Neusiedler See

On two different days of our vacation we visited the Neusiedler See area. It was a huge lake in Austria that had several different banks from which you could swim and spend the day doing various activities. On one day we went to the Seebad area and on another we went to Podersdorf. Both were extremely beautiful locations along side the water. The first time there we went with the Keens and spent our time together with our families, and the second day we spent together just the three of us. Each day was wonderful and relaxing. I have really missed being near water and this lake was large and gorgeous. Here are some pictures from our time there:




We spent a lot of time in this part of the park alongside the lake. There was a children's pool area with little cobblestone creeks, slides, and other fun things to do in the water.






You can see the lake in the background. Seeing all of the sailboats on it was probably my favorite part. I also really loved the smell of the water in the air. They had a beautiful children's playground amidst the trees so you could get a little relief from the sun while playing or laying out for a while.





Lots of little ducks wandering around our blankets and watching us play. The kids loved seeing them... and maybe chasing a couple of them before we could stop them. :)






I couldn't get here in time with the camera, but I love these swings, which we also have in Olomouc. The boys were so sweet laying in it together and laughing.






Playing in the pool. One of the things I appreciated was that all of the different levels of the pool area were shallow enough for the kids to walk around- and they had water slides to help them get from one level to another. It was fun even for us adults! :)





So sweet holding on to Daddy's hands. I also love the crazy, wild hair after swimming.






Out in the lake





Watching the boats...







Running to Mommy with a huge smile. I couldn't really capture it, but I tried. I have about 8 shots of it, but this was the best one. :)






End of the day family photos... We probably should have tried these before the kids were so exhausted.











The next day we decided our two families would have some personal, family time for most of the day. So, Josh and I headed back to the waterside because we couldn't get enough of that air, water, sun, and relaxation that set in just by being there.







After walking alongside the water and park for a bit we stopped for some lunch at a restaurant with an outdoor patio and view of the water and boats going by. These are the dishes we ordered and they were excellent! Josh had the plate in the top picture, which was a risotto dish with zucchini, pumpkin, and ginger in it with shavings of smoked ham and tomatoes. It was delicious! I ordered a grilled chicken breast with a 3 pepper cream sauce and a side of salad with vinaigrette dressing. These were our best meals of the whole vacation! Jakub ate from both of ours and seemed to love it as well. He was so tired, though, that within about 3 minutes of walking after lunch he was asleep for his afternoon nap.




So, after enough walking to ensure a deep sleep, I parked my boys here under some trees and enjoyed watching them rest and watching the activity out on the water. It was a very windy day so it felt perfect under these trees. Jakub slept for 1 1/2 hours like this!








After the nap we did some rock throwing into the water- a favorite activity of ours. Yes, those are socks with sandals. We live in Europe. They prevent blisters on a day full of walking. They help prevent sunburn on a sensitive area. It's practical. And cute. :)





And we finished the afternoon off with some ice-cream, of course!




Gorgeous days spent with our sweet boy. Love, love, love!

Videos from Amusement Park

Vacation Day #1...

Technically it was day #2, but the first day we just settled in to our new place. Yeah for Family Amusement Parks! We had a wonderful time riding rides with Jakub and watching him experience so many new sights, sounds, games, rides, etc. Here are some of my favorite pictures from that day:


Not the best picture, but all the boys loved this ride and Jakub would constantly turn around and smile at Evan and Thompson behind him. So precious to see them all having fun together!











Jakub was too busy "driving" his truck and laughing to look at the camera. The track took us around some beautiful scenery and fun things for the kids to see. For example, this giant rabbit below. :)










Sarah and Thompson








The big, elaborate, winding, tree house. Josh and Jakub did this one together and he said Jakub did not want to leave it. I, personally, did not want to crawl through such caged, tiny spaces... :)



Peeking out from the top of the tree house...






Then came the water zone area of the park... There was so much to explore here. They had many different types of fountains, shallow pools, a "waterfall" of sorts, and various objects in the water that would turn in it or spray water out with different types of pressure.





