Camp Lebanon 2010

Our family just got back from a wonderful family camp weekend.  Camp Lebanon is located not too far from St. Cloud and was less than a 2 hour drive for us - nice!  It is a Baptist camp that a local Catholic Church rented for the weekend.  We didn't know anyone going into the weekend, but made some new friends and had a great time.  There were even some friends that Madeline had met at Schoenstatt a few weeks ago.  What a small world!

The weekend was great.   The scheduled activities were kept to a minimum. We had family rosary and camp fire each night.  The children had a craft time on Friday morning.  They all had a great time - especially doing a little leather work.  There was Mass on Saturday evening.  The meals were all delicious and huge!  I definitely need to start up my exercise routine again!   The rest of the time was filled with whatever you wanted to do.  Todd took the kids swimming, boating and fishing.  There was also carpet ball, ping pong and pool in the Chalet.  I mainly hung out with the youngest three and was the nap and playground monitor.  It was wonderful to spend time with the little kids and get to give them my full attention.  Likewise, Todd got to have some big kid fun with the oldest three. 

We all enjoyed ourselves and are looking forward to going back again.  The neatest thing for me was being around other families who shared a strong faith and are working hard to live that faith and pass it along to their children.  We were just an average sized family with our six children.  The largest family there had 12 children.  Everyone we met was open to life and God's plan for them - so refreshing!

Much of our weekend was spent playing or watching "carpet ball".  It's kind of like bocce ball and was a HUGE hit with the kids.  I'm a little worried Joseph may go into carpet ball withdrawl! :-)

Friday morning craft time was great.  The play-doh for the little kids was so simple, yet effective.  The older kids had a variety of activities from which they could choose.  Their favorite was the leather working.  They each made a necklace that will be a cherished keepsake for years to come.

It did rain the last night we were there.  I was happy we packed some board and card games!  Madeline and Haley played Uno Spin with some friends that Madeline had met at Schoenstatt Camp.

We also had many fun hours on the little playground when the sun was shining.

On another note, we did have 2 open houses while we were gone and only one person stopped in to look at the house.  Please pray that some family will find our house and make a fair offer.  We are trying so hard to be patient with the house situation, but it is getting hard.  We'd love to be moved for the next school year and be closer to the home school co-op.  All things are possible with God and prayer is powerful.  Your prayers are greatly appreciated.

God Bless!

Heather :-)