I'm still here...

...well sort of...don't know if anyone is still checking in, if so let me know and I'll see about getting this thing updated now that summer craziness has stopped.

As Another Month Goes By...

Time...it sure does get away from a person very quickly! I knew that it had been a while since I posted, but two months?! That is just crazy! But it is true and for those who read this, I am sorry (although really, does anyone read this?) The last couple months have been good, the details I'm sure will be missing, but as an overview we have moved from winter to spring, enjoyed a slow month of April (as far as groups go), completed several big projects such as painting the lodge, and spent a week and a half in Calgary with our family in May. Like I said there are many more details to life here at camp, but I am at a loss for them right now. We are still loving life out here and REALLY looking forward to summer starting up...three weeks and counting...here is an overview of the last while.

Greg and I Ice Fishing-the day before the shack came off the ice

The first BBQ of the season! 250 burgers...

Rockin' Out with Guitar Hero III (thanks to Grandma!)

Greg & Aidan visiting on our deck

The beginning of Spring!

The ice beginning to melt...the lake didn't open up until May 6!

Greg's got the wall project underway...they are putting on a new outcropping in this picture. Right now it's in the painting stages...more to come on that later...
This picture is amazing...it was SO calm out that the reflection perfectly mirrored itself...so good in fact, that this picture is...upside down!

March "Busyness"

March has been wonderful. The mild temperatures have arrived, allowing for snow to melt and the hope of spring to come. Work has also slowed down as we are heading into the mid season slow time. But, for Greg and I the last few weeks have been busy. Greg's parents came to visit March 7-12. We stayed with them at a beautiful bed and breakfast in Winnipeg over the weekend, explored the forks and the ever exciting Winnipeg and then brought them out to camp. Because the warm weather arrived with them we got to go outside and show them around on x-country skis, take them down the tube slide, go for walks and build/shoot off a potato gun (always an important activity). They also got to see the dozens of snowmobiles in the area get in their final weekend. It was a great visit! (be sure to come again)
Our next big activity was Easter weekend. We drove down to Steinbach for the weekend and stayed with Jeff and Suzanne. It was great to have them fill in as our family for the weekend and feed/entertain us. Most importantly though, it was a great weekend to reflect on what Easter represents. The message on Sunday was a message of the cross and a reminder that God wants us, not what we do or how "good" we are. With life always busy, no matter where you are it is a good reminder and something to make us stop and refocus actions. We arrived back at camp late Sunday evening and then left again Monday for a retreat at Camp Arnes. It was a time for our staff to spend time together without having to work! The retreat was put on by Christian Camping International (CCI) and we had 7 camps represented at the retreat. Now we are back at work-with a newly painted dining hall (it was done while we were on the retreat) I will post some before/after pictures as they come. So, as you can see it has been a busy month of activities...although really not that hard of work....we hope you all had a wonderful Easter!!

In Like a Lion??

Wow! It is March...February did exactly as I hoped it would and ended quickly. Not that I have anything against that month, but with the arrival of March it is getting me one step closer to spring!! January/February has been cold...VERY cold...for what has felt like forever. But about a week ago it finally decided to take a turn for the better and we have experienced somewhat milder temps (today it's still -30, but I'll just not think about that) At the beginning of Feb. Greg and I were able to head home for a few days and fit visits in with everyone and be a part of my Grandma's 85th birthday! It was a break that came at a time when I needed it most, and flying home is so much more relaxing than driving 15 hrs.

As for camp, we have been very busy. We have had excellent groups and it has made work an excellent place to be. Greg has been putting together all the final plans for the climbing wall, a low ropes/challenge course, and finding a contractor for the zip line (which he has managed to secure, yay!) It has kept him busy, but he likes the challenge and the opportunity to dream up exciting new things. Now that it is starting to get a bit warmer it will become work time and he will be able to start the construction side of things. I have been doing the regular, keeping things up in the office and hosting groups. I have also been finding various projects to undertake as I have gotten efficient at my regular tasks and find myself with more free time. I will have to fill you in on those ambitions later.

This last weekend I hosted a ladies retreat. I had been emailing back and forth with this group since December so I was excited to meet everyone and help them throughout the weekend. It went really well, and although I was super busy putting everything together, it was good to know where things were at all weekend. Ladies definitely communicate better than Jr. High students :-) But they sure do require a lot more of the "detail stuff". The lodge had decorations everywhere. Our menu was specialized to fit their group (and was AMAZING) and on Saturday night I put on a chocolate fondue party...mmm mmm!!

Some Pictures

Hey! Well I am not feeling super inspired to write too much, so I will just throw on some pics (which I know you all like anyway) and give a bit of a description for each.Greg and I cleaning up after one of the groups, making things polish...and with enthusiasm!