Evan and Jakub play so well together. If Evan is around, this is the expression Jakub wears most of the time. :) Evan's been teaching Jakub lots of things lately- how to play with trains, how to jump on beds, how to splash and play in water, and how to run really fast. So sweet!











After all of that fun in the sun and water, and some lunch, came nap time. He managed to get one hour of sleep amidst all of the chaos around him. After this came the time his Daddy had been looking forward to... the tractor ride!










They had a beautiful barn and field area to ride the tractors through. There were gorgeous flowers and a lot of singing animals and scarecrows. They even had some live mice running through the grass. I'm sure that was staged, of course!








On to the alligator log ride! I have some of Sarah and Thompson doing it, too, because Josh filmed me and Jakub coming down so, I don't have pictures of that part for us.












Then it was on to the big sand pit, which also had a cave. Josh was the only one that ventured in because it was dark, hot, and had a lot of sand blowing out. We took turns with Corey and Sarah watching the kids playing in the sand while the adults rode a big roller coaster. Yeah!







Sweet Jakub watching Mommy and Daddy ride the roller coaster. It was such a beautiful and perfect day together with our families. I didn't even mention that the drive there was through the sun flower fields and vineyards of Austria. It was sunny, blue, and about 75-80F. Perfect. I won't every forget this day. And there are 3 more days coming up that are just as good... and I promise some videos to go with them... eventually... Until then!

So much more to come...

We are back from our first vacation with Jakub and it was AWESOME. I am now filled with even more blessings, joy, and memories I'll keep with me for my lifetime. I'm so thankful for my family and for the chance we had to relax, play, and make memories together. It came at exactly the right time. Here's a small peak at what's coming next...



Not a look of fear on his part, I promise! He was watching his friend Evan go down the ride before him... :)




Ok, a little fear might have set in here... but I promise he smiled after it was all over and said "yeah!" I didn't get that part on camera. You'll have to take my word for it. :)







Watching the sail boats with Daddy. So beautiful. Sweet memories.






The best family photo we could pull off after 7 glorious hours in the sun having fun by the waterside. He really was happy, and content, and very, very sleepy. :)




To end on a good note. This is how I remember him on vacation. We couldn't stop watching him.
Much, much more to come later!

Post Camp Low

Camp Theme: ROOTS


Well, we returned from English Camp on Saturday evening. Our month-long journey through camps has come to an end. On Sunday we had a big worship service and celebration with some of our camp students, as well as a farewell to our American campaign group. Today has been a fairly quiet and very gloomy, rainy, cool day spent at home. It's SO good to be back in my own kitchen, bed, and home, but it's much quieter than camp, and a little sad. I miss spending every day around so many people who are so excited about their day and all that it might hold. I miss spending so much time with two other families who were there and their children. Jakub loved having playmates every day and would often wake up from a nap, hear them playing outside, and immediately start laughing and saying "up! up!" so he could get out of bed and go play. It was so uplifting to talk so much about God and the Bible every day with the Czech teens and our friends around us. I pray now that they had/have open hearts, that God will keep working in their lives, and that they will try to see and hear Him. We had many visit us for worship yesterday. I hope some of them will return very soon! We always expect a low in the work in August as many travel and spend time with family before school starts again September 1st. Then, after school starts, we will truly see those who want to spend more time with us and who are more open to what we teach and do here in Olomouc. I pray for great numbers this fall as our activities begin again. I pray for a growing church community with more believers. The hope in it all is exciting!

I would also appreciate prayers for our Moms and Kids English program, which will start again in September. I'll soon begin preparing the lesson plans for this fall. I'll be leading the program this time, instead of Sarah K., as we prepare for many of the transitions to come with their leaving to return to the states this winter. It's going to be a bittersweet fall and we could all use prayers as we adjust to a new phase in our lives and ministries.

Ok, on to some camp pictures!

