Family Time ...

Life has been running at a pretty hectic pace lately.  Church planting is challenging in that way.  So many hats to wear and a limited number of people to wear them.  Needless to say, this creates a whole new challenge of balancing family life with church life.  Sometimes we do that well and sometimes we fail miserably. 

This week has allowed some time for us to refresh, regroup and refocus before the summer starts in full blast.  It was a much needed time.  Doug had worked so hard for so long that he ended up sick with a cold that turned into a sinus infection.  I think that may have been God's little way of saying SLOW DOWN!  So we listened this week ...

This past Wednesday was the kids last day of school.  Doug and I took advantage of the last two full days of school and took those days off.  We did minimal work and just enjoyed doing nothing for a change!  I popped in on Adyson's end of the school year swimming party on Monday.  Yes -- they went swimming in 58 degree weather!  The pool is heated to 80 degrees, but as far as I'm concerned that's still CRAZY!  Then Benjamin's end of the year swimming party was Tuesday.  It was raining and in the low 50's and they STILL swam.  NUTS! 

Friday night we actually had family night!  We haven't had our traditional family night in quite a while.  It was nice to get away to Rapid City.  The kids have outgrown all of their summer stuff so we went on a quick shopping trip to Target to load up on shorts and casual summer dresses!

Saturday we caught up on chores around the house -  yard work for Doug and mounds of laundry for Dana!  The kids did a little sweep through the house helping to pick things up for Sunday!

A new favorite thing that we are doing is having our volunteer team over every Sunday for lunch.  It has been a fun way to regroup as a team and just enjoy each other.  It also allows us to learn about the new people we are meeting each week at Connection Church since each of us are having conversations with different people!  I enjoy cooking for and having a big house full of friends each week!

Today, Memorial Day, we enjoyed a hike through Spearfish Canyon.  Our intension was to hike to Devil's Bath Tub, but due to the heavy rains we've been having in this neck of the woods, the creek was too high to safely cross with two kids in tow and we opted to catch it another time.  It was still a BEAUTIFUL walk.  We packed a picnic lunch and decided to eat our lunch on big boulders along the creek!  It was a fun, much needed family day!  The kids enjoyed the hike very much.  Adyson did amazing.  Hiking is a lot more challenging for her with her vision limitations.  With her lack of depth perception, things that are easy for us are not so easy for her.  Some of the areas along the trail were a bit steep, slippery and hard to find your footing.  However, she happily goes along with us and never backs away from the challenge.  She amazes me and I am very proud of her! 

Here are some pics of the beauty of the Black Hills we experienced today!  It's still hard for me to believe that we live just a short 15 minute drive from all of this! 

A hiking magazine told us that this tree is called the Wedding Tree.  It is a pine tree and a birch tree that has grown together!

This was our dining room! 
The view where we stopped for lunch!

This is Spearfish Falls!  When we found that we could not get all the way to The Devil's Bath Tub, we hiked back to the car and went to Spearfish Falls!  Beautiful!