Annual Picnic

We had our annual church picnic out at one of the area lakes on Sunday. It's always fun having a service outdoors on a hillside. We just had the most beautiful weather, too. Of course we ate way too much food, and then we got way too much sun (Rick earned a sufficient sunburn). We had some good pictures of Rick and the kids swimming, but they turned out too dark. Here's one of Cambria and her oh so cute pigtails.

Happy Birthday, fatso

Bryce had his 7th birthday yesterday! Wow! We just can't believe it! That morning I (Jenn) called him (since I was at camp still) to sing him Happy Birthday. I asked him if he felt any older, and he said no, but then paused in thought and responded, "I feel fatter." I got a good laugh out of that one (I feel that way too!), then I asked him what he meant. He said it was because he ate one hundred cereals. The kid can EAT, but he is just skinny as can be, so good for him that he feels fatter on his birthday! :0) I think we can all learn a lesson there--we should feel fatter on our birthdays AND be happy or proud of it!

I love camp!

I (Jenn) apparently cannot get enough of camps! I just got back from the A/G MN Jr. High camp, and it was awesome. It's been about 4 years since I've counselled at a camp, so I was a little rusty going into the week. But I stepped it up, and I went in full force. Of course, it's so easy when you are counseling the best girls EVER! There is just something about youth camps that I just love. Youth feeling comfortable enough to really enter into worship (it's just so much easier when you are with your peers), and it's just incredible to see their hearts so hungry after God! It was just amazing. And there's just nothing like getting to act as crazy and dumb as you want, and it's okay because you are supposed to (well, the girls I counselled might have another opinion on that one). My body doesn't quite recover as quickly as it used to, though...but for the record, I did body slam quite a few girls in the mud pit! (note: the mud pit is the place where one of our games took place in which the counselors had to guard barrels, and the campers had to try to get balls into them. It was our job to throw down anyone trying to get a ball into the barrels. Also, the mud had quite a few rocks and sticks in it--so I'm pretty scratched up and black and blue). And, amazingly, I would do it again! Here's a picture of me and all my girls. By the way, Rick had a GREAT time being home with all three kids without me! :O) One time when I called him he said, "I am REALLY ready for you to come home!" Abbi had one meltdown, but other than that we all survived the week.

"Where's Wadholms?" and a wedding

What a busy week we had--but oh, so much fun!! We went to FaHoCha camp this week(12-13 yr olds) where Rick was the camp speaker. The kids spent most of their days catching frogs and then killing them (accidently, of course, since Abbi is not so gentle). We felt that it was one of the best camps we've ever done there. The first time we went was when Bryce was just about 1 yr. old and he was sick the whole week. Well, 6 years later and things haven't changed much. This year Cambria and Abbi got sick. Oh well, that's just how it goes! Can you play "Where's Wadholms?" and find them in this picture? This is a group picture of all the campers, and it was one of the largest camps they've ever had. Awesome!

On Saturday we got to participate in Cory Thompson's wedding to Ashley Wenaas. Cory was in our youth group in Osnabrock when we were there. Ashley is from Carrington, so that's where the wedding was held. Really nice for us since that meant Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Patti got to babysit the kids for us! Yeah!! What a great way to end the week!

MN camp

We are back from MN family camp, and we had a blast. Even though it was "family" camp, we were split up for much of the time. For two of the services, Jenn worked in the infant (up to 20 months) nursery. Let me remind you what it's like when it's past all of these kids' bedtimes and they've been going, going, going all day long--now put together about 15 of these kids with 2 nursery workers (and two kid "helpers") and you can imagine how exciting that was! :o)
Abbi went off to preschool class and loved the puppets! Bryce went to kids church where he learned a new song. The words that he learned were, "Jesus your my superhero, your my star, my best friend...". Now repeat that over and over and over (since those are the only words from the song he remembered) and you can just imagine how lovely our drive back from camp was! :0) Cambria was in the nursery and Rick got to sit and enjoy some great preaching. He even got to hear Damian (Kristan -Torgerson's- husband) for an afternoon service. We are tired out from all the fun, just in time to head off for FaHoCha camp tomorrow! Yeah!

Fun with Friends

We got to spend a day with our best friends from college--Ben and Nikki McIntosh on Monday. We had a fun time taking a tour of Trinity and seeing all the changes they have made since we graduated 7 years ago. Getting to spend the day together was almost like the good old days. The big difference being that between the two of us we had 4 children along for the ride. We had a great time, but it was just WAY too short. We love you guys!! Here is a picture of the four of us, and one of Tommy and Bryce. Nikki and I were pregnant at the same time our Sr. year of college and our boys are only 3 weeks apart. Aren't they cute?