival rides.  Or, rather, we enjoyed watching the twins enjoy the rides.

This ride was popular because of the loose association with Cars (notice the logo and the picture of Lightning McQueen peeking out from behind them).

 The flying canoes were an adult favorite (we were jealous we couldn't ride it ourselves).

 The roller coaster is always a favorite.

 The twins weren't big enough to go on the giant slide themselves, so Lucas and I had to go with them.  I thought it would be no big deal, but the higher we climbed the more I realized that the slide was a lot higher up than I thought.  And once I was sitting at the top, getting ready to push us over the edge, I realized that it was a lot higher than it looked.  As a result, I held onto Lucas and screamed all the way down the first time.  The second time I didn't scream...but if you look closely, you can see me holding the sides to slow us down.  The kids did not love going on this ride with me...

 The carousel was the fastest, longest carousel ride I have ever been on.  There was a group of high school girls sitting on this sleigh (they were told they couldn't ride the horses), so Allie joined them.  She was so excited to be "on of the guyls" (girls).

We ended our time with a ride on the Ferris Wheel...of which we have no picture because we were all riding.  But it was the favorite ride of the day.

Sunday, there was a parade.  We've been before, but the twins don't remember.  They were so excited to see the parade...and get lots of candy.  We joined up with some friends of Lucas' from his high school days and their families.  It was so much fun to catch up in the spare moments when our kids didn't need our attention.

Waiting for the start.

Collecting candy.

 The coolest float - an air craft carrier with miniature planes and a t-shirt cannon.  So cool.

Another favorite were the Budweiser Clydesdales.  Ryan clapped as they walked by.

We saw more than one band on a flatbed.  Here is Allie dancing to the music.

 My favorite part of the parade, hands down, was watching Ryan.  His excitement and enthusiasm over everything was contagious.  He cheered and clapped and jumped up and down.  Everything was amazing and he was thrilled to experience it all.  And so, now I will include a segment called: "The enthusiasm of Ryan"

 You might not be able to tell, but here he is mid-air because he is jumping up and down at the arrival of the fire trucks!

Sunday evening we went to see the fireworks that cap off the Nautical Festival.

A beautiful sunset over the marina.

 Waiting for the fireworks with our glow sticks (if you can't tell by the blankets, it was fairly cold).

 I'm always thrilled to see fireworks, and there were many amazing blasts.  It was a great end to a wonderful weekend.

The twins were sad when it was time to leave.  I told them we needed to return to normal life and they whined, "Isn't this normal life?  This is our life, what makes it not normal? Can't this just be our normal life?"  I wasn't expecting such deep questions, so I told them we just needed to go home and changed the subject.  Thankfully, now that we are home, they seem to be happy with "normal."

And you would think that our summer has been packed so full of adventures that we must be done now.  But you would be wrong.  We still have a few weeks of summer left and we are squeezing every last possible adventure out of them!

Kiddie Parade

When we were planning our camping trip, we looked at the Nautical Festival schedule of events to see if there was anything in particular we wanted to make sure we didn't miss.  After some talk, we decided it would be fun to participate in the kiddie parade.  One of Nana's friends, whom we have come to know well, has participated in past years, so I e-mailed Kari to find out what people usually do and ask if she wanted to be in the parade with us.  Best message I ever sent.  We talked about the theme (Hometown Pride), tossed around some ideas, and she said she would see what she could pull together to make any of our ideas happen.  My best (only) idea had been to do something along the theme of Poppy's boat.  I said something along the lines of, "Maybe we could put cardboard around a wagon to make it look like a boat?"  I was imagining something pretty basic, but what she ended up creating (with the help of Mr. D, Nana and Poppy, her daughter, Aunt Darleen, and probably more whom I'm forgetting) was amazing.

The view from the front.  Look at the pilot house!

 Named after the boat on which Poppy spent the majority of his career.

The sign was one of my favorite parts.  We DO love our sailors - especially Poppy!

For the record, she did not just "wrap" cardboard around 1 wagon or a couple separate wagons...the crew rigged together 3 wagons and covered them all to make 1 gigantic boat!  

Allie's group in the pilot house.

 Ryan rode in back as part of the sound crew.  They used a recording of the horn blasts from various boats for the kids to play during the parade. Sadly, it couldn't be heard very well over the crowd...but it was awesome.

