Lake Beauty Bible Camp 2010!!!!

Wow - I apologize as I'm sure this is in the running for one of the longest posts but I don't have time to make a slide show! An amazing weekend was had, so much to do up there, it's really magical and the kids still talk about it! The list is endless but really, we: enjoyed campfires, rock climbing walls, zip lines during the day and at night, horseback riding, face painting, swimming, tubing, jumping on the orbit, FISHING, kayaking, amazing food, incredible worship music, amazing fireworks, thankfully only one thunderstorm, water fights, rides on the people mover, new playground equipment, wonderful kids camp games and crafts, CANDY, an awesome speaker, and finally time with family and friends! Thanks to everyone for making it really one of the best!

These are actually in reverse order, sorry that time thing again, so maybe start at the bottom? These are just a couple group shots we were able to sneak in just as campers were pulling out to leave. Teared up a bit when we pulled out and saw all the sites empty, they were calling out "come back, don't leave, it's awesome here!"

Nana, Papa and all those grand kids!

Jagow's!

Face painting side one

Side two!

Water fight!!! Hard to say who had the most fun, the young soaking the elders or the elders reverting back to their childhood and taking no mercy on anyone!

Notice the concentration on Jenna's face!

Uncle Bill, watch out, he has great aim!

Conner chasing down the pack

Set, pump, aim and shoot! Go Brie!

Horseback riding time - Soren and Ayden ready to go!

Beautiful Boo riding Dakota I think!

Precious Brie riding Lucy solo this year - very good job peanut!

Conner's first ride on "Happy" how appropriate!

Yep - the tradition of skipping chapel to fish was passed onto my son this year by none other than his infamous father. Conner is officially "hooked" and I can't think of a better place for that to have happened. What a special time Daddy had with his little boy!

Daddy's happy he'll have a helper in taking fish off hooks, while the gals of this family LOVE fishing, we don't love handling them!

Uncle Bill made little time scaling that climbing wall!

This is actually the result of what you'll see below, yes, Conner blew out his little shorts for all his efforts!

Those amazingly beautiful Steele gals!

Jared and Ash made it up!

Jared on his way

Ashley making this look easy!

The happy newly engaged couple

Typical of the newly engaged couple!

Watching them zip line off the tower - Conner lovin' being loved on by Ashley!

Some of the jumpin' & climbin' crew

BBB - Beautiful Brie and Boo

Jenna stealthily climbing the wall

Ayden was so hysterical, love, love, love that his analytical mind logically calculated that his first year he made it 1/4 of the way up, then half way, then 3/4 of the way so this year it was ALL THE WAY! He did it and wow are we proud of you Ayden!

Brie, oh pumpkin, why do you grow so fast! You conquered that wall and took no time at all in flying down on that zip line! Although my favorite was when we took you and Jenna up late Friday night for night zip line! You said that was the best because you can't see how far up you are! I'll take your word for it this year but will join you for night zip line in 2011!

Arik superman diving off the tower, he did this Friday night in the dark too - very impressive!!!!! Teach my son how to do that in a couple years will ya?

Conner started out strong up that wall, and bless his little heart, he didn't mind peeking at his silly Mom who wanted this shot! A couple stalls along the way up and a few boosts from the staff and he was on top of that wall! We did our best to get Amanda to shove him off it and zip line down (great parents huh?) but his little body said no way and he happily was lowered down. We're sooooo proud of you! Next year Mommy will help you off the zip line :)! A lot of firsts for our little man this weekend, climbing wall, tubing, horseback riding, and now his parents trying to throw him off a really tall tower.

Mitch, Em, Scott, Solveig and Soren! It was so fun really meeting the Newberg's this weekend!

Up goes Amanda!

Brie and Boo getting their gear on!

The boys waiting patiently! We were the first group Saturday morning and boy are we glad because it was a hot day! (Ayden, Arik, Thomas & Cody)

Breakfast in the camper!

Everyone had their "buddies" to cuddle with at night!

Jenna hanging out in the hammock, snoozing or reading?

