A Little Summer "Ketchup" ~ Highlights of the Past 2 weeks!

I've gotten a little behind in my blogging...I needed to "ketchup!"

On Friday, July 10, 2009 as we were packing up for a camping trip with a group from our church, my niece, Jennifer was in the hospital, preparing to give birth. They hadn't wanted to find out if it was a boy or girl ahead of time, so I was hoping to find out something before we left. After all, I wasn't going to have a computer with me at the campground...I couldn't even check facebook! Well, as luck would have it, I got a phone call, just as we were going out the door...it was a BOY! His name is Alex Michael, and he weighed in at 8lbs. 9 oz. and was 20" long. I have not yet seen him in person, since I wasn't around to go visit them in the hospital, but I'll go visit soon. Here is a picture of my sister, Sue (who is FINALLY a grandma), my niece Jen and of course, little Alex.

I have a grandson named Alexander James too, so now Sue and I each have a grandson named Alex. Welcome to the "Grandma club" Sue! Congratulations on your sweet little bundle of joy, Jen and Jason! Welcome to the world, baby Alex!

Okay, on to the camping trip. We didn't have far to go, just about 20 miles, in fact. That doesn't mean though, that you don't need a lot of stuff! I snapped this shot of CJ while we were waiting on the side of the road, to meet up with my stepdaughter, Sarah and her husband Brad, who were joining us.

He looks pretty cozy in there, don't you think?

Anyway, we had a great weekend, although it was a little chilly at night. Who would have figured it would drop down into the 50's in mid-July?? For those of you not from Minnesota, even around here that was a bit odd. We also had a couple of showers, the first being while we were eating our supper on Friday night. A friend lent us a tarp to throw over the picnic table, and we finished our meal UNDER it. Ahhh...the joys of camping.


But the real joys of camping, are the little things. Just hanging out with friends on the playground...

A little game of basketball...

Playing "Chubby Bunny." If you've never tried it, you take turns seeing how many marshmallows you can stuff in your mouth and still say "chubby bunny."

It was my friend, Padma against the teens and "tweens."

Here's Padma. Ain't she cute??

And a good friend of Molly's, Hope-Anne...she's also one of the famed "QTPies 7."

But the winner was my Molly...with SEVEN marshmallows! She makes a mother proud, (sniff sniff). Molly neglected to put sunscreen on her face and not enough on the rest of her either, and as she hung out in the pool most of the two days...she ended up much redder than the above picture. Ouch! She was hurtin' for certain, and peeling for the whole next week!

Some of the youngest campers played a rousing game of "Duck, Duck, Grey Duck" or "Duck, Duck, Goose" for those of you who didn't grow up in Minnesota. This was being discussed at the campfire next door, while the kids were playing.

After "chubby bunnying" the older kids decided to play "spoons" on the ground...with plastic spoons...and believe it or not, after that...they all went for a good old-fashioned "Snipe Hunt!"
It's amazing what they can find to entertain themselves with, when the TV, computer and the Wii are not available, isnt' it?

The Saturday night fire was a BLAST!, (if not a litte dangerous at times). See all that black grass around the fire ring?

The fire kept escaping the ring, and it was up to Donnie (Mr.QTpies7) to put them out. It was a good thing we were over in our own little corner of the campground...there was a lot of loud laughter emanating from this group. I cannot go into details, since we've decided that what happens at the campfire...stays at the campfire ;0)


Now, fast-forward to the following weekend...

This past Saturday, was my good friend Lisa's daughter, Kaytlin's grad party. Of course I was one of those enlisted to help out. Another friend, Jody and I went grocery shopping with her on Thursday, Anna I helped her decorate some cakes on Friday, and three of us kept taco ingredients filled during the party on Saturday, although Jody and Anna (more bloggy friends) were pretty much on top of that.

We did some of the set-up for this party the night before, during our monthly Ladies' Night Out, and since my grandson was up way too late with Grandpa and Auntie Molly, he was quite tired and crabby. I made him lay down for a "rest." A few minutes later, this is what I found.

Last, but certainly not least...This past Sunday, was our church picnic. For the past few years, it has been held at the home of one of the families from our church, Chad and Andrea P. They've also added baptism in the river, for those of our congregation who haven't yet been baptized, and choose to publicly proclaim their faith.

Here's a couple of pictures of people enjoying each other's company and the kids waiting for a "hayride." There was no actual hay...but they had a great time anyway. (The following pictures look small, but if you double click on them, you can get the big picture and check out who's in them.)

Some wonderful people donated the food and their time and talents to prepare it...

We enjoyed pork chops, coleslaw, beans, lemonade and rootbeer floats...along with a plethora of desserts brought by everyone to share.

Then it was time to "Gather at the River" Here's the procession going down...

There were 7 or 8 people baptized in the river that day. They said the water was very cold...but none of them got "cold feet" except maybe Pastor Al, who was out there for quite some time...

Thanks, Chad and Andrea, for hosting and everyone else involved in making this a special day!