Good Morning!

Well, I just wanted to let you know how my last week went!

First of all, we started out taking 30 kids up to Lake Metigoshe! It's always a fun trip because it's pretty relaxing. We take 6 canoes and we have a boat, we set up camp for our tents and food and just hang out. The kids are pretty excited to go fishing or canoeing, or just hang out! We make them take a shower on Wednesday and we take at least one trip into town for ice cream during the week! Does life seriously get any better than that????

The first day we got there was pretty cold and rainy. Well, drizzly. But we got everything set up. I was lamenting on the fact that I didn't bring more clothes! In fact, WHAT WAS I THINKING?! Oh yeah, I'm pregnant and can't fit into most of my clothes, that's right. Anyway, I survived. We brought an air mattress, I shared a tent with two other people that got settled onto the air mattress first because I wanted to be close to the door - I knew I'd have to make at least one trip out in the night, if you know what I mean! Well, by the time I got settled, I had a good 12 inches - which worked because I have to sleep on my side anyway, then my hip started throbbing and one of my bed mates started curling up as she slept, which gave me about 10 or less inches! So as I turned over, I fell off the edge of the mattress... Now I was stuck on the flat ground pinned between the door and an air mattress. And it was COLD - I mean, like Burrrrrr - cold!!!! So I thought to myself - "Self, what the heck are you doing here? Get up - the van has got to be more comfortable than this." So I was smart and listened to myself and got up and hiked up to the van to sleep the sleep of kings and queens on the last seat of a 15 passenger van...for the next 2 nights as well! It was like having a room to myself!

The weather kept getting warmer and warmer and so that made it really nice! Since we had such a large group, we had to divide them in half for our canoe trek into Canada. That was pretty nice, except paddling against the wind with 4th-6th graders definitely provides some challenge! It was really fun though - canoeing is definitely one my most favorite things in the world!

Well, we got back around 3pm on Thursday but by the time we got everything put away, including stuff and kids, we got home around 5pm. And like I said earlier, it was Judah's birthday! So Happy Birthday Judah! We had volleyball, pizza and friends to celebrate his big day! And that went to late. I was definitely wearing thin!

Oh, did I mention that I caught a head cold on the trip up to Metigoshe? I probably forgot that part! Still trying to get over it! So my energy was doubly low.

Then on Friday, we hung out with Katie and Mike who were in from Washington for the week and went rummage sale-ing. Then we went out on Mike's boat fishing/boating - it was a beautiful day! Then we needed to make it back in time for the boy's State Baseball Tourney Game #2 - not too much to say there, it was kind of a hard game and the boy's first loss of the season! That was really too bad! But then Judah and Charlie wanted to head out to the movie "Up" - the new Pixar movie - we are all pretty crazy about Pixar movies! Anyway, this was our only opportunity to see it with the boys for the next 2 weeks or so - we went and the theater was packed with all kinds of kids! In fact, we couldn't even find 4 seats together. So the boys went higher and Sam and I sat in the middle of some kids.

The continuation of this story makes it into the "Top 3 Most Embarrassing Moments" of my life. The sad thing is that 2 of them now happened in a movie theater! Anyway, did you catch the part where I was exhausted and moving like one more step was comparable to climbing Mt. Everest? Just in case you didn't catch that part, I just thought I'd make it a little clearer! Also, we needed to rush out of the movie theater because we were expecting weekend guests. Yes, on top of everything else! Sleeping in a car for 3 nights, going, going, going, head cold - and now I have the opportunity to sit in a theater - in the dark - with 3D glasses on. Well, "Up" was a great movie, but there were definitely some slow parts and here's the kicker. There was a point where the ENTIRE theater was quiet, not even talking on the movie and all of a sudden, I hear SNORING!!!!!! And the worse part, it was ME!!!!!! I woke myself up snoring during a cartoon! Does life get any more sad than that??? Sam just looked at me and we started laughing, I dared not look at the lady on the other side of me - Sam said she had been staring at me for a few minutes before. Embarrassing!! So anyway, after the movie, I asked the boys if they heard that annoying person snoring during the movie - they said No - Whew... I told them it was me - They had a laugh. At my expense. But oh well, what are you going to do? :)

Then we head out to meet our weekend guests and took them home and visited for a while. I think we got to bed by midnight - maybe. We had a nice breakfast on Saturday morning, and a drive, and a picnic and headed off to the final game of the boy's baseball Tourney. They ended up with 4th out of 8 for the State Finals! Yay for them! This is the first time they even made it to State, so I'd say they did a pretty darn good job! Then we all headed over to Katie's in-laws for a Salmon and Prawn dinner - some real seafood! Yuummmmmyyyy!!!! Got home late again and then Judah and some of his friends came over to celebrate his birthday again with some yummy cake - thanks to Bridget and Tiffany for the delicious Monkey bread - I just about put myself over the top! :)

Sunday dawned bright and clear - another beautiful day in the sunny Tundra! We had a great day - went to church, then out to lunch with Eric and Kat and then they headed out to start their long journey back to Alaska - it was so much fun having them - I wish they lived closer! But it was just so much fun having them! I hope they enjoyed it as much as us!

We started our Church V=ball league on Sunday night. We have lots of great players! I sat out because we were rotating so many in and it's more fun the more you get to play. But we won all three games! Hopefully that will put us in the top bracket! Usually what happens is they determine who goes in the lower bracket and top bracket based on the first week... But we usually have VBS so most of our people are gone for the first game and we usually loose, therefore getting down into the lower bracket. But we'll see. Charity has two volleyball teams! And that is fun, especially when we get to play each other! We are getting quite a collection of trophies piled up in Sam's office, so if anyone has a good idea of what to do with them, we are willing to take ideas!

Anyway, other than that, we are getting back into the routine of things. Now that June is here, Sam is getting ready for his Boundary Waters trip which will be so much fun. I'm bummed that I'm not going to get to go this year, but the little monkey will be worth it! Seems like he's a morning guy, no jumping around last night, none that Sam could feel anyway.

So anyway, that's about all going on right now. I'll have more news regarding my mom tomorrow. Her appointment is at 2:30 EST today if you would pray for her, we'd all surely appreciate it!

Well, hope you are planning something fun and exciting to do this summer - let me know what your summer plans are! I'd sure like to know!

Loving life in the Tundra and getting rested up for the next adventure!

Love, Sarah