campers

We are back in Chicago!  I have been mostly couch surfing due to a nasty stomach-flu bug, the details of which I shall not divulge here.  But I can share that camp was awesome! We had heard the tales of yummy food you don’t cook, zip line adventures, family assistants, and teaching from God’s Word.  We got to experience it all first hand this year with about ten other families from Chicago plus Jason’s sister and their family.  Let me just say the rumours are true!  Each family is assigned a family assistant that helps your family with the kids, meals, and in general made me want to throw her in our car and take her home with us!  The food was way better than any camp food (or most food I can cook at home I might add), there was night time zip lining, tree climbing, canoeing, swimming, eating breakfast in the woods that included something called “heart attack toast” (yes J went back for seconds), archery, paint-ball in the woods for the guys (think happy Jason), horsemanship class everyday for Anni with friends, pony rides for Evy, a kayak trip for J and I sans watoto (thanks to our magical family helper named Miranda), and great teaching from God’s Word.  We spent time unplugged and outdoors together.  And that is always a great thing.
The drive out there was beautiful…

the heavens declare His goodness

there was no cell coverage for hours and we could not even find a gas station.  Luckily we found this little outhouse in a park.  The girls were pumped until they opened it and it was NOT just a hole in the ground.  They miss the squaty pottys of Africa.

Anni loved the trampoline and she braved the huge waterslide!


J & I even got blobbed and did some blobbing. And I have the sore on my elbow to prove it.

Anni and her friends in her “little dudes” class. My girl is so big…sniff..

the queen of the pony ride (I think her record for one morning was 12)

We also tried our hands at archery and Jason and I got in a little friendly competition and shall we say: I smoked him.  He even up’ed the stakes and asked for the target to be moved further back and much to everyone’s amusement we threw out tons of smack about who would win.  In a dazzling Katniss Everdeen-like display of wicked awesome archery skills I still beat him again (yes, humility is one of my gifts:).   And yes, one of our love languages is trash talk!

Papa teaching his little girl

our fun date night; climbing a waterfall and Mexican food out and doing both with Jason.


camp fires and releasing a lantern the last night of camp

Our overall assessment: VCBC was awesome! Who wants to join us next year?