Janet & Ashlee Visit and Bill's Singing Debut!!

It was a great week with the kids from Rochester.  The smaller group size and age spread made it less hectic and the evening devotions around the campfire were very moving.  This group had some kids that loved to bake and on various days, they made banana bread, banana muffins, monster cookies, peanut butter cookies, and peach cobbler.  It was heartbreaking to hear some of the kids talk about not having any food in their homes to cook/bake with but it was great that they had the opportunity while they were at camp.  And we did not mind sampling their treats either...they were very good!

Our friend, Janet, and her daughter, Ashlee, came up Friday to celebrate Janet's birthday and hang out with us for the weekend.  We had a great time together!!  Ashlee had never fished before but she brought along her fishing pole and K got her all set up while we got things unpacked at the cabin.  Ashlee fished from the dock and she caught a bunch of perch and even a couple of northerns!  She was so excited and even was able to put on her own minnows by Saturday afternoon.  Bill came down to fish also but Ashlee had the hot spot and caught more fish and bigger fish than he did!  Needless to say, she enjoyed this immensely!  Here is one of the bigger perch and some of the fish caught (by Ashlee and Bill!) on Saturday.

We also went to the Lost Forty on Saturday morning as everyone who visits us gets to experience this part of the area!  We always love to take this walk and see the huge red and white pines.

On Saturday evening, we went over to have Ashlee see horses.  Our friend was not around so we didn't get to ride but Bill did get to see his favorite horse, Big Bill, again.  Supposedly there is a picture of Bill on Big Bill that I am still trying to get for posting!  We all enjoyed seeing and petting the horses.  After we got back, we had a campfire and smores.  I had never made smores with the giant thick chocolate bars but I have to tell you that although it does not melt as much, it is pretty darn good to have that much more chocolate in the smore!  We enjoyed hanging out and visiting while we had the smores and watched the fire.

There have been lots of butterflies flying around and while we were hanging out at the cabin, we saw this butterfly on the hummingbird feeder.  I was amazed it stayed long enough and let me get close enough to get a decent picture.

Janet and Ashlee got to see and hear Bill's singing debut at church today!!  He sang "Blessed be Your name" at our church up here this morning and did a great job!  While he has played guitar and bass many times, he had never sung before in public so he was pretty darn nervous.  However, he did a wonderful job and is already signed up to do another song next week and maybe lead all the singing for a service in a few weeks.   He has been talking about doing this for several years and  I am glad and proud that he took this opportunity to step outside his comfort zone and give this a try.

It was a really nice day today, so we spent this afternoon driving around and looking for places for Bill to take pictures of butterflies and me to read books!  He found a couple of spots and we stopped in and checked out Little American Falls (up by Effie) again and were surprised that the falls were quite a bit lower (since the lakes are still really high).

We are headed back to St. Cloud tomorrow to say good bye to my aunt and uncle as they are heading back to Kentucky on Tuesday and we have an all day strategic planning meeting for church on Tuesday.  It is a slow week at the resort and K is able to do so much more that so we may hang around a couple of days so that we get to spend some time with our family and friends.