A really good day.....

As a child I only went away to camp 3 times, but I went to day camp several years for girl scouts.. I still faintly hear 100+ little girls singing on top of their lungs..... Girl scout camp, girl scout camp, the leaders that they give you they say are mighty fine, but when they take their makeup off they look like Frankenstein. Oh I don't wanna go to girl scout camp..... ~sigh~ those were the days....
Well, I relived a small piece of an old fashioned camp today........

Aaron and Chris's church (also where my Aunt Rebecca, Uncle Rick, and Chelsie goes) had their annual youth day today at a local camp that used to belong to the YMCA. I heard the church now owns the camp. The service was in the "mess hall" and afterwards there was a cookout/pitch in lunch.

After we ate, the older people left, but the younger ones stayed to play volleyball, kickball, baseball, archery or they went boating (was too far away to tell if they were rowboats or canoes) or hiking the trails. It felt like a lazy relaxed day at camp.

Aaron and my cousin Heath used to go to day camp there, and I saw the pond that they got "stuck" in when they were little (8 years old? 9?) They went boating, and panicked because they were in the middle of this pond and couldn't get to shore. They thought the shore was MILES away. In truth, you could swim one side to the other without any problems. I had a good laugh at that story. Aaron claims it has "shrunk" since then. Yeah, OK.I believe you... NOT...

After taking a long hike, we headed to Aunt Rebecca's house. My cousin Heath's daughter, Chelsie, and my cousin Tracey's daughter, Lauren, had spent the night with Rebecca. So, when we got back to Rebecca's house, Chelsie and Lauren put on swimsuits and was using the water hose as they jumped on the trampoline.
I laughed so hard tears were rolling when Chelsie asked Rebecca to bring her some shampoo, conditioner, and body wash.... Yes, you read that right. They took showers (with their suits on) outside on the trampoline.

Once they were dry, we headed in for homemade snow cones while Aunt Rebecca made a pizza (Not frozen). After supper the girls talked Rebecca and I into a game of badminton. We played and lost three games. The girls won all three, and they've NEVER played before. I kept thinking how fun it would be to get all the cousins out for a cookout and a badminton game.

With close to 5 acres of land and being WAY out in the country, their yard is HUGE and so peaceful. There is a woods on their property, and you can watch deer stroll across the yard from their kitchen window. I told my aunt that I could just come over just to sit on their front porch or their back deck. With or without them home. LOL...

I am now pleasantly exhausted, and think I'll turn in early tonight....

Know any camp lullabies???

CONGRATULATIONS ASHLEY AND ADAM!!!!!!!!!!!

Chris did an AWESOME job!!!
Relaxing afterwards with Philip's puppy, Rocky, at my feet

Ashley and Carrie
The happy couple

Wedding behind the scenes......

First thing I should say is Ashley and Adam, Congratulations and I love you guys.

After 6 months of keeping away from ice cream, junk food, and not eating out as much, I cringed as I tried on my maid of honor dress last week PRAYING I didn't gain too much weight.. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the dress fit better now than it did when I first brought it home. Now that the wedding is over, I can "let myself go" somewhat.

We (Chris, Adam, Ashley, Sarah, Sara, Jo Beth, mom, dad, and I) arrived at 9:30 AM Friday to decorate. After decorating the "Wedding" church we headed to the "Reception" church to decorate there. After DAYS (okay maybe a couple hours) of picking out three crayons (making sure NO ONE got white or three similar colors) and tying them together, (You didn't think they bought the crayons that way did ya? LOL) we headed back to T. for the rehearsal.
The rehearsal dinner at Pizza King was fun, and it was nice to see people that I hadn't seen in a while. And I had getting acquainted with Adam's niece and nephew. After the rehearsal dinner wrapped up, we "girls" (guess I'm included as one of the girls) spent the night at Sarah's house.
First thing Ashley did was make me cry. She gave each girl a pair of earrings and a pin to wear in the wedding, 3 of us got Starbucks cards (the other girl works at Starbucks so she figured she'd prefer something else), and we each got a framed picture. Sarah and Sara both got pictures of the three of them together.... Ashley, Sara, and Sarah we're best friends in high school and she had pictures of the three of them together. So they both got the same picture, Jo Beth got a picture of her and Ashley during their college years, and I got a picture of her and I together at her college graduation.

After we dried tears we tried on our dresses and I practiced fixing Ashley's train. We eventually went to bed. Whether anyone actually slept I'll never know.

Sat morning we woke up at 7:00? Sarah's parents had gone to Panara Bread and brought back bagels for all of us. I found that very touching. After filling a cup with juice to take with me, I graciously thanked Sarah's parents for opening their home to us. And we were off to the church...

After 4 hours of styling hair, doing makeup, and TONS of laughing it was time for pictures...
After pictures..... Well... You know the rest. ;)

Special note: Chris, you are AWESOME and deserve so much credit!!!! I'm still shaking my head in wonder on how you were able to be at the church all day Friday to decorate, sit through rehearsal, attend the dinner, be up all night to care for a crying baby, be at the church at 7:30 AM, do hair for 4 hours STRAIGHT, sit through a wedding, and STILL tear stuff down afterwards.... you really are AMAZING!!!!! Superman and Spiderman can't hold a candle to you. You are my hero!!!!

So, now I'm off to fix and eat a HUGE bowl of strawberry and chocolate ice cream. Man, I missed ice cream.