Camp Sunshine

Dave's cabin of boys (dressed as tacky tourists for a parade)


the special opening ceremony


Cathy's cabin (the blue team for "wacky olympics"!)



saying "good-bye"!

Dave and I had another great week at Camp Sunshine! This was my 16th year to go and Dave's 14th year... we both can't imagine a summer without it! People always ask what Camp Sunshine (a camp for children with cancer) is like... it is one of those things that you just can't put into words. It is a week where we get to watch children with cancer have a normal time... and a total blast at camp. It is one of our biggest rewards of each year to be with these special children for a whole week. Dave and I both have the opportunity to get to know some of the kids on a more personal level by being cabin counselors. Dave had a great group of 11 year old boys and I had a very sweet group of 12 year old girls... they were all so much fun to be with! We hope that we will get to continue this special tradition for a very long time!

Amelia's 9th birthday!!

Amelia is 9!! We pulled off a big surprise for her birthday this year... we thought that she was going to go insane trying to figure it out! We sent a secret invitation to her friends and asked them to bring earrings as a gift to Amelia because we were going to take her to get her ears pierced at her party. We had Amelia open a card from the family first which revealed the big surprise and had a gift card from Claire's in it to pay for everything. She then opened all of her friend's gifts and now has a wonderful collection of new earrings! After opening gifts we loaded up all of the girls into our vans and headed to Claire's... they were all so excited! Thank goodness Amelia had lots of support for the piercing because she was nervous, even though she has wanted to get this done for a long time. They did both ears at the same time and Amelia only cried for about a minute. Then we gave out gift cards to all of the girls to Claire's and they got to have a blast shopping for themselves! Then we headed home for mexican food and an Oreo Delight cake (Amelia's request). Amelia was very excited about her surprise birthday theme (she had known that she was having a party, but not what kind) and had a great day!

Annual trip to the farm

Every summer we make a wonderful journey to North Vernon, Indiana to visit a lot of Dave's family. There are lots of Uncles, Aunts, cousins... and lots of kids around! The smaller cousins have the best time running all over the farm, playing with the barn kittens, feeding cows, horses and goats, taking tractor rides, swimming in the pond, eating lots of food, etc. It is one of the most relaxing vacations that we take each year and we would not miss the wonderful family gathering! We all look forward to this trip every summer!

Mitchell's 11th birthday!

We can't believe that our baby is 11 years old!! Mitchell had a great idea for his birthday this year and we all had so much fun with it! He wanted to go white water rafting so we let him invite 3 friends to come along with us. We rented a house in Bryson City, NC for the night before rafting. We all left right after Vacation Bible School on Thursday and headed up to NC. Mitchell and his friends had fun playing for a while before we had grilled cheeseburgers for dinner (Mitchell's favorite). Then he opened his presents and they all watched a movie. The next morning we went to the Nantahala Outdoor Center to get ready for the rafting. We all had so much fun! The boys all got to ride on a raft together with Dave and the rest of us rode on the other raft. Thanks to Granddad, Grandmama, Debbie, Angie, Nicholas, Brandon and Reese for making this trip so much fun for Mitchell!
Mitchell also got another family celebration at home on his actual birthday... and more presents! What a great birthday!

Vacation Bible School

Vacation Bible School at our church is always a fun week to look forward to after school ends. I helped again and Mitchell and Amelia had a blast going around with their age groups. This year's theme was a beach theme... Surfin With the Scriptures and was so much fun! What a great way to start off summer vacation!