NHCC Women's Retreat

I was able to spend a weekend in Lovell with some of the lovely ladies from church.  This is what people in Maine call "going to camp."  Not really what you would call "Roughing it!"  There was a spacious house and also a separate cabin with extra beds.  We all brought ingredients to prepare a meal.  It felt like a weekend for foodies.  So yummy!

Criss and Lisa, sporting a lifejacket diaper. Perfect for floating. :)

 

We had a lovely afternoon on the lake on Saturday:

And lots of laughter and fellowship in the cozy cottage.

We took some pictures before everyone headed out Sunday afternoon:

Me and Kiva

 



Becky, Jen and Amy

Criss, Samantha with Riley, and Criss' best friend (Hailey?  Ack.  It's been too long!  I'm writing this in October about late June. :)

Ashley and Jessica

 

Suzanne and Hannah (the camp belonged to Hannah's in-laws, so she was the gracious hostess)

Windjammer Days

Like last year, Josiah was quite taken by the visiting Pirates of the Dark Rose.  This time, he signed up to participate in their mock invasion of the harbor, which involved a training session Tuesday afternoon before the show on Wednesday.

Josiah had to beg for his life on "the plank."  A convincing performance!

Abbey loves to make furry friends.

Practicing his sword fighting with the pirates.  Benjamin is terrified of sudden loud noises, so he didn't want to participate.  He can still remember the cannons from last year, as well as his balloon animal that popped (so he wouldn't go near the clowns this year).

We made a visit to the Coast Guard Station Tuesday afternoon after Josiah's pirate training.  The kids always love this tour of the station, especially when we get out to the hanger and they get to climb around the boats.

Also Tuesday, we made it back to town in time to hear my friend Amber sing in the Whale Park.  She was great!

Wednesday morning, we headed down for the pirate invasion.

 

When the pirates were falling behind, they called in their back-up recruits to help save the day:

Poor Ben kept his ears covered the whole time.  He was very nervous about our spot in the front row.

Here are my little pirates:

Barrett's Park Mini Reunion

My high school girlfriends Crystal and Kathleen met me at Barrett's Park for a little play date with the kids.  So much fun to reconnect and to see our little ones playing together!

North Harbor Community Church Fun

Josiah and his buddy Quinn in their class at church:

There was a memory verse/attendance competition between the students and parents - Kids won!  They earned themselves some delicious donuts.  Josiah was very serious about learning his verses and did a great job.  :) 

Also this week, the Floodgate girls have been raising money for their 30 Hour Famine fundraiser, selling tickets for the public humiliation of four willing men in the church, which happened today:

John getting a buzz cut from Suzanne, while Amy stands by.

 

The kids soaked up the fun!

John (shaved head), Rok (pie in the face), Sebastian (water balloons), and Dan (opponents jersey)

Sidewalk Fun

The kiddos had some fun outside of The Cannery with a fun saleslady this week. :)

Converge Church Conference and Ben's Strange Rash

Logan and I travelled down to the Philadelphia area this June to attend a Converge Worldwide church conference.  There were some quite amazing speakers there!  Eric Mason (author of Manhood Restored) opened the conference with a moving sermon on suffering.  He said suffering is how we go beyond the content of the Gospel and learn the character of the Gospel.  We were able to visit his church plant on a field trip and see how they were ministering to a very poor and multi-racial community in Philly. 

 

We were very excited to be introduced to Shane Claiborne's ministry to the homeless and disenfranchised in Philly. Neither one of us had ever heard of The Simple Way before, or Red Letter Christians.  These are movements that really resonate with Logan and me.  We also met a missional pastor from Syracuse, a couple that are co-pastoring in D.C. and Ruel Navarro who is planting a church in Chesapeake, VA.  This was also the first time we were able to meet Daniel Peterson, who we'd had several conversations with about church planting with Converge.  It was a great conference!  And fun to get away with just the two of us!

 

Shortly after we returned from the conference, we noticed this rash on Ben:

Logan had plucked a deer tick off of him a couple weeks earlier, and sure enough, Ben had Lymes Disease!!!  Only one in four cases actually have a visible rash, so thankfully we were able to catch it early on and it cleared right up with antibiotics.  Quite a shock though!!!