3rd annual camping adventure

The 3rd annual Bethel worship staff camping trip was held this week at Crow Wing State Park near Brainerd, MN.  These are some of our best friends and we look forward to this time together!  

The first night was marked with excitement when Kaelynn lost her first tooth!  It was a fun way to remember this trip!

 The kids are all about the same age and they love playing together.  For the most part, they get along really well.  They spend a lot of time together with many different events at church and yet they don't seem to get bored with each other.  The boys outnumber the girls by a few so the girls seem to stick together especially closely. 

This is Lauren and she LOVES Andy!  She often asks for him when she is at her house and she loves to see him at church!  She loves it when he lets her sit on his lap and loves to talk to him.  It's pretty cute!

What's a camping trip without a pinata?????????  It was Johnny Rogers birthday so Carrie and Greg brought a pinata for the kids to do.  Each child got a turn and Carson had the priviledge of busting it open.  It was a definite hit with everyone! 

 Connor and Carson played hard, but didn't sleep quite as hard so Connor ended up taking a little nap with some refreshment on his head. 

 The second night there were some pretty intense thunderstorms that rolled through.  All three kids slept right through it while I prayed and prayed that our tent would keep us dry and safe.  It was very, very, very loud rain, thunder, and wind and I was amazed at the power of a child's sleep.  God did protect us and gave us an amazing lightning show that was nothing short of beautiful!

While we were packing up Connor was trying to convince us to let him take home a pet!  He had found a very small tree frog and was very adamant that he needed someone to keep him company.  After we told him that he could be arrested if he took the frog out of the park he backed off.  Oh the things we will say!   

No doubt he was cute- just not Kvernen pet material.  

So another successful camping trip is under our belts.  Camping is not my first choice of vacation options, but when it's with friends it's worth the sleepless nights and piles of laundry!

A birthday that will not be forgotten!

Sunday was my 35th birthday. It started out as a very relaxing day. We were in the northern woods of MN at a beautiful lake place enjoying sun and easy times.

At 4:30pm that all changed. I received a phone call from my grandmother who
lives in FL stating that my father had suffered a stroke. He was alive but had paralysis on the right side of his body. His speech was ok and he could swallow, so that was a good
thing.

He had several TIAs which are small strokes and an MRI confirmed that he had a major stroke and it hit the mobility part of his brain. They feel at this point that it is unlikely that he will regain the use of the right side of his body.

That means a lot of things- lots of rehabilitation. The possibility of not being able to work anymore. Learning how to walk with one leg.

It is all very overwhelming to think about. Especially being so far away from it all. My sister Katie and I will hopefully be traveling to FL this weekend to see him. We haven't seen him in almost 4 years! To say that we are anxious about the future is an understatement.

We praise God that he spared his life and are looking to Him for wisdom in the questions that need to be answered.

So my 35th birthday will be one that I never forget in more ways than one.

An incredible opportunity

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Phil. 2:3,4

Today we had an incredible opportunity to put others ahead of ourselves and to look to the interests of others.  We don't have that very often in our lives, so Andy and I really wanted to take this opportunity as a family and are hoping that it will multiply into many other opportunities for our family.

We participated in the Convoy of Hope here in Fargo/Moorhead.  It is a national organization that is committed to feeding the hungry and caring for basic needs of those who cannot.  They have a goal of going to all 50 states this year and today they were in Moorhead, MN.  It was pretty amazing to see hundreds of volunteers from many cities and denominations pull together to bring hope to thousands.

They provided medical care, community resources for those who are in need of extra help, a free meal, several bags of groceries, feet washing and 500 pairs of free shoes, a fun kids zone with inflatables, face painting, and games, haircuts, professional pictures of families, and so much more.

We are very proud of the kids for "giving up" their Saturday to serve our community.  They got up at 6:00am to be at the site.  We volunteered to help with the groceries which was perfect for us.  The first thing we did was assemble over 5,000 bags of groceries.

The kids really gave forth an awesome effort.  The boys were practically running through the line trying to see how many they could fill.  I'm thinking we went through the line about 30 times.

Once we had all of the food in our bag, we brought it to a table to be tied up.

Then we waited for the people to come so we could distribute the bags of groceries to them.  

It was a lot of standing and it was very hot- 90+ degrees!  We handed out groceries from 9:30am-2:30pm.  Andy and the boys did a lot of hauling groceries to cars and apartments for those who just couldn't carry them.  

 We saw a lot of grateful smiles and heard a lot of heartfelt "thank you's", but the best thing of all was being able to serve the Lord as a family!  We are really hoping that we will be able to make this something that we do often.  It hasn't been a priority so far, but it sure is now!