We also had the 2 older girls carry Poppy's boat flag, and 3 of the dads dressed up as sailors so they would look the part while they pulled the float, carried wandering children, and kept general order.

Lining up to start the parade.  Getting 3 connected wagons our of the parking took some extra deck hands.

 During the parade.

One of the best parts was bumping into other sailors, and even the former captain of the boat our float was created after, see it and get excited about our float.  Sadly, the picture below is the only  picture I got of the amazingly talented and creative Kari with the float.  While she humbly passes off all the credit, I'm confident that our float wouldn't have looked anywhere near as amazing without her!

In case you are wondering, there is a competitive component to the parade.  However, they drew more participants than normal this year and the floats were bigger and better than ever, so instead of picking a winner or two, they picked the top 10 and divided the prize money between them.  We were so excited when "Poppy's Boat" was one of the winners!

Going up to get our winnings.

Even more exciting, we made it in the newspaper!  Front page, full color, above the fold!  See the picture and blurb HERE.  We also made it on the local news as well (See the news clip HERE.  Toward the end you can see Ry-guy standing and waiting for the results at the band shell so don't stop watching after our float has passed!).  The kids loved seeing themselves on tv :)

The whole gang!

Sadly, just after the parade (while we were eating dinner in the big tent) a gigantic storm blew in.  We're talking a complete downpour, and it destroyed our float that was parked outside.  It was so sad to know how much work went into making it so spectacular and then see it completely ruined.  But, we have our pictures and our memories!  It was so much fun to be a part of this annual tradition and it was even more fun to represent Poppy's Boat!

Camping: Adventures Abroad

As I mentioned before, we didn't spend all of our time at the campground.  In fact, we spent a considerable amount of time out and about on adventures.  Again, these are not in order.  I tried, but I had to think to long about the order in which our adventures happened and finally gave up...

One of my favorite adventures was our trip to Ocqueoc Falls.  I've wanted to go for a while (I love waterfalls), but we never seemed to have time even though we were so close so often.  The falls lived up to my expectations.  The trails were great, it was very kid friendly, and everyone had a blast!

The kids started by wading in a little rocked off area that had almost no current.

It wasn't long before the group wanted to move up the falls and the river.

Walking with Daddy.

The group walked all the way to the bridge.  I didn't get in the water.  I forgot to change into my water shoes, and it was slippery enough that I didn't feel confident trying it with my bad ankle.  So I walked the trails along the river and climbed to the bridge to take a group picture.

The whole gang.

On the way back, a few members of our group decided to jump off the falls.

Clearly, they thought it was great fun!  Something to remember to try with the twins when they are a little older...

Goofing off with Daddy on the rocks before we left.

Lucas' hometown was having their annual Nautical Festival while we were there, so we got to take part in the festival for a few of our adventures.  One such adventure was our trip to the Calcite Limestone Quarry to see their big trucks.  And when I say "big," I mean BIG.  It was so awesome.

The kids (and one dad) in the scoop. 

Kids and their parents were invited to see them up close, climb up, and even sit in the driver's seat.

Another shot to try to give you an idea of the gigantic size.

Driving the front loader.

I didn't get a picture of the giant dump truck, but it looked like a Tonka truck only 100 times larger!  I overheard one of the guys say that because he works there and works with these trucks every day it seems so ordinary, so it was fun for him to see the excitement of the kids (and parents) and be reminded that what he does is really cool.

In the dump truck - one of the drivers was answering all of Allie's questions.

They also had some members of the air force there along with one of their vehicles and all kinds of the gear and weapons they use.  Kids got to sit in the vehicle and have a very hands on experience with their gear.  They answered all kinds of questions (like what was their favorite snack), talked a lot about what their day-to-day might look like, and let the kids try on their helmets and vests.

Showing Allie how to look through the scope.

Another short adventure was a trip to the famous Plath's to pick up some bacon.  The kids were completely enamored with the hot dog outside and begged for their pictures to be taken with it.  Our friend said he was surprised we hadn't been taking pictures annually to keep track of the kids growth with the hot dog.  Perhaps this is the beginning of a new tradition...

Group picture!

We did have one more awesome adventure, but that deserves all to itself...