The Next Step

Our new friends.

2009-06-05T08:50:00.001-05:00

It has been a long while

2009-05-11T19:33:00.002-05:00

Well in honor of the fact that I have comments from Australia...I figured that I would write an update. It has been just over a year since I commented and it has gone by really fast! We are still at Cedarwood and still love being here. We are not always a fan of the miserable Manitoba weather, but now that it is warming up and turning green, the memories of cold aren't as vivid. Funny how that works! This past year has been highlighted with an intense summer, some trips home to Calgary, a trip in Feb to Palm Springs and the usual business of running around hosting all the groups. Camp is currently building a new house, so that has been the project of the year! RIght now we are getting ready for another summer season. We don't know what our roles will be at this point, but are sure to find out soon. We are excited for the summer, but a bit nervous as well because of the intense nature of the season and because we have all new leadership staff for the summer. Hope that this finds everyone well!

I'm still here...

2008-09-06T15:04:00.001-05:00

...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...

2008-05-24T10:28:00.005-05:00

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"

2008-03-27T09:31:00.004-05:00

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??

2008-03-03T13:29:00.004-06:00

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

2008-01-28T16:17:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-14T18:57:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-01-04T22:10:00.000-06:00

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!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-26T18:24:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone, Merry Christmas! Greg and I are in Alberta right now enjoying time with family and friends! I will share more when we get home! Hope all is well!

....and so I try this once AGAIN....

2007-12-04T08:10:00.000-06:00

First off, I have to say that relying on technology sometimes makes things more difficult than easy. I have began to post at least half a dozen times these past few weeks, only to have things disappear on me repeatedly and the internet decide it doesn't want to work half way through. Today I am trying to work around this by saving it into word as well as on this site so that maybe, just maybe I will be able to successfully update everyone on life!
A lot has definitely happened in the past few weeks. My parents came out to visit over the remembrance day weekend, so we got to spend time catching up with them and showing off the campsite. We definitely welcomed the company!
As for everything at work, well that has definitely been keeping us busy. We had groups steady throughout November and truly it has flown by! I was amazed this past weekend when I had to flip over the calendar one more month! I have been busy hosting groups, decking out the lodge in Christmas gear, and keeping the office in running order. Overall I am coming to a point where I feel I can answer most questions with confidence and keep up with the groups as they all need different things. It is nice to be able to read a situation before it arrives, instead of trying to backtrack!
Greg has been working on getting everything ready for the winter season. The snow started falling fairly late this season, but once it started it didn't stop. We have had snow most days in the last two weeks, and watched, quite literally as the lake froze over. We noticed one morning that the shoreline was starting to freeze over, and when I came into work early the next morning, it was completely closed over! Now Greg has all the x-country skiing trails groomed and well marked, the tube slide iced over and in use (it will be a continual work in progress as more snow arrives). There was an attempt at clearing the ice with the tractor this past week...but it ended up being more work than help, as the tractor went through close to shore and it had to be pulled out. Needless to say, the guys were soaking wet, in the bitter cold!! With the snow, the cold has also arrived and the temperature gauge has not warmed past the -18 mark in quite some time, with most nights dipping past -30 with wind chill. Welcome to a Manitoba winter! BUT, when you don’t have to start your car and try to drive somewhere, fighting traffic the whole time, it makes quite a difference. We just bundle up, walk 30 seconds to the lodge and move back into warmth!
November 22 marked an exciting day, as Gavin Grey Friesen was born to my good friend Sabrina. He is a beautiful little man and it has been such a blessing to have been here for such a huge event. Greg and I went in and met him the day after he was born and I got to spend an entire day with Sabrina again this last week. I am quite smitten, he is beautiful and such a content little baby!
I am going to sign off here, hoping that this is going to post!! Please continue to pray for us as we are still adjusting to living in a new environment. Thank you again for all your support!

The morning after the lake froze over...it was a stunning!!

Wintertime...top L: the lodge; top R: Our cozy home;
Bottom: L-R: The tube slide from top to bottom!

Gavin Grey Friesen with mom & myself

Sending out....

2007-11-15T22:44:00.000-06:00

a big

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to Andrew and Laura today...

Laura I know that you have been

counting this down for a long time,

and we are sorry to miss today and also the party coming up!

Have a awesome day you two!!

A windy day...

2007-11-13T15:44:00.000-06:00

This past weekend we got to enjoy a visit with my parents. It was great to have them out here, to see where we live and experience a bit of our day to day life. They flew in on Friday and went back to Calgary last night. We managed to do lots of exploring and get some Christmas shopping started! We also spent some time yesterday visiting with Konrad and Karen and Sabrina and Ken. So it was a busy weekend of catching up with everyone! It does make us miss home a bit though, here visits with friends are spread out. At home they happened all the time and were easy to come by. So if you are bored we would love to add you to the list of visitors out here!