Oh yeah, and a little positive reinforcement at the end of the day- Tutti Fruitti!

Lord, thank you for the opportunity to be your hands and feet today!!!!!

Swimming Lessons and Summer Basketball Video

Video of all the kids taking swimming lessons!


Video of the boys playing in a summer basketball league!

Move over Lebron James!

Okay, that might be a little bit of an overstatement, but I tend to be a little biased about my kids.  Can you blame me?  Anyways, basketball has invaded our house this summer and it has been a blast to watch.  The boys attended a training camp the beginning of June and are now in a summer league.  They are each on a team- Connor the Blue Devils and Carson the Bison.

They play the two other 3rd grade teams 3x a week.  It has been really great for them to play on a team!  In the beginning it was interesting to see how each of the kids really wanted to be the star and show everyone else how good they were.  But they didn't stay there and they have really learned to work together as a team to do their best.  More passing and defending are happening than they were in the early games.  I got some good action shots from today.  Andy is working on a video so we'll get that up when it's done.  Here are some shots though!

Coach Limbke gives some good tips in the first few minutes.  Today he talked about  making sure everyone got a chance at having the ball and good sportsmanship.  

Carson blocking the shot.  He had some great blocks and steals today!  

Connor is a great defense player!  He blocks and rebounds with passion.   

In the 2nd game Connor and Carson's teams faced each other.  

Because they are the tallest on their teams, they defended each other.  

Connor getting some tips from Coach Limbke!

I love this shot!  The boys are really giving it their all!

 

So far....

So far June has been busy but great.  The pace of life has slowed down and we have enjoyed being at home together again!  I have given the "This summer is not going to be like this...." speech already, but it was met with change in attitudes, including mine.  We started off June with the wedding of some friends from church.  It's not often that the whole family is invited, so it was a special treat.  The kids did very well during the ceremony and very much enjoyed the reception and the dark purple frosted cupcakes.  Kaelynn enjoyed hers a little too much, but thankfully the purple came out of her very white dress!  

The boys attended a basketball camp put on by the West Fargo high school team!  I really, really like West Fargo a lot!  The sports teams put on great camps with a good emphasis on skills, healthy competition, and sportsmanship!  The boys worked on lay-ups, free throws, and a little bit of defense.  They did an hour of skills work and then scrimmaged against each other.

Both of their teams (all 3rd graders) did very well.  Connor's team got 3rd place and Connor had some great defensive moves.  He boxed out quite a few times.  He was definitely the tallest 3rd grader there.  Carson's team placed 1st and he got a medal for that.  Carson made some great shots and played hard to help his team win.  I noticed that both the boys played with all they had, and were great team players.    

They got to keep the West Fargo Packers basketballs you see in the picture which they were really excited about.  They still have them in their hands now as they are chilling in front of a movie!

Kaelynn starts ballet next week and then we have swimming lessons, VBS, and baskeball league the following week!  Woo Hoo!

Summer is here!

School is out and summer is here!  Woo-Hoo!!!!  Time for 'smores around the firepit with friends......

......and flowers!  I absolutely love my peony bush.  I really wish it would re-bloom, but I will enjoy it while I can!

Ahh, the thought of sleeping in.... not today though.  Andy got the boys up at 4:15am to go catch some fish.  And boy, did they catch some.  They caught quite a few beautiful perch and walleye and Carson caught this awesome 28 in. Northern.  We have some great walleye dinners ahead!    

Unfortunately, I was unable to go back to sleep after the boys left so I decided to start on a summer excercise routine.  I got on the treadmill at 5:30am and was able to have a little devotion time before getting Kaelynn up.  This is not easy for me to do during the school year, as I need to get up at 5:30am to get us all out the door in time.  I'm not saying that 5:30am is my goal get-up time for the summer, but I might as well make use of the time if I'm given it.  

So what did Kaelynn and I do while the boys were galavanting on the lake?  The zoo in town had a free admission day and Kaelynn had never been there so we took in the animals.  The zoo isn't huge, but it kept us entertained for an hour.  The wolves were pretty entertaining.....

As were the groundhogs!

We also got free carousel rides.  There were quite a few people there, so we only took one ride.  There's just something about a carousel that makes you happy!  

The only bummer about today is that Andy's truck broke down on the way home from fishing and had to be towed into Fargo.  We are pretty sure it's a transmission thing and it's going to be pretty expensive to fix.  It seems that just when we are getting ahead a little, something happens and we take two steps backwards.  I think these types of things are the trials that God allows for us right now.  Oh well!  I'm not going to let it ruin my day!  God is good and will provide!

I am looking forward to a great summer!  I hope you all have one too!