I have no idea if this works, but here is a link to my teammates camp file on Facebook (if you don't have FB I'm not sure if you will be able to see it, but try and let me know!) :

A little background info. - our theme was "Roots" this year. Each day had a main theme: Our Origins, Roots (seeds beginning to grow), Courage (to grow, change, develop), Nurture, Commitment (to keep growing, to change as it's needed, to help others grow), Bearing Fruit, and Creation. You'll likely see some of these themes in the pictures as you see the games, skits, etc.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.663068384027.2145790.54604774&type=1

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.663076642477.2145794.54604774&type=1

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.663080180387.2145795.54604774&type=1

And here's a link to our camp dance- something we do every year for the kids with a song that ties together with our theme. You can't see me in it because this year I helped make it with Christie and our interns and we helped lead it each time. I had a lot of fun with it!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=265024856847354&comments

A few more:

This is the English class I helped teach with Madison and Sarah. Madison is in the green shirt by Sarah and is one of our two summer interns. She has been here to work with us for 3 summers now and has become one of my very close friends. Letting go of her every summer gets harder and harder...

Our class was a beginner-level English class, and though they were really shy, they were a great group. We even made up a song about our class and the students in it and sang it in the talent show together. I was proud of them for singing in front of the camp!





Helping with the girl part of the song we sang before every meal to thank God for our day, our friends, and our food. It was a lot of fun!





Our team decided to perform as a team for the first time in our talent show we host at the end of every camp. This event is a highlight of camp because the kids, who came to camp usually shy and not knowing many people, have courage at the end of the week to share a part of themselves with the camp group. Everyone is so supportive and happy to see others having fun and expressing themselves and it's a great way to witness how a bond has formed over the week. Well, our team decided to have a little fun and show our sillier side for once... we performed the "Evolution of Dance" in a shortened version. I hope to have the video of it up soon. :)






Jakub and his Daddy hanging out and watching the group play sports together. You can see he's wearing a jacket in July. Out of both camps and the past few weeks of July I think we only had two days that reached in the upper 70's with some sun. The rest of our time away was spent in the 50's and 60's with rain and clouds. It was very cold at times, especially in the evenings. We had an amazing time anyway, though, and it rarely rained when we needed to be outside for our planned activities. We thanked God for that!






Me and Jakub on a cold day walking around to the different activity stations and watching the teens perform various acts of courage. :) We had them do trust falls, climbing and height-related activities, taste tests, and games while they were blind folded. (By the way, I recently chopped my hair off very short and I LOVE it. I've never had it this short, but it's so much fun and easier to maintain. The back is even shaved a little at the bottom, which is interesting to touch) :)
Proof that 30 is creeping around the corner: neck wrinkles. When did those happen? This photo shocked me at first. I'm ok with it now. :) I'm not posting the one that shows a mad streak of grey across the front...






Me, Jakub, Sarah, and her boys watching the camp groups drop "hopefully well protected" eggs out of the second story window. This activity went with our theme of nurture. They had to care for the eggs by building protective covers, wraps, parachutes, etc. around them in hopes that after dropping them to the ground the egg would survive. A few made it, I think...








Here is a "family" picture of all of us with our boys (the ones I mentioned from the two other families that were with us at camp). Sarah and Corey are there with Evan and Thompson, and on the other side of me is Jamie with Luke. Her and her husband are currently working in Ceske Budejovice, another city in CZ. They came to help us with camp and it was amazing to have them around and to spend time with their sweet family. We have known them since college and have been growing closer and closer over the years. Here I think we were singing "row your boat." Awww.... good times with adorable boys.





The rest here are of our sweet boys together. Evan, Thompson, and Jakub. These boys have so much fun together and especially were spoiled to have each other to play with every day while away at camp. I cherish these times together knowing these will be changing soon. Jakub is going to miss his "cousins" very much. So will I.




They love on each other well!

Camp

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to say that I'm not posting right now because we are away a lot this month for our English camps. We've already had one campaign group from America come through and help us with our first camp. They did an awesome job and the camp was wonderful! The second campaign group arrived Wednesday and we are now doing orientation sessions with them before we leave for our second camp tomorrow morning. I will have some stories to tell and some pictures to share when we get back and have some time to recover the first week of August. Please keep praying for our camps and especially for the hearts of the students to be touched and changed forever. Thank you! Love you all!