Deep River Waterpark

Monday morning Glenn, Troy and I went to Deep River Water Park!  Gladys and Jean spent the day in Illinois, at Six Flags Great America.

Can Y'All believe the kids go back to school in eight days?  Eeeeeee!

Troy is totally freaked out by the height of the slides.  Height doesn't bother me, and I have been on every slide in the park.

We started out rather low key at  my favorite park attraction, the Lazy River.    After kicking back, and floating around the river, we checked out the Courthouse:

Every few minutes, a giant bucket of water spills over!!!  It's GREAT!

For old times sake, and to warm up to the bigger sides, Troy rode the FROG!

The three foot tall frog slide, was the kiddies favorite attraction for the longest time when they were babies!  ;-)

Next up, is the Super Tubes!  Just a few (hundred) feet taller than the Frog slide.  The middle tube is my favorite and could possibly be the fastest ride in the park!

The body slides are also quite fast, and quite the thrill!

The curly, easy going, tippy tube slide is my favorite ride at the park.  I like cause it's a nice, long, fun, ride.

Most of our day was spent in the Wave Pool and on the Lazy River.  Troy enjoyed being the boat motor and he would often give the Lazy River a turbo boast by running in his tube.

Before we knew it, the park was about to close.  Bye Lazy River, I'll miss you.

I didn't want to leave. 

Oh, at the Wave Pool, before the waves would start, a buzzer would sound.  The funniest thing was after the buzzer, everyone would be like-- oooooh, and ahhhhhh, and rustle about in preparation for the waves!

Good Times!

Life and Death at the Dunes

Sunday morning we went to church-- at the beach! :-)  Liberty Bible Church held a special church service at the Dunes National Lakeshore.  

The kids played in the water, while awaiting the baptisms.

I think beach church is a great idea!

And convenient too-- several folk's got baptized.

People were excited to see others accepting God!

The shoreline was filled with folk's in awe as we all witnessed the baptisms.

Mom was concerned about the hike out to the shore, but she did really well!

After church services, we had a picnic lunch, and played in the lake.

 While we were swimming and goofing a helicopter swooped down.

It was a police chopper, and they were conducting a search.

We really thought it had to be just a drill, because of the beach being full of people.

Tragically, we knew it was more than a drill when they hovered in place and called for a raft.

The dead body of the girl, who had drowned Friday night, was removed from Lake Michigan.  RIP.

Prayers. 

OE Event

I got up bright n early Saturday morning, in order to be at the pier on Lake Eliza by 8AM!  For FISHING!!!!  If I go a few days without fishing, then I feel like it's been forever since I've fished. 

It's a good thing that I left the house early, because I got lost on the way to lake!  I know! Can you believe it?  I've been to Lake Eliza before, but today I came in from a different way.

 

I had stopped to pick up Jean and Jamie on the way.  Jamie wasn't ready yet and decided just to meet us there.  She had never been there before.  However, she was able to at least find the lake-- FIRST!  Even though she had came up to a barrier in the road and called us to find out where to go.   Lucky for us, Tim (a phone call away) was able to help us out with the directions.
 

Jamie was on Jean's phone while Tim gave us directions.  We decided whoever gets to the pier first WINS!  No one knew what exactly the winner wins, but it didn't matter.  What mattered was that the winner wasn't the looser, because the looser had to touch the fish.  :-/




Now don't get me wrong, touching fish is an exciting element to fishing and all, however, there are still fish out there that I've not gotten to know so well yet.  Catfish, for example, is a type that I've not had much experience with, therefore, they still tend to freak me out.



I wasn't worried about it.  After all, what's the chance of us actually catching catfish?  I mean, bluegill and bass are what we would most likely get, (right?) and I know those types of fish.



 
Us Friends of Fishing (FOF) folks were meeting there to have an outing with clients of Opportunity Enterprises (OE).  The plan was to help out the mentally challenged clients as they fished.  The OE clients arrived a bit later than expected, which gave us a chance to bucket a few fish. 
 

Sometimes it's a good idea to have a few fish on standby, just in case they don't want to cooperate when we need em to.

Oddly, the girls caught catfish!!!  Seriously! (Just my Luck)

And I was the last one to the pier, so I had to touch a catfish!  Fortunately I was feelin brave!  The trouble with catfish is that they can sting ya. Tim and Terry showed me how to hold em without getting stung.  Those catfish were squishy, slippery, and boney little things!

 
Shortly after I got a grip-- literally, the OE clients arrived.  Now all I had caught up to this point was a small perch. (The bullhead catfish was caught by the girls.)  Magically, a bluegill decided to ride the hook and I handed my rod off to this guy:

He reeled in a few fish on my little rod.

Including a carp, which he was thrilled with!

Next, I dropped my little hook with a beemoth on it in the water and WHAMMM, a fish struck it!  Wow, I couldn't believe the fish were cooperating so well!  I didn't even NEED any bucketed fish! This time I handed my rod off to Richie, and he reeled in the bass:

Marlene was the next one I got the chance to fish with.  She had a knack for picking out really good beemoths.

Marlene was amazed by how the fish reacted and flipped when she tried to pick it up.

We made sure all the poor fish we caught got a beemoth treat before releasing them back into the lake. ;-)

Darrell and Marlene each caught one at the same time-- a double!  :-)

We caught several little crappies!

OE served a hot dog and chips lunch, under the pavilion. 

Chuck did a good job on this event!  It was a success that's for sure!

It's a blessing to be part of this group, with good friends, doing good things!  :-)

Summer Camp

Hiya Everybody!

Last week the kiddies went away to summer camp!  Ahhh, summer camp!!!!  They attended the Lake Region Christian Assembly (LRCA) camp.  Which is only a little less than an hour from the house.

I dropped them off Sunday evening after supper.  Gladys was looking forward to it, but Troy wasn't too sure about it until after he got there.  Staying a week away at camp is a first for both of em.

Both Gladys and Troy attended camp during the same week, but they stayed in different groups.  Troy signed up for the Wilderness Group, and Gladys was in the Paintball Group.

It's funny that both kids picked the top bunk in each of their cabins.  :-)

After dropping off Gladys, I was out of there! FREE-- Free at last!!!  ;-)

Oh fine, I actually missed the kids.  I was eager to see them at the end of the week and find out how they liked it.  Troy didn't like camp as much as Gladys did.  Also, he told me he got shot in the neck with a paintball!  Troy came running out to the truck as soon as I pulled up and his camp leader was unavailable. Troy didn't talk about the things he did at camp.  I couldn't get anything out of him. :-(   Gladys was a whole other story, she had a great time and told me all about it the entire way home! Her camp leader, Brain Saw, (yes it's a nick name) talked with us about how she is one tough girl!      

Before the kids went to camp, and while they were gone, I completed my mission of unpacking a few boxes of sentimental items that I had tucked away.  Remember Dutch Village?  I found my shoes from when I went there as a kiddie!!!

Mom came over and she helped me go through stuff.  She read me my favorite book, which I know by heart!  When I was a baby, I insisted on having my family read that story to me a zillion times.  It's such a cool story!  I would get mad if they left out any words.  Mom left out a few clickity-clacks and I called her on it! 

I'm 43 years old, but that doesn't mean I get a short worded story time!  ;-)