Cabin Camping

As a teenager, I went up to a camping lodge called Lutherhaven for various church functions.  It was a nice place for retreats, camping, hiking and just having fun.  It was a quiet piece of nature in the mountains perfect for experiencing God's natural world.  In 2003, it burned down along with the other hundreds (maybe thousands) of acres surrounding it during a wild fire.  I mostly forgot about it until I recently found out that they rebuilt it and made it easy for church members to go stay up there with their families when it wasn't being used by churches.  We signed up immediately and had a nice weekend enjoying the beautiful fall colors. We took my parents too, to celebrate my mom's birthday :). 

Mountains... Nature's playground!

We happened to go at the peak of fall color :). 

The burned down hill behind the cabin.

Family picture... Did I mention how beautiful the fall colors were?

G & G Reinert!

Evening hike down and then back up the road to get there... Gorgeous colors!

Smile!

Sundown called for a happy birthday song and smores!

Late night board games with the family!

A little chapel next to the lodge at sunrise... Stunning view!

You can see the burnt down hills...



View from balcony at sunrise... do you see lake Fenton down there?

Homemade birthday cards for grandma!

Our hike to the lake... Austin wouldn't keep his hat on.

On our way down we didn't see any wild life, but we did run into some cattle :)... The boys were impressed!

Yay, we made it to the lake!

K found some bugs right away (it is a grass hopper)!

fishing.

casting.

Hiding in the grass.

C waited patiently for his turn to fish.

So did Grandpa!

Good times, but no too successful with catching fish.

Off they go to explore.

These three were on an ever-changing adventure game :). 

Grandma had fun talking ducks with Carter while they sat looking at the lake.

More color!  

Awesome views in every direction.

brotherly moments!

can you find Mike, Josh & Kyle?  

Here is a clue... Now go back and look at the above picture! 

It was a breath of fresh mountain air to have a weekend get-away...We can't wait to visit again!

American Ninja Warrior

The pack, lead by big J, loved watching the TV series "American Ninja Warrior" this summer and while it was a fun competition to watch our house is suffering the effects caused by it.  For some reason, our kids think our home has become a par course!  Everything is 'jump here', 'climb there', 'I need to do this to move on to the next level', etc... 

It is kind of like the 'don't step on a crack' game my brother and I played when we were young.  

 This is the spider climb... And of course it has to be done at every doorway.

And this is the door post scale... 

 They have managed to jump and scoot this rug at the same time to 'get to the next station'. 

 

 I suppose they are using team work, motor skills and determination along the way (even I am constantly telling them not to climb on the walls or jump off the furniture)... If you happen to stop by our house, please forgive all the finger marks on the walls!

Chalk tea

Have you heard of it before?  It has become a buzz word around here as the 3 middles have formulated a new craft for themselves.  I'm not sure I would like to sip it like peppermint tea, but they have their process down to a T and go deep into their play pretend world when creating it :). 

 

All you need is chalk and water, a sponge and a container ... Use the chalk to color over a puddle of water, mix colors for extra fun!

 Make sure to color a few layers of chalk for vibrant colors.

 Use the sponge to soak up the colored water...

 Squeeze it into a container and repeat.

 Pour into smaller containers and serve...

 Would you like some tea?!

 PLEASSSSE???!!!

Moving around...

It turns out that our little chunkster has some pretty strong muscles under that squishy squashy scrumptiousness!  Mix that with his intensity and we have an early mover... He isn't crawling on his hands and knees yet, but he MOVES where he wants to go and has been doing so for a good month or more now.  Watch out world, here comes Austin! 

We used to lay out a nice baby blanket that he could explore on...

 But he quickly learned to flip over (sometimes even taking the blanket with him, making a baby burrito!)...

 And he would flip again...

 Do you see his intensity??

 Something is spotted and his muscles get to work...

 He even chases after his feet much like a dog chases after his tail!

 Hmmmm... I wonder if I could make it over there?!

 Back to the blanket...

 But not for long, there are toys to be tasted!

 He is our sweet BIG boy!

 Oh, no his has discovered that things go vertical too... It won't be long!

 We love you Austin!!!