Luke's Star Player Award and Minnehaha Falls

Dodgeball game after Hockey

Finn at Waterfall 

Luke was Star player of the game!!

Climbing rocks at the waterfall

Pool Day at our neighborhood pool with our buddies Jack, Charlie, and Andy

At the top of the waterfall

Beautiful Minnehaha Falls


All of my pictures are a bit out of order, but there are a few good ones I wanted to make sure I don't forget to post.  Prior to our last trip to visit my family in Branson and to attend Family Camp, we made a day trip to Minnehaha Falls with our friend Jack and his mom, Melissa.  It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun hiking the trail to the waterfall.  The boys did some swimming in the water at the bottom of the falls and we had lunch and played at the playground nearby.  It was a lot of fun and we were all quite tired at the end of the day.  

Luke and Liam played in their final hockey tournament with the AAA hockey team they were playing with over the summer.  We played a few tournaments in April and May then took a nice break over the summer before we picked up practice again at the end of July.  While the tournament games didn't go very well for their team, they did manage to win the final game and Luke received the Star Player award which he was thrilled about.  He will be treating all of us to a free pizza sometime soon!

Sadly, the summer is nearing an end, but it has been a good one with lots of activities and lots of memories.  One of our main activities all summer long has been swimming at our neighborhood pool.  This is the first year we have had a pool in our neighborhood as this was a new amenity in our new house that we moved to last summer.  While I thought it would be cool to have a nearby pool, I never quite realized how much we would enjoy it.  Every summer day when it was warm enough to swim, we tried to be there and we invited our friends to join us which made it even more fun!  

Branson and Family Camp

Family Camp at New Life Ranch 2016

Aiden at Morning camp party volunteering for a skit

Baseball Party at Camp

Counselor Mr. Carter and Luke

Carter and the boys at the Canteen (where Mom used to work)

Creek Fun at Camp!

Finn riding on "Molly" 

Building a castle

Finn

Liam crossing the funky monkey bars at camp.  There was a bell to ring at the end

Luke catching fun stuff in the creek

On our way to Branson and Family Camp.  We spent a combined 22 hours in the car round trip!!

Checking out the view at Top of the Rock in Branson

Relaxing at Top of the Rock

Mimi and Grandpa Morse with 4 out of 5 grandkids (Luke is missing)

Mimi and the boys

The Butterflies liked John's head and arm

Luke and his Butterfly

Liam loved the butterflies

Getting ready to Zipline

Aiden and Dad

Luke on the climbing wall

Luke loved to climb

Aiden on the big swing

Luke was so pumped to be in the dunk tank!

Finn and archery

Finn loved the horses

We had a fun filled mini vacation last week.  We left last Friday and drove 10 hours to Branson, Missouri.  We rented a cabin and spent the weekend with my family.  While the weather didn't cooperate very well, we managed to figure out a Plan B with all the boys, my sister and son, my mom, and my dad.  We spent Saturday at a Butterfly Garden followed by a magic show and then dinner at a really cool fish restaurant in downtown Branson right along the water.

On Sunday, we drove to the Top of the Rock in Branson.  The weather was quite rainy so we were not able to do a lot of touring, but we did have a nice lunch at the main lodge area and were able to look around.  It is a beautiful area and I definitely hope to go back and tour the caves, hit golf balls on the driving range, visit the old chapel, etc...There were lots and lots of things to do outdoors.  The boys all had fun playing with Calvin and reuniting after a big time earlier this summer.

On Sunday afternoon, we drove around two hours to family camp in Oklahoma just over the Arkansas/Oklahoma border near Siloam Springs, AR.  We attended family camp at New Life Ranch where I was a camper and counselor many years ago.  We had so much fun!  The boys were asking to go back before we even left.  The parent seminars were awesome and the boys were more than entertained while we had some "free time."

Finn had a hard time keeping up with everyone at camp and typically took his nap around 11:00 am so that he was ready to play in the afternoons.  We did an assortment of things while we were there including the zip line, climbing wall, a 50 foot swing, horseback riding, archery, bebe guns, swimming, gym games, chapel songs and skits, plus some fun slides, monkey bars, and bouncy things in the creek.  Needless to say, it was "heaven" for active boys and they were more than tired by the end of the day.

We loved the counselor assigned to our family, Mr. Carter.  We had a number of things in common with him and really enjoyed getting to know him.  Thank you New Life Ranch for an amazing couple of days at Family Camp.  It was such an awesome experience to see John and the boys enjoy the same camp that has meant so much to me for many years.