This morning started with rain, as any.of you know if you follow me on facebook or twitter. It rained until 10 and then it cleared out and was a beautiful day. We did not do much, our wood supply farm fell through this trip. All of there wood was junk. We found an Amish farm close to where we are. A great size bundle for only two bucks, and it is all hard woods. Great for mountain pies. The coals are piling up as I type. I'm waiting for the girls to finish up their showers. I took this shot on one of my bike rides this afternoon. In the first loop, where there are bo pets allowed, there are some great sites right on the water. I mean if you turn your camper to face the lake your awning poles may be in the lake. These longer trips are great because you have time to get settled in. Sometimes the shorter ones seem like by the time you are set up you are tearing down already. Tonight we had
Pork Chops marinated in a honey-mustard/italian dressing. It was good. Thanks for visiting.

Pretty Obvious, the girls swimming in the lake.

There is something about a camp fire that can captivate my attention for hours on end. I sit here tonight the girls, exhuasted from playing hard, turned in a bit early. Bridget her 8:00 sharp usual, and Bethany doing the head bob about 30 minutes later. Brenda's back is bothering her a bit so she turned also. I sit here reflecting once again feeling so very blessed to be able experience these moments with my daughters and wife. I had another moment of chills/goose bumps, both girls broke in Supernatural, a song they sang in the most recent Vbs the did. Great times...Great times!

Here Romy is sleeping next to Brenda as she reads a book. We took a couple of walks earlier so now she is tired.

Our trip to Pymatuning Ohio State Park has been good so far. It has been overcast but not raining. Here the girls are drawing on the road with a few girls they met today. Notice the baby stroller, there is stray cat sleeping in it. They found it a few days ago. It stays there while they walk around.

Here we are waiting for Brenda at Dollar General in Linesville. We can't go camping with shopping at DG.

Our site for Camping Trip 2009 #4. It is a little foggy this morning.

We left home today and it was raining cats and dogs. I'm seeing a pattern here, every camping trip starts with rain and continues to be beautiful. So we will take another soggy start. As we headed west from I-79 towards Greenville, the sun came out. We arrived around 7:30 and got most of our stuff set up. We reserved a different site then usual. I like it because we are in the middle loop, so we can see the lake from our site but we only have one camp site beside us. So it is semi private. We really don't like camp grounds that have sites right on top of eachother. The girls turned in as soon as we had their bed made up.

This weekend we did not bring the boat. We also planned nothing for this trip. We will relax and do as we wish, although the girls will dictate some stuff, but it's all good.

 

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Here is how we dry our shoes after they are washed in the washing machine. I’m thankful we have shoes to wash.

Bethany enjoying an ice cream cone at Kennywood.

I really wanted to get this posted yesterday morning before we went to the surprise. Oh-well. This all happened yesterday morning.

Well, we have reached a little more that half way through our summer break. We have been blessed with an awesome season of camping, swimming and just hanging out. I look back and think of some of the camping trips we have had and one in particular stands out. When we returned from the trip that overlapped the finals of the Stanley Cup, several people said to us, “we laughed when we realized you were away camping without a good way to follow the games”. Really?

Here are some before I go off a little:

• All members of our household watch most Penguins and Steelers games. 
  
• All members of our household get pretty rowdy during Penguins and Steelers games. 
  
• If we are here and a game is on, we are engaged in it 
  
• Games trump even Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers without much said. 
  
• We pretty much bleed black and gold. (Go Pens…..Go Steelers….) 
  

It’s just a game though. 

I do not regret missing in entirety, game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. I would not, in my lifetime, give up just any of quality time with my family, for a game. I forever will love the moments spent as a family unit. I cherish my wife, these precious little girls, and opportunities to meet new people and share God’s Love. We did just that on the night of game 7. We met a great couple that we hope to connect with on some future camping trips.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to watch the Pens play, and I think it is awesome that they won the Cup. But I do not regret not watching it.  It was just another game with a big trophy at the end.

I feel God has been surrounding me with living proof, that we need to embrace the people around us. Take time to talk to and listen to friends, family and even strangers. I have been making an extra effort to listen more, to insert sarcasm less, to encourage, not discourage and to go outside the comfort zone. The positive feeling I have experienced is a blessing. It brings me a sense of peace.

 
Okay, I am done ranting. This just had been weighing on my mind. I’ve been meaning to write about it, but just had not had any time. I know my writing skills are not the best, but the more I do it, the better it will get. Right? Thanks for enduring.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed weekend.

