Family Camp and the Lake

Crabby Pabby kiddos

Our residence for FC

Jason and Isaac

My studly hubby showing his skills

Kadyn tired from swimming

Warning: This is long! This year Jason had the opportunity to play in one of the worship bands for St. Louis Family Camp (stlfamilycamp.com) and I am sad to say, but that was probably the only way we would have considered going...so we made the decision to go. I was my usual cautiously optimistic self and found myself focusing on all the negatives: jason has to practice during the day preventing us from really having free time, we will be staying with 6 other families so the kids are going to never sleep, the kids are not going to sleep well, they are providing food so it's just going to be fattening junk, I am not going to be able to get my runs in, etc! So going into this I was already crabby, but Jason (being the amazing, go with the flow man he is) reassured me that everything was going to be fine. We left for FC on Friday morning and as you can see by the first picture the kids were mildly crabby. We had prepped them for some of the things we would be doing and we all prepared our hearts by listening to the kids worship CD from Seeds Family Worship (seedsfamilyworship.net), which is the band Jason was helping with.

When we arrived at Windermere (on Lake of the Ozarks) we were pretty excited about 4 days together and the opportunity to spend time with the kids doing new things. We got there early so Jason could help set up sound stuff and found that our living arrangements were pretty neat. We would be staying with 6 other families in one large house that had a common kitchen/eating area. We got settled in and Isaac was thrilled that there were bunk beds for him to sleep on! We tried to lay down for a nap, but there was too much going on and so started day one of no naps...despite my fears God completely worked in us and the kids were amazing to be around and there weren't any of the usual tired problems. We found that this house was so great for us, it gave us the freedom to put the kids to bed and still spend time playing games and getting to know other Journey families. The first night we heard from Bryan Chappell who is the president of Covenant Seminary and we knew that God was going to do awesome and challenging things through this camp in our family.

During the mornings we had family worship that was led by Seeds Family Worship (see above website, I mean really look at it) leader Phillip Morlan, who Isaac likes to call "Mr. Phillip," even now as we listen to the CD's, and his wife Jess and their 5 incredible kids. The entire basis of SFW is implanting scripture in children's hearts and this is done by writing songs that are entirely scripture. It really is amazing to see Kadyn singing scripture and already letting those truths grow in her heart. Not only during that time was this family amazing, but just seeing a family whose desire is for their kids to know and love God intimately was amazing. Morlans: we want to be like you someday, please move from Nashville to St. Louis! Everyone reading this should go to the website now and get all their CD's, it is an amazing way to worship with your kids!

We had the opportunity to spend time together as a family at a place that Jason has so many memories at and that was incredible too. Jason worked at Windermere for two summers so he let us in on all the little hiding places where we could completely stand in awe of our amazing Creator. Jason and Isaac spent some time playing on these giant inflatable water toys, I didn't get any pics b/c I forgot my camera, but they had a blast. We got the opportunity to go out on a boat for the afternoon which was tons of fun. Isaac went tubing for the first time, which he wasn't super thrilled with, but was a trooper none the less...Kadyn said "no thank-you." Jason spent some time skiing and tubing and I just sat in the sun (one of my favorite things to do!)

After four days at camp we headed to our friend's house (Jamie and Andy) for a few more days of lake time. This was total relaxation! We hung out at the dock, did some fishing, and swam in the lake. The kids were totally exhausted!

Coming home from FC we have been challenged by how we parent. God is our ultimate Father and looking to him to see how to love our children as the ultimate example is challenging for most of us. Expecting our kids to be sinful should be in our minds and the unconditional grace and love shown by our Abba will change you. We are excited by what God has shown us through our kids and hope that more families can experience this next year!