delay= too busy having fun!

hello loyal blog readers!  apologies for the delay in a more recent post...  we have been VERY busy up here and apparently have had little to no time to keep you all updated!  today is the first day of our 2nd camp session, which means camp is already half over!  today I am sitting in the camp store during registration, so I have plenty of time to say "hello!" to all of you.  so, HELLO!

Karah has definitely come out of her timid and shy mode-- she now runs up to many of the guy leaders with a big hug and a very loud shout out.  it seems like it's all or nothing with this girl!  a visitor came to camp last week and described our kids as "vibrant."  I thought that was a good description--  it's not a "oh, they are so cute" label, but it definitely encompasses their rather outgoing, sometimes explosive, every so often calm, usually happy personalities.  It looks like reserved and quiet are NOT going to be words we see written on any school progress reports for these 2!

Jason seems to be loving Dinky Village and camp--  I often see pictures of him, taken by other leaders, out in the middle of the group council circles singing songs or being a part of skits.  if this is him at age 4, I can only begin to imagine what he'll be like at 8 or 9 years old!  on a more challenging note, he has learned the art of throwing a fit and yelling when he is mad.  we are working through that--  since he is with another person (the Dinky Village leader) for most of the day, I think the transition back to mom and dad's expectations can be a bit difficult.  Matt and I definitely find ourselves correcting him a lot, which is not fun for anyone... but we are still his parents and don't get the luxury of ignoring or overlooking all of his straying ways.  thankfully, there are about 100 other people here who get to have all fun, all the time with him (and visa-versa).

We enjoyed a few days off this weekend, and took advantage of the time away  from camp to visit our friends in Grand Rapids.  We always love visiting them and this time we got the pleasure of meeting their 3-week old son!  They live in a super cute neighborhood in Grand Rapids, so that was fun to be out in the "real world" beyond camp boundaries for a little bit.  While we were away from camp, we were also sure to get in more beach time, another trip to the petting farm with a special event of bouncing on the big trampolines (pictures to follow!), lunch at Country Dairy (with unlimited chocolate milk refills, of course), ice cream at Pekadill's, and movie rentals of Strawberry Shortcake for Karah, Diego for Jason, and the last Harry Potter movie for me and Matt.

we are all loving these days and trying to make the most of all our moments!