The girls.

Today the girls and I went over to our local Wal-Mart and found the FLW Fantasy Fishing truck there. They were letting the kids drive the virtual boat for free. The girls had fun, and the nice lady that was there gave us four tickets to Saturday’s and Sunday’s weigh in at the Mellon Arena. We won’t be here but maybe someone else will use them.  So if you want to go to the FLW weigh in on Saturday, August 1st, or on Sunday August 2nd, here in Pittsburgh let me know, you are welcome to the tickets. They start on both days at 4 PM. Can you guess where we will be? Camping…

Here is a quick video I shot of our perspective during this pretty nasty storm. Our van is usually in the garage, but the camper needed to dry out so it is in my stall. At least the hail did not damage it.

Well I said I love summer storms. We had a doozy this afternoon. It even had hail between the size of a pea and a dime. Boy was it noisy, and the wind was gusting at times also. The girls were a little scared and a little amazed. It was their first experiencing hail. Here is a shot of the hail that accumulated at the exit of our down spot half way down our lawn.

I love summer storms, the power of lightning, the roar of the thunder, and the sweat smell of a warm rain. It comforts me for sure. I took this last night while I was at church. It was a great storm.

So our weekend was wonderful. We spent time with friends, hiking and visiting around the campfire. Raccoon Creek State Park is a very nice place. Their facilities were sufficient and well maintained. We would most definitely return there to camp again. Here is a video of the deer and some photos with one of my favorite songs from Casting Crowns in the background.

Now our countdown begins for our next camping trip. 10 days if the weather cooperates. Enjoy!

One of the several wooded views we had this past weekend on one of our hikes. I love the outdoors.

Here the girls and I were on our early morning hike down to the lake at Raccoon Creek State Park. We passed up the half way point for summer vacation this weekend. Time flies when you are having fun. God has blessed us for sure. I know I am enjoying every moment of it.

This lantern is 13 years old. The first thing brenda and I got as a gift for camping on our 1st Anniversary.

We are off to Camping Trip #3 at Raccon Creek State Park. We met another family and couple here. We got set up and the skies opened up. Now the skies are clear, lots of stars to see. We are having a wonderful time. We got a bit lost coming here. That darn GPS, we ended up down some cow path, and it is not easy to turn around with the camper in tow. But we made it. I'm now helping Bridget fall asleep while everyone is talking around the camp fire. I love everyting about camping!

The girls waiting for our dinner date at Primanti Bros.

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These two things help me make it through summer.

 

Another one from @tatood1 over at Caffeinated Faith.

Now, let’s do what is uncomfortable.

The girls in a Shuttle.

My daughters are going to turn into watermelons if they keep eating it at this rate.

Here is the girls tomato plant. This is the only tomato so far. They have been watering it daily.

Yesterday afternoon Brenda, Lori(Brenda’s Mom) Bethany, Bridget, and I went to Cranberry Community Day. We had some good old fair food for dinner and the girls played games. After all of that we met up with a couple families from Church and listened to Tom Watt “The Buffet Man” and watched fireworks. The music was fun and the fireworks show was very good. Here is a shot of Brenda and Bridget hamming it up for the camera. Below is a video of Bethany and Bridget dancing to the music.

Worth Watching….

They have become little fish. Seriously….

This is Romy’s favorite chair on our back porch. She will sit out there quiet as can be for hours, unless a chipmunk or deer are brave enough to enter our property. Then she acts like a killer dog.

There’s  nothing better than local sweet corn.

Piano Keys

This is something I stumbled upon thanks to @tatood1 over at Caffeinated Faith. He posted a video about regrets, after watching it I found this. He has some great stuff posted over there. This is video funny and touching all at the same time. It was created by Igniter Media Group. I highly suggest you check out both of these links. Here is the video:

What a beautiful sky we had yesterday. A perfect day.

I love to grill in the summer. It makes me want to grunt like Tim the Tool-Man.

One of the many reasons I love summer is the fresh fruit we get from the farm market. Yum.......

This is a pretty cool video. I can’t imagine how long it took to set this up. Notice that they placed objects under each bottle to ensure they would fall in the right direction. Enjoy!

Thanks Dean for passing this one.

