All packed up and ready to head to Wildside for the work camp weekend! Jon rallied up a bunch of our friends to come out for the weekend and help him tackle a list of projects that need to get done before summer starts. We were looking forward to a whole long weekend spent out there!
My project for the weekend was to keep working on the trailer. I pulled off all the wallpaper in the living room and primed the walls. My hope in re-doing the living room was that the smell in there would disappear. The wallpaper was so easy to peel off - I was prepared for it to be MUCH harder. It just came right off, and was lifting in most places, which was a pretty good sign to me that it needed to come down anyways! I didn't take a picture before my first coat of prime because I forgot, but the walls looked pretty awful.
The before shot of the outhouses - Jacob (Dorian) is in there working. He's the one that designed them for us last year and led the crew of people to build them. They now need a front roof put on to help with rain run off. He brought up just Gabe (they have three babies - Zoe stayed home with the two littlest for the weekend) and Gabe was awesome, happily helping his Daddy all weekend
Miss Lisa came up Satuday to help me paint! This girl is amazing, always ready to help me out.
Aimee came up to set up the kitchen for us, because there was a guest group coming in later that week that needed to be able to use the kitchen. She brought Katie along and they did GREAT back there! They cleaned everything and set it all up, and it looks so good!!! I am going to miss having Aims around this summer! So is Q... everytime we got to Wildside she starts yelling "MIMI! MIMI!" when she sees the kitchen. Tim and Lois came up too for the afternoon! Lois helped me paint for a while and then went and helped Aimee, and Tim helped Jon with things. I love that they come up and help out and can see what Jon works so hard on and get a tiny taste of what his passion is. Love them.
A few of our youth group girls came up and stayed in a tent on their own. The Loewens took on looking after them and making sure they were good, but how awesome that these girls wanted to come up and help out! They are awesome. They got SO MUCH raking done!! The property looks so much better!! Q helped them out for a while
Read came up with his whole family, and he worked so hard all weekend. He is such a go-getter, and never seems to tire. Give him a job, and he will work endlessly to finish it. Quite the character trait!!! One smaller job that he did was build new steps for the trailer that were all rotten and that we would fall through everytime we walked on them - after getting ankles and legs stuck a few times, we had just trained ourselves to go around, or jump the steps haha. The new ones look lovely!
Jacob finishing off the new part of the roof! He is such a talented guy, so good at what he does and so professional in his work. Wildside is so blessed to have these people give up a weekend of their time and use their skills to benefit camp!!!
Peter and Alistar (don't worry, the blade is up, he wasn't cutting here). Peter and Raed used the two mowers that Calvary graciously let us borrow to mow all the grass all over the property. It wouldn't get done otherwise, and with a guest group coming in, and ticks being all over and very much in season, it needed to get done!! It blew me away how awesome and generous our church is with Wildside. If only we could buy a mower to have permanently over there! Long term goals :) Scott is the one that brought the mowers up for us on his trailer, along with a ton of tools and equipment that was needed for the weekend. We go to church with the best people. I write that because it really is amazing how giving people can be, and how staggering their kindness and generosity is! We are so thankful to be part of such an incredible church community!!!
I was painting the entire day, so I didn't get a picture of Krista Stubbs, or Chase and Derek, and his crew that were also there Saturday. They spent the day chopping wood and doing other helpful things. We also have a very sweet camp family!!! On Sunday morning we decided to go for a hike - Q in the Tula, Gabe on Jacob's shoulders for most of the time. It was a perfect morning for it!
I love adventures with these two
Such a beautiful mountain and lake and property. So many things to see, so many new hikes to tackle. It never gets old.
These two wanted to walk the last part of the hike, and they did great! They are both tough, and such troopers. The exact kind of kids that you want to take on hikes
Gabe spotted a small snake in the dirt and was eager to point it out to Quinny. She wanted to see it, but it made me laugh how she hide behind him while peeking, not wanting to get too close. Jacob said "Oooh that will be one that we are showing at their wedding" which made me laugh. Q would be very lucky to call the Dorian's family, but I think they are still a tad too young for such statements ;)
"Dad, you hold my hand while I walk please?" There is such a softness and sweetness about her that melts us. Moments like this are perfect examples of that.