Beach Girls!

Ashley, Buffy, and Don taking in some beachtime!

Steve prepping for the real thing

Not sure if Brie's helping keep the slide wet like a good helper or just trying to squirt Ayden on the way down...

Love the facial expression Ayden!

Brie, Ashley and Conner dockside!

Girl chats at the beach

Totally sisters!!!!! Aren't they pretty?

Seth had both his awesome remote control boat and airplane up at LBBC this year, definitely a hit with my little man!

Alex enjoying the shade with us, it was beyond awesome to watch him fly by the beach and see the his outline in the front of that tube! Buffy thought for sure we'd see the whites from his massive grins from inland. He also got to take a dip in the water at the beach too, he's an amazing swimmer! I swear he can hold his breath longer than anyone!

Downtime in the hammock!

He shoots, he scores!

Wait for it.....

Best buds and LOTS of giggles

Camping fun at Diamond Lake

Lily and her "scoop"

Stunning weather

Takin' a break

Lily & Liv

Noah just floating around








Colin lovin' the water




Colin & Chris chillin' out




Boatin'

The beautiful Prego Lady, she hardly looks like she's due in a month!

Tube time!

Celebrating Conner's 5th - Happy Birthday Buddy!

Cupcakes - Yum!

Blessed by such thoughtful gifts!

Carter & Lily, adorable!

One final swim!

Oh to be young and silly, what great memories!

While the trip wasn't without it's trials, it definitely was full of tribulations, when you go with great friends and family nothing can stop it from being spectacular! We camped with the Bastin's and Barta's and threw in a little celebration marking Conner turning 5! We are also very lucky to have the playground so close to our sites, the kids had plenty to do. Conner & Carter were on the hunt and enjoyed gathering as many tent worms as possible and I'm pretty sure not a one of them survived, no one's sad about that. Brienna and Noah were always off somewhere together, Lily & Colin searched out and explored every inch of the campsites, and oh how they enjoyed the lake. Chris showed us some great verticals on the wake board and Steve hung on for dear life on the tube. Very sweet memories of the beach time, some still stubbornly lingering for those who encountered lake itch, but it was a lot of fun. Beaches, swimming, camp fires, and great food, friends and family, it's what we Minnesotans wait all winter for. Thank you Bastin's and Barta's for such an amazing weekend!

Go Team Ghana!

Brienna continues to love soccer, during a scrimmage tonight she blasted in 5 out of the 6 goals her team scored, can't wait for the game on Thursday night. Her team's namesake just beat Serbia last weekend and plays Austraila this Saturday, sorry but we'll likely root for the Aussie's! This league is awesome!

Happy 5th Birthday Conner!

So we awoke Conner with a Happy Birthday serenade and then proceeded to sugar him up with chocolate donuts and chocolate milk for breakfast! Breakfast of champions right? Then off to Kid's Play we went with a his pick of an Iron Man cupcake/cake (piled high with distgustingly huge amounts of frosting, yum!) for him to share. We feel only slightly bad that he went off fully loaded and bouncing off the walls but your birthday only comes around once a year right! They had his locker all decorated with streamers and signs, he's having one of the best days and it's only just begun! We're going to break down and take him to his choice of venue's for his birthday dinner this evening, yep he has picked Chuck E Cheese's much to our dismay, what a parent won't do right!

Conner you've been much like the storms that awoke us this morning. You entered this world with such a bang; you were one of the sweetest even tempered little babies (like the calm before the storm); you were so adventurous as a toddler and loaded with spunk (like the thunder heads building in the distance); and as a young man you are SO full of energy and enthusiasm (like bright streaks of lightening and at times like the loudest claps of thunder); we can see that our road ahead will never be dull, but like the end of every storm you have also blessed us with the most spectacular, breathtakingly beautiful rainbow's, our hearts just explode with the joy and love you bring us! We completely adore you Buddy and wish you a very Happy 5th Birthday!

Brienna's Camping Party 2010

What a great weekend and to be doubly blessed with wonderful weather was the icing on the cake! What an amazing kick off to our camping season!