The past few weekends we have had multiple groups staying at camp, all of which were big groups, so I got to put some of my organizational/scheduling skills to work!


This is me in the quinzhee (igloo) that Greg built. One of the kids decided to smoke in his room on their retreat, so his leader asked us to put him to work. Greg had him shoveling snow for a day and now we have a really sweet igloo built right by the rink for kids to play in. It would be big enough to sleep 3 adults (if someone wanted to sleep in the snow) so it is big, and very cool!


Greg and I out on the lake


"A helping hand" when learning to skate


Sunday afternoon x-country skiing with some of the other staff.


Coming in from skiing


Skiing. Skating. Enjoying a break from the cold. Beautiful. Not much else to say.

Of Camp and Cookies

Camp has been a busy place these last few weeks. We have had 7 different groups here since Christmas break and it is fun to hear the different noise that each group makes as I sit in the office. For example, right now we are hosting a band camp, so I feel like there is a soundtrack to life playing along as I write. Well, that or the theme song to Pirates of the Caribbean (which I guess isn't really applicable to being a soundtrack to my life...thankfully!) Last week I had the opportunity to sit in on one of the worship sessions a grad group was having. It was a wonderful reminder of why I love camp work so much. The speaker for the group was Randy Carter, who spoke at several of the Sr. High retreats I had attended at Evergreen. As he spoke I was reminded of the impact that a few days at camp can have. It is easy here to get caught up in office work, cleaning, and all the little daily tasks that keep this place running without stopping to think of all that is happening with the youth that are here. They are why we do these jobs and the impact that just a few days here can have is huge, and even if the memories fade into a positive thought of that retreat I had at camp once, it is worth it!
...well my life inspiring music has now turned into individual practice, so now all I hear is a lot of playing around on drums without much rhyme or reason...
This past weekend was a restful one for us and we hung around home for the most part. The groups that we had in over the weekend put us at max capacity, so instead of joining everyone for lunch as per usual, we stayed in and ate at home. Kind of a nice change of pace. Saturday afternoon I needed to bake some squares for a worship night here at camp, so I did...then I baked another pan of squares, choc. chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, and apple cinnamon muffins....so we will not go hungry anytime soon and will probably be looking a little more round by the time you see us again! The first couple pans of squares were served last night, so that should help some. We had a worship group from Providence College come out for the evening and put on a worship night. We invited the churches from the surrounding towns and had around 40 people come out. It was fun to bring people in from the area and visit for an evening! And I think that is about all for right now!
Oh wait, it is -30 here once again....brrrr.....

Welcome 2008!

We are now back in our Manitoba home. Christmas was a wonderful break, although it was definitely busy!! We left here in Dec. 21, drove through the day and arrived in Calgary late that night. From then on we were in high gear with potlucks, Christmas gatherings, X-Box parties (Greg), girl's coffee dates/gingerbread house making (Marni), lunch dates, New Year's Party, and time with both families in Calgary and Linden. I think we managed to fit almost everyone into those 10 days, if we missed you, sorry! We then followed up with another 15 hour drive back to camp on January 2. Now it is back to work for us!
We both loved being home, it was something that we had been looking forward to a lot, but we discovered that we were equally as excited to come back to camp and life here. Not to mention that we wanted to get going on the projects that will take us into summer. Greg's biggest project right now is redoing the climbing wall and getting everything together for a zip line, and I am doing a lot of hosting throughout the next couple of months. We have groups everyday straight through till March, and the majority of those groups are hitting 100, so there will always be something to do, someone around to ask questions, or major clean-up that needs to be done between each group that comes in.

Now to review a bit of December. The last two weeks before we went home were busy. Greg's birthday was on the 15th and so as a surprise, I booked us into a hotel in Winnipeg for the weekend. We had many things that needed to get done in the city and instead of driving back and forth everyday, I decided to turn it into a whole weekend. The main attractions were the food (surprise, surprise!) and so I managed to track down some good ethnic places to eat. We went to a Thai restaurant that served us a carrot that was carved to look like an old man (pictured below) and had AMAZING food. Then we found a great Chinese restaurant and a Indian place where I surprised Greg again by have Jeff and Suzanne join us for supper. The majority of our day's were actually taken up with Christmas shopping, because we hadn't had a chance to do any before then. But Greg's most favorite activity was go-karting. I found an indoor track that had 50 km/hr cars and we spent a good hour ripping around the track. Our weekend ended with a stop at the airport to pick up my sister Julie, who spent a week with us here and then drove back with us. She managed to fit in most of the activities at camp and also got to participate in our work Christmas party where we took the whole day off to take in everything that the groups normally do and eat a lot of food!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas....
Welcome to 2008!!

Our cool Thai Carrot Man

Greg eating the cool Thai carrot man
Go Kart's! Well in our helmets and ready to go!