Gabe was in front, and he walked down this hill, and it had loose gravel and he fell right on his butt. He was a bit sad for a second, but then Q came walking behind him and then slipped in the EXACT same spot and landed like this beside him. She was giggling like crazy, thinking that was hilarious, which cheered him up and they kept going together. Cuties!!!!
Derek at lunch playing with Quinny. So sweet
Finishing up the last touches before they headed home Sunday afternoon!
While at lunch after the hike, I looked at Q who was sitting beside me, and noticed a bug in her hair. I pulled it out and showed it to Jon and Chris who were sitting across from us. While they examined it, I took a quick look in her hair and found THREE MORE. I panicked a little then, knowing this was probably a bit of a big deal. I have never seen lice before, and I assumed it was lice and my heart sank, thinking of the hours and days we would have to spend looking through her very thick, long, and curly hair to find knits and bugs. Turns out that Chris and Jon discovered that it was a tick. Okay, so as long as we were certain we found them all, and quickly, not as big of a deal. Chris was awesome, and right away just said "come on, we are going to my house, you guys can shower there and look through her hair". I was SO grateful, because the thought of making the poor kid shower at Wildside with no hot water on a cold day made me cringe for her! I searched her head throughly and then her body and found nothing else. Jon did the same to me, and we found one bug, and he was totally clear. Q and I jumped in the shower to wash off any that might be lingering, and Sharon let us throw our clothes in the dryer (heat kills them!). Q was so patient and awesome through the whole process! Once we were clean and clear, and in the car on the way back to the trailer, she says to me "Mom, thank you so much for getting bugs out of my hair". No problem, kid. That's what moms are for, right? :)
Jake had a bunch of ticks that Peter spent the afternoon getting out - I am sure he was cursing us for taking Jake along on the hike with us! Sorry guys! Jacob pulled one tick off himself but Gabe was clear. Ugh, ticks. We need to be so careful with them this spring and summer. After dinner, we had an early fire and let all the kids roast marshmallows, and then everyone packed up and headed home! I loved having Ashley there all weekend, she is so fun and awesome.
Working hard haha
Saying good-bye to Lizzie as their family got ready to go
Jon and I enjoyed fire that evening just the two of us with everyone else gone, around the small fire pit. Quiet, peaceful, gorgeous. This place is so good for my soul.
Monday was spent painting all day as Jon finished up projects after the busy weekend. After the living room was done, I also painted all the wood in Q's room white (and forgot to take a picture... I'll get one soon!) and started the on the bathroom. Q's room took FOUR coats of paint! So much painting! The bathroom will need the same I assume. But it already looks so much brighter and fresher in there!
For most of the morning she followed her Dad around and helped him out, being such a big helper!
Once she started to get hungry and tired, she was less inclined to help, so Jon turned the generator on so I could run her mini dvd player and let her watch Dora
Finished living room project!!
Came home that afternoon VERY tired and smelly and wanting to unpack and snuggle in my bed, but I knew I needed to get my workout in or else I wouldn't do it. It was a struggle but I got it done
Another project that got done this weekend - making the showers MUCH nicer!!! They did all the siding on them and it looks great!
Helping Dad pick up wood and stack it
Al came up for the morning on Monday to help Jon finish the kitchen project he has been working on! Seriously, the generosity of people with their time is amazing.
The finished product!! The kitchen looks so much better - more professional and just cleaner. I did not see Jon's vision for this when he first talked about, but wow he did such a great job!
Cleaning a very dirty baby when we got home!!
The left side is before, the right side is after! So happy with how it turned out! And it does smell much better in there! Such a great, exhausting (in a good way) weekend.
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