The Race For the Cure!!!!

Our journey began 11 weeks ago, after having a close co-worker become diagnosed with breast cancer and watching a cousin lose her battle (leaving behind two young children and a husband), I thought this is it. The perfect way to honor all those who battle this disease, whether won or lost, this could be an amazing experience for Brie and I. After following the coolest training program, Brie and I were ready. Novices to running, we were down to just over a 9 minute mile for me and about an 8.5 minute mile for Brie. The laughs, frustrations, perseverance, and sore muscles we've shared up to this day will be some of my most cherished memories. All the training physically however could not come close to preparing us for what was in store this morning.

We left at 5:30 with only 31 degrees registering on the thermometer. 90% of the other racers were bundled in wool hats, scarves, mittens, coats etc... Brie and I were standing there shivering in just our standard issued t's from the race organization and running pants/tennis shoes and Ipods. With face paint on our arms they looked at us like we were heading for a polar plunge somewhere. We were shocked by this because there were very experienced racers among them. By mile 1, we were racing past everyone very comfortably, no one was laughing now as they had to stop and shed all those layers.

After hearing and seeing over 15,000 people participate in this 5k race (the 2nd largest in their history); seeing the families touched and torn apart, young and old; cheerleaders performing all along the path (MN Vikings cheerleaders too); the drum role from a high school band; the rock n roll band at the fire station; community members lining the streets; it was just one of the most beautiful things I could ever be a part of. I cried during some lovely young lady's performance of the national anthem at the starting line, then again at mile 2 when we caught up to a Daddy with his two little girls running for their Mommy who went home just shy of a year ago, and buckets came out when Brie and I, hand in hand, crossed that finish line. This was so much more than a race, it was something amazing that I did with my little girl and a celebration for a tremendous cause. One of the best Mother's Day's ever! Seeing Conner & Steve at the finish line was the icing on the cake. We'll be back in 2011, hopefully with as many family and friends we can round up!

Hope everyone had an amazing day, we love you!

Conner playing hide and seek with Daddy on their way to the finish line after seeing us start!

Just after crossing the finish line!

We ran in honor of Kris Wesley (home going 8/20/08 @ 3pm), Sherri Lemanczyk (her last treatment is tomorrow & she walked today!!!!), Gma Reese, and Gma Grochow!

Brienna, your Mommy, Daddy, and little brother are sooo proud of you!

Thanks for such a wonderful Mother's Day gift!





Some of our cheering section (the other is behind the camera!)

Team Reese! With so many runners it was like dodge ball more than anything and extremely difficult to keep any kind of pace. We finished in just under 29 minutes with very muddy shoes from running on peoples wet lawns (yep, that was the only place you wouldn't run into people walking). Brie was an expert at weaving through the crowd, Mommy just had to keep up!

We'll be back in 2011 - anyone wanna join us?

What a fun filled April!

It's hard to know where to start, April marked the end of tax season (whohoo!), Easter celebrations, the Reese's 40th wedding anniversary, our little girl turning 10, Grandpa turning 60, and Mike celebrating 30, just to name a few of the big events. What a blast it was, sad to see it end but look forward to May with Seth's and Andrew's birthdays and maybe our first official camping trip!

Here are some shots from Brie's celebratory dinner out, she chose Space Aliens and was doubly blessed when the Schueler's were able to join us. Other than Auntie Klair spilling a whole glass of lemonade on poor Uncle Mitch, the evening was awesome! Thanks Schueler's for the fun!

The next shots are from our stay at the Bastin's, it was Noah's First Communion and I wish I had photos of that to share, but here is a couple from our play time with Keegan & Kyla! Thank you Liv & Jason for such a wonderful visit!

Lastly, just a few glimpses of the fun we had at the cabin celebrating all the April & May birthday's the weather cooperated and the trees blocked out all that gusty wind making it just a fantastic spring day. Some fish were caught (and released), marshmallows roasted, kids ran and ran, and the adults actually were able to converse, it's magical up there for sure!