R is for Ronnebeck!

So, here are the last of the weekend, I kind of got out of order, but I had to wait for people to upload theirs and for me to upload mine... Enjoy. Abby, Val & Lindie ! Rockin Female Advisors ---- Abby & Miranda ♥ And now for the tribue to the Lazy-F Olympics! Our beloved Trophy! Best Cheer from the Powder Puffs! Finding M&M's in the flour (YUCK) Jimmy Was SO Game do do it! Hear his battle Cry? Finding Worms in Flour & Water (YUCK) Luke & Ben figuring out the "Special" awards. The Beginning of the hike, Crystal & Tessa stopping already. - We were tired! The view from the top (kinda) worth it! Random pic - Jimmy totally cracks me up! Eric's small group! Abby's Small Group! The Amazing Adult Leaders! All of us - Dusty! What a great weekend it was!

Saturday after Lunch we headed to the Cle Elum Canyon of the Yakima River. We were so excited to raft! These pictures are courtsey of Dusty Jones as my camera has yet to be developed. I will get on that today (hopefully). See below, Our boat. Chris, Tony, Connor, Joel, Miriah , Lesley and I took off ahead of everyone, the boys wanted to paddle hard and hit all the rapids and the girls and I mostly sat in back and enjoyed the ride. Here's Traci and Brandon's boat, they were right behind us most of the time and seemed to keep up with us fairly well. We sat in the eddy for a little while and other rafts caught up and we got completely soaked! We also dunked our heads over the side because it was so hot out we had to do something to cool off! Soon after the eddy we gained the lead of the rafts once again. We were having a great time and finding that the river was still going but our drop off point should be any shore line now. We started to get near the right side of the riv

I have waay WAAAY more pictures of the fishing derby at home - but these one's are courtesy of Dusty Jones & Tessa Kripphane Photographers Extraordinaire! Every year at Lazy - F we have a Fishing Derby, most of the time we use huck finn poles the kids make out of sticks and fishing line with a hook and a bobber. Eric and I thought We'd get smart this year and bought our very own Barbie and Batman kids' fishing poles to nabb the fish out of the trout stocked pond! I caught pond scum (above) and Eric caught a trout and gave it a nice big smooch (below). Natasha didn't catch anything - she was sad, last year she caught 6! And here's our winners of the fishing derby Ben & Anne with 2 fish caught (and another after time was up). I may have more to post tonight I'm not sure but I will keep them coming till they're all gone! I hope you don't get sick of the adventures of Lazy-F! ♥abby

These two beautiful girls were my roomies for the weekend! It was so much fun getting to know them even better! I don't miss the vinyl mattress' and the plywood beds' though!

Day One of Lazy-F is always enjoyable the girls woke up to being “pranked” by the boys, they wrote on our windows with glass paint saying “Jesus Loves the girls”. Then we started out the morning with breakfast, and then Session. During the beginning and end of session this year we had SEND play for us. S(stephen) E(eric) N(Nathan)D(Daniel). They’re a group of 7th grade kids that play covers of Christian music. They were our “song leaders” for the weekend and totally rocked the top off of the building we meet in! They’re so good! It was a pleasure to have them! During Session we talked about “The Power of Sex”. It was a take on Sex that most kids don’t look at – talking about the emotional side, and consequences of sex. Most of the kids got a lot out of it! After Session we had lunch and Free time! Free to do, Archery, crafts, croquet, hang out, sunbathe etc. We had a women’s leaders meeting and during that meeting we made ribbons for the Lazy-F Olympics! and then after the meeting w

Lazy-F is mid state by Ellensburg / Cle Elum / Thorpe area. It's quite a trip over there and especially over Memorial day weekend, because Sasquatch is also that weekend at the George which is near by. The traffic was awful around the pass. It was fun to get up there and still see snow on the ground! The girls stopped to pose for a quick photo when we stopped for a potty break and so did Casey (below). I was taking a picture of the bus and he asked me to re-take it so he could wave from the window. It made me laugh! And Nick and I kept every one entertained on the Mini bus by playing rhyming / riddle games as well as Zip Bong, which is a silly game where you try to hide your teeth with your lips while you say zip and bong back and forth to each other . It is impossible to not laugh in this game, the first one to show your teeth loses. We arrived at Lazy-F around 10pm, ( waaay past my sleepy time). When we got there we played Shuffle your buns, and I love all my neighbors. The k

I’ve got about a ton and a half of pictures I’d like to post, but right now I’m on my break at work and all of my Lazy-F photos are at home on my desktop. What a weekend! I can’t say that I’ve ever had as much fun at Lazy-F as I did this weekend. It’s the best retreat all year and yet these kids somehow made it better than before! I am completely exhausted; it was hard to get moving this morning. My whole body was stiff and unwilling to be up and moving at 5 am. All I have to say is THANK GOD I get a massage this week (Alleluia)! I think I’ll save the stories and post them along with the photos, You just don’t get the full effect without the photos. The only thing I don’t have photos of right now is the rafting trip I (thankfully) survived the rafting trip & took a disposable camera (again thankfully) that was waterproof, and hope to get it developed this week. The rafting trip was an adventure and a half – more later Either way, I’m home, happy, healthy and closer to GOD, that is

We're home from Lazy-F. I should offer 100 amazing stories of 70 amazing kids, but I can't right now. I'm the most wore out that I have ever been from a retreat! I will be sure to blog and post pictures as I find time this week, so Please come back for more! As for now? I'm off to bed! Good Night!