Well as for camp info. We have had a busy couple of weeks. The groups have been on the smaller side and so that has helped to make days busy but not crazy...tomorrow I'm sure that will change we have 110 Jr. High kids moving in which always proves to keep us running!

Here are a few pics that I took this afternoon...enjoy!
The climbing wall is on the left as well as the deck leading off of one of the lounges

The wind is coming straight in off the lake today, so their are lots of whitecaps!

4:00 pm...and already the sun is almost set. It is amazing how quickly that seems to change, especially when a time change is thrown into the mix.

Last Weekend's Adventures

2007-11-02T17:48:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we decided to go for a drive and see where it took us. Greg saw a sign for a mine in the area, so we tried to go check it out. But they had too much security and so we had to turn around, but we found a sweet river in the meantime, and Greg pulled out the fishing rod and I tried for a while too and surprise, surprise, no fish were caught!! While we were out the first few snowflakes fell, and out of a mostly blue sky. We figured the fish didn't want to be out in the cold either!!
This weekend I am hosting a pentecostal youth retreat, so I'm sure it will be busy and a lot of fun!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T18:34:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween everyone! It is crazy to think that tomorrow is November, and already all the stores in the city are decked out for Christmas...I am convinced that happens earlier and earlier every year. But maybe that is just what we say every year because one day it is summer and then suddenly Christmas is everywhere and we haven't pulled out the winter gear yet. The weather is doing the same thing, yesterday we were in T-Shirts...and then today....the wind has put white caps on the lake and the snow was driving straight into the windows. Nothing that will stay yet, but it is a good reminder that winter will be here soon and this year it will be without the Alberta chinooks.

Last night was the YFC fundraiser banquet in Winnipeg. There were 1200 people there and filled the Winnipeg convention centre. There was good food, Phil Callaway as the guest speaker, and lots of entertainment (and a wonderful video put together by Greg!!) It was exciting to learn more about everything that Youth For Christ runs. The dance program, Masterworks, did presentations for us. There were also some of the youth who got up to share how YFC has impacted them. Their testimonies were huge, and included turning away from gang memberships, time in juvenile detention and broken homes. Spending a summer at Cedarwood played a huge part in both of their lives and serves as a good reminder of the effect that time here can have!!

Tonight is going to bring about Halloween festivities. I am hosting a group that has brought in a DJ for the evening so the kids (all 98 of them) can still get in on Halloween. I will be running the concession and keeping them all full of candy and snacks!! Should be good fun and there are many ghosts and the like wandering our hallways already! Gotta' run...Trick or Treat!! (we do accept care packages :) )

Settling In

2007-10-27T13:15:00.000-05:00

Well, now that I have put it out there that we have created this blog, I guess it is time to actually get going on what life at Cedarwood is all about. We have been out here for a month now, and are settling in quite nicely. In camp life that means that we have been crazy busy, but I will start at the beginning...

We moved out here on September 25. I managed to be ill throughout the last week of getting ready to move and was VERY ready to hit the road and have some order to life. My grandparents pulled the trailer out here for us (thank you!) and we followed behind in our car the next day. We met up with them again in Winnipeg and drove straight out to camp from there. There was lots of help unpacking and within half an hour, my house was piled with boxed everywhere. We grabbed a bite to eat and met everyone at camp, said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa and I headed home to start digging through the boxes while Greg....went fishing!! He had been talking about it non stop the entire drive to Manitoba and in the weeks leading up to it, so I was only more than happy to just let him go. It is definately more fun to pull everything out of boxes and find it a home than to put it in! There are still a few things left to be done, but nothing that can't wait. Our new home is a small cabin, with two bedrooms, bathroom, laundry room, kitchen and front living/dining area. It is small, but cozy and we love it! I will post some pics as soon as I take them.

Work started on Oct. 1 and it did not take long to get into what we are doing. I have been busy re organizing the office, figuring out how to get everyone booked in to camp, and hosting the groups who come in. Greg has become quite the expert on all the equipment around here. He has fixed all the bikes, archery equipment, climbing anchors, skateboards, and everything else you can think of. His biggest project so far has been the promotional video that he has put together for YFC. It is going to be viewed at the yearly fundraising banquet held in Winnipeg next week. Last night the final touches were put on it, and it is now done, yay!!

As for fun around here, well we definately do not run out of things to do...there is always hot tubbing almost every night, fishing for Greg as much as he can (we have even eaten some of the fish that he has caught!), canoeing around the lake, playing with all the equipment that they have around here, video games, and just socializing with everyone that works here.

Well, now that this general update is getting lengthy, I am going to go and enjoy a day off at home. We thank you all for your prayers and support!

Calgary Farewell!

2007-10-17T19:01:00.000-05:00

This is just a taste of the group.
The second picture is definitely a more accurate representation!

We miss you guys!