We have returned from our weekend retreat to Church Camp. God did bless us on our trip. We had an outstanding day on Saturday, we hiked, we crossed a rope bridge, we played in a stream, we rode on fun bugs and then while the girls and Brenda did a low ropes obstacle course I jumped off a cliff, attached to a zip line of course. It was amazing. Leaping off and having complete faith in Joel, our camp counselor, the line and all of the equipment that kept me safe. I reflected a while as I was the last one of four to jump. I watched Joel closely while he instructed us on the do’s and don'ts of zip lining, he seemed very knowledgeable and confident. It is easy to have faith when we can see and touch. I know for me that sometimes it is not so easy to have complete faith in something we don’t see. I feel it is so important to take a moment to look around and see what God has created. This adventure has helped me realize how wonderful our God is. The beauty that we hiked through at Westminster Highlands Camp and the fellowship we participated in is proof positive of our Great Creator. Several times during our trip I felt almost drawn to tears, happy tears. I am so grateful to God, for my family, for my friends, and for his grace. I’m far from perfect, and he blesses me everyday with healthy children, a loving and caring wife, and a wonderfully loving Church family.

Bryan, one of the little campers in the group, fell last night and cut his forehead pretty bad. I was blown away how we all acted very quickly to assist like he was one of our own. Each one of us scrambled in different directions one to get a van, several to get first aid kits, and one to get a GPS, then to the parents which took care of Bryan’s brother and sister while his parents went to the hospital with him. We scrambled and had  Bryan in route in less the 4 minutes to the nearest ER, all because each on of our hearts ached to see this little guy in pain, like he was our very own. A counselor touched on this earlier in the day. One of the first things she noticed was how we all took care of each others kids like they were our own. She had never experience such closeness in a group. Attempting to distinguish which kids belong with which parents was a challenge for her. That brought to my attention of how blessed we are to have this group of friends.

I complained in my last post about the beds and the critters. We switched up beds and the second one provided me with a much better night of sleep. As far as the critters, I must go into a little more detail. Our particular Hut did not have walls or a ceilings on the inside, so this left the openings at the ends of the roof rafters wide open to the outside. On our first night the girls slept with another family up in the lodge, Upon returning from taking their sleeping bags up with them, I came back to the hut to find a mouse along the outside roof rafter of the hut and when I startled him he ran right out of the hole I was referring to. After this, I was a bit paranoid. So with a bad bed not letting me sleep well, every little noise had me turning my flash light on to check to see what it was. I never did see another critter in our dwelling. But only got around 4 hours of sleep that first night. By bed time on the second night I was exhausted. A bomb probably would not have woke me.

All in all we had a good trip. Looking forward to getting together again with these great friends. Thanks for visiting and making it through my painful grammar. I pray everyone will have a wonderful week!

Here is  picture Jason took right after our Outdoor Church service, held at Chapel Rock. Sorry for the bad picture quality, our camera is not working anymore, so I used my phone all weekend.

460 acres of woods @ Westminster Highlands. Amazing!

So we arrived at Westminster Highlands last night to find out they were not going to feed us. There is a total of 23 of us and 19 of us did not have dinner. After settling in to our huts(picture above), Jason and I got a fire started and Dave and Annemarie ran to a local store to get hot dogs, buns and fixin's. All in all we worked well together to feed the hungry and had some great fellowship around the camp fire. Our camp leaders lead us in song and a little devotional. Back to our so called hut, we were supposed to all be in lodges. Somehow they over booked the lodges. So the Gillis's and us took one for the team and are roughing it. No electric and a really rough enclosure they call a hut. I'll go ahead and get this off my chest and say may bed sucks and critters are sharing it with us. Mice and God knows what else. I'm done complaining. God Bless us on our adventure.

The van is packed and mother nature can't make up its mind. It rains, then the sun comes out and then it rains again. Here is the hood of our car as we are ready to leave for our weeknd retreat. Thanks for visiting and have a safe and blessed holiday weekend.

I need sun. It has been cloudy for a couple of days. I need sun. On a positive note, we are going away on a weekend retreat with several families from Church and the weather looks like it will be outstanding. I can’t wait for some sun.

Here is our dog Romy. I recently groomed her for the first time. All I can say is thank goodness it will grow back. I don’t thing I did all that bad for the first time. I am amazed that she sat and let me do it.

Here are the girls helping me make Friendship Bread that we were given by Angie a friend from church. It turned out real good.

Fourteen years ago on this day, the first of July, I married my bride. Yes, Brenda and I celebrate our Anniversary today. We have actually been together for seventeen years. Wow, how time flies when you are having fun. I love my wife very, very much. Here is a picture the girls made for Brenda and I this morning.

Happy Anerversery Brenda!