I never know what to write thinking anything I write will sound cheesy and superficial. I will say this, I know a few people still fighting in Iraq. Support our Troops. Without them we wouldn’t be having the carefree long weekend that we are soon embarking on. Pray for our Troops, Bring them home soon! Happy Memorial Day and remember what It’s really All about!

Wow! – I’ve been on a Roll this week! One epic blog post after another! I am giving myself a pat on the back because it wasn’t long ago I was whining about how I was sucking up my blog space and “didn’t know how to fix it”. I guess I just had to concentrate on the small things in life, Isn’t that always the lesson? Eric and I are off to Lazy F this weekend (Kat's in charge of the homestead and I know Aquaman will have a good weekend playing with 7 & Cosmo too!). For those of you who aren’t familiar with Lazy F – It’s a retreat GLC (Grace Lutheran Church) takes our 7-9th Grade youth every year over Memorial Day weekend. I will go into all the great stories and post pictures Monday (if not Tuesday) about our weekend, but if the last 2 years I’ve gone is any indication, we’ll have a great time! Friday we pack into the ranch, play games, worship and hit the hay. Saturday we do sessions, have some free time to do archery, crafts, hang out, or fish, and then have an ALL CAMP FISHING

When I was a little girl I loved nothing more than to twirl in any and all skirts that I had. Often Mom would have to tell me to stop because I was going so hard that you could see my underwear! After I moved out here it was about 6 months before I was able to afford a shopping trip of any sort. When I finally could afford it, I went to JC Penny's I fell in love with this black skirt and wanted it more than anything I had in my hands. I put everything back and paid $54 dollars for my Black skirt that I just knew I would be able to twirl in. I've worn this skirt out, I've sewed and resewed the seams on it. It's been worn for work, for play and for Halloween. At work today I noticed that I had a hole in the back of my beloved skirt that was about as big as a 50 cent piece. Julie helped sew it up after multiple people had saw my orange underwear and no one said anything about it! Though Mindy says she was trying to figure out a non- embarrassing way to let me know; and

After a 16 ball park excursion across the United States last year, Eric and I found ourselves a bit befuddled; where does a couple vacation after a vacation like that!? Neither of us are very “tropical” people; (and with the swine flu pandemic who can blame us?) and we really love to explore the United States, (there’s so many amazing things to see here!). We have been thinking about it a lot recently and came to a decision last night that I think we’ll both be pleased with. Eric and I have traveled a lot together, we’ ve been a lot of places and explored more countryside in the 3 short years we’ ve been together than I had my entire life. He’s shown me so many amazing, beautiful and fun places, what could possibly live up to it? In 2006 we went to Portland, it was the summer after I had moved out here and I was itching to see what Portland was all about, that was my ‘vacation’ that year. Shortly before we were engaged, I took Eric to South Dakota and showed him my roots, and then sh

Happy Monday to me! I got my package in the mail from Sherpani today! I got a new messenger bag and a new baby purse! I was pretty excited to get them, I haven't even been waiting for them for a week, so I guess I'm a little bit impatient. When I got home from work, Eric and I went out to grab some Thai food, and the guy who runs the resturant was telling us all about his Thai Kickboxing career. He said he was 67 but Eric and I think he looks more like he's 40. We decided maybe eating Thai food is his "secret", but most likely it was the exercise and hard work. More people would be kickboxing champions if all they had to do was eat Thai food all the time! When we got home, Eric taught me how to play the slam dunk competition on our XBox 360 on 2K9 NBA Basketball. I was playing Dwight Howard and dunking like it was my JOB! Now I'm pretty sure I'm addicted as you can tell from my white knuckled grip on the controler below. It was a good Monday, pretty aver

I'm getting my new bag(s) today! WOO HOO! I'm so excited! I sit on the edge of my seat waiting for the call that UPS has come. I will post pictures later, Happy Monday!

It was SUPER sunny out here today, so Eric was determine to get us outside and enjoy it! I was feeling a bit BLAH and didn't really want to go, but I'm glad he got me out of the house. Before we left, we took Gracie out on the deck to enjoy the sunshine, for whatever reason when you take her out on the deck she gets incredibly calm and can bear us holding her, so when it's sunny out we take advantage of the situation. I sat her down on the deck with a collar and a leash on (because I'm paranoid she'd run straight off our 2 story deck) and she sat where the sun had been shining and howled because her paws were hot, instead of moving like a smart kitty would. I love my poor house cat who rarely sees the outdoors. Eric and I had a meeting at the church this morning for Lazy F which is a retreat we're working on next weekend. It was good to get that over with and get outside. All the photos were taken at Marvista park which is in the neighbor hood (right next d