Nashville, Indiana

On the evening after our fishing venture, we headed into “town”.  The town was Nashville, Indiana and was a perfect picture of smalltown USA.

Quaint shops, native flowers in full bloom, and cottage style homes abound in this small town.  Hope I can give you a small glimpse of our visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course we stopped at the local ice cream depot…hand dipped ice cream in a waffle cone, my favorite! 

A very peaceful evening.

Interesting Find

 

Ok, so we are heading back to camp and we come across a 3-4 ft.  Timber Rattlesnake.  It was such an exciting find that I thought it deserved it’s own post.  I got as close as I could without endangering my life.  Although, a few of the pics got a little blurry when  I started backing up to move out of it’s way.  Here goes…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bye Timber Rattler, thanks for the show….stay in the woods and away from my campsite!

Summer Vacation Part 1

Well we’ve finally reached a place with WI-FI, giving me a chance to update the good old information highway in my little life!  So we started off on Thursday, June 17th, with camper in tow, and ended up at Brown County State Park in Nashville, Indiana.  For those of you who are not familiar with the layout of our state, that would be about 1 hour or so south of Indianapolis.

 

This particular park boasts over 15,000 acres, and includes hiking, biking, camping, fishing, and more.

Now, before I start with the photos, I want to warn you that I took over 500 pictures during the 3 day stay at Brown County…so I’ll do my best to pick only my favorites:)  But they say, a pictures worth 1,000 words…so I’ll let my pictures do the talking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Site 414 was our “home” for three days.

 

The crew decided to climb to the top of and old fire tower…I on the other hand opted to watch from below…it was a long way up and I don’t care much for heights.

This is a view from above.

 

That little white dot is me.

We headed to Ogle Lake to try our hands at fishing.  There were a lot of little hands willing to give it a try.

 

 

These little dragonflies kept landing on the poles, I finally caught a picture of one.

Busted…on the picnic table!

We finally caught a fish!  A decent sized catfish I might add…we let him go after everyone got a good look at him.

 

A few shots of some of my favorite subjects…Harrison informed me that that was the last one I was allowed to take of him.

  

Of course we had to take a break on the playground before heading back to camp.  Jackson decided to create his own playground attraction…as most boys do.

Holland quickly followed suit…

and of course everyone had to give it a try!

And when everyone was done even London climbed up (that alone was a great feat for such a little person).

A beautiful view of the handiwork of God!

Friends

Today was a hot one…perfect day for a swim!  Especially after sweating it out in the garden.   Hot dogs and chips is probably the easiest way to feed 11 hungry kids….so that’s what we did.  Not necessarily “clean eating”…but none of the kids were complaining:)  Just the perfect way to spend a day…with friends.

   

Ok…in case you didn’t notice, Monroe, my dog, has his nose in the picture…he’s eyeing those hot dogs!  He may be old but he hasn’t lost his love for food.

So it was a little bright out…I think London has sensitive eyes like her father.  Thanks Nick for taking London for a swim, her mom wasn’t really up for the frigid plunge.

We finished the day beading with the girls’ close friends…

They were hard at work making all sorts of beaded creations.

Here are some of Sydney’s designs, although I think some of the designs were learned from friends…the patents are still pending on these:)  I’ve been attempting to get them to turn their creations into jewelry as there is not a ton of use for small beaded creatures, but they have tons of fun doing it nonetheless!  So all in all, the day was definitely a success!  Thanks friends for fun times!

No Longer A Stranger

“Keep on loving each other as brothers.  Do not forget to entertain strangers , for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”  Hebrews 13:1&2

About a month ago our family had the opportunity to entertain a “stranger”.  At the time, that’s what he was to us,  a stranger from Australia. 

Several months back this energetic Aussie entered Joe’s office looking for real estate investment opportunities.  He was here and gone in a day, but he and Joe maintained communication via email.  After some time passed Craig (our Aussie friend) decided he needed to spend some time in the area (1 week) really seeing what was out here.  So we opened our home to him and we now have a forever friend. 

We learned about koalas, poisonous spiders, kangaroos, capsicum (i.e. peppers), blokes and mates (i.e. friends), beach (sp?) root, gardens (i.e. a backyard), and more.  We shared stories, experiences, faith, and overall life for a week.  We now have a new found friend…another divine appointment I am certain.  We look forward to future visits, thank you Craig for blessing our family!

Living in Community

"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.”  Acts 2:42,44-46

Twice a year, Memorial Day and Labor Day, we have the opportunity of “living in community”, if you will, with friends.  We eat together, play together, worship together, fellowship together, cook together,  swim together, compete together, and laugh together.  This year was a bit hotter than usual and with the limited electrical capacity of the camp we had to find ways, without A/C to cool off…the boys here enjoyed Megan and Greg’s hillbilly attempts.  I think three was the max that could fit in this tote of cold water. 

Thanks to Keith, Joe, and Greg for doing the grilling for 30 people!  This of course added to the 90 degree heat as we pretty much had to keep the grills and fires going the entire day as  it seemed we were constantly eating!

 We did our best to eat together…but 2 picnic tables can only hold so many!  We were often found spread out beneath whatever awning or tree was providing the most   shade at that time of the day….unless the pool was open or some competition was going on.

Most of the kids had the opportunity to practice their archery skills, which proved to be a lot of fun for everyone!  Even the adults snuck a shot in here and there.

Thanks so much to sweet MaryAnn for holding London during the archery session…MaryAnn, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you without a smile on your face! 

 

 Sitting in the shade enjoying popsicles, watching the men compete in the infamous volleyball tournament is a must.  This years’ game was so intense that it was exciting to watch and gained many spectators as our men beat the repeated champs, the Eichorn family.

There is probably not a family that is quite like the Eichorns in their sportsmanship, skill, and character.  They are definitely a family that is admired at MCSC.

So here’s a picture of the filthy bunch jumping for joy over their hard work as they ended up playing 3 LONG games in a best out of 3 set.  Way to go group!  Note to the readers:  the sand/dirt was actually so hot that one member of an earlier team had blisters on his feet!

 

Of course we found time for the slip-n-slide…Christine I couldn’t resist:)  Kudos to you for being one of the kids and bumping your way down…way to go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided it wouldn’t be camping without Twizzlers!  So, those that  were not able to (or chose not to) participate in the slip-n-slide enjoyed a Twizzler in the shade.

 And of course there were the spontaneous games of dodge ball…a game that is played and enjoyed by virtually every age.  Thank you Brandt family for providing the dodge balls every year, I know it’s a favorite in our family.

As you can see it was an awesome time and we look forward to Labor Day where we’ll do it all over again!