Bryson's big catch!!

We went on our family retreat with our church this past weekend (more pics to come)... and Bryson caught his first fish! He was so funny about it. He asked if we could put it in our tank! :o) He didnt want to touch it (or for it to touch him) but he was excited to see it and watch daddy throw it back in...

What fun! We are already counting down the days til next year!!

Family Retreat 2008

So I am a bit late in posting these pics from Family Retreat last month, but better late than never. All the canoe pictures are on my mom's camera, so these will have to do for now... We had a blast as usual! We had a couple of minor injuries... which I guess is to be expected when you take 4 rowdy boys out in the wilderness and let them run free... but all in all it was a great weekend....

The first injury was when Bryson had a super-close encounter with the gravel path leading up to the mess hall... poor baby. He had muddy gravel up his nose, in his mouth, and embedded into his forehead.

The kids had a blast playing on these raft things. They are like portable docks. Here they are having fun with Ms Jackie, our children's minister. Clint was trying to convince the kids to push her in but they were all too nice!

For those of you who have not been to HEB camp, it is really cool that you drive in the river. It is like a creek part that you actually drive thru. The boys were excited to unbuckle their seat belts and hang out the windows and watch the water. Bry looks like a puppy dog in heaven right here!!

Coby "helping" daddy drive in the river

Bryson only did this same move about 50 times that afternoon. I think Mimi was sore the next day! (I cropped Mimi out of the picture per her request!)

The 3 Amigos... How cute are they??

Brinton, Bryson, and Darin - weeks apart in age... destined to be best buds!

Micah and Samantha

Daddy and Coby

Quentin and Cason

It was a great weekend.... but by the end, this is how we all felt:

** This is actually Bryson on the top bunk. It was the only bed that was totally enclosed so I knew he wouldnt roll of onto the concrete floors... but I was kinda fearful he would try to climb down in the middle of the night. I think he was so tired he slept great!!

And Just for FUN:

Here are Brinton and Bryson at Retreat 2007
And Retreat 2008

Lesson learned... it is easier to photograph immoblie 1-year olds that hyper active 2-year olds!!

Family Retreat

This weekend was the annual Brentwood Oaks Family Retreat. Basically the whole church packs everything up and heads down to Leakey, Texas, to retreat for the weekend. It is one of my favorite weekends of the year! It is so nice to just be surrounded by the beauty of God's creation... to sit in the pavilion with our brothers and sisters and sing praises to our Awesome God and listen to the echoes of our voices thru the valley. I tear up just thinking about how blessed we are by this incredible weekend. There are no TVs, no cell phone service, no internet, (but there is electricity and running water... I am not that into nature!!) We had a few sessions with a wonderful speaker from ACU about being called by God. He really made me think about my life and what I am called by God to do/be. We also had lots of fun time with the kids. There is a Texas-sized sand box, where they spend much of their time, baseball fields, tennis courts, canoes, a creek to wade/swim in, and lots of dirt and boy stuff to get into!! We stayed up til 11:00 both nights, and the boys were so well behaved!! I have spent the last 24 hours doing tons of laundry and dumping sand out of every thing we took with us. Needless to say, the boys had a blast. They are already asking when we get to go back! So, here are some pictures.... too many I am sure, but I will say that I took 186 pictures over the whole weekend, so I only picked my favorites! (quick discalimer.... I realized as I was uploading these that there arent very many of Cason... he took a 4 hour nap on saturday when we did a lot of our playing, so there are not as many "candid" shots of him... just wanted to add that in there!)

Here is the view from our cabin. We lucked out and got in a cabin right by the pavilion(this was our meeting place where we had our sessions, talent show, etc... it has amphitheater seating, so the singing is incredible!) If you look closely, you can see Clint in a canoe with the boys. I thought this was a neat picture!

Coby and Daddy at the river.

Love this one of PawPaw and Coby watching Micah fish.

Sweet Bry sporting his new camo hat!

Coby taking a break.

Micah is patiently waiting his turn to go fishing.

Everyone got to go on a canoe ride either with PawPaw or Daddy. (except Bryson)

Coby loved the canoes! He went several times! Look how happy he looks here!

PawPaw took Micah fishing....

And of coarse, the brothers had to get in on the fun!

Believe it or not, Cason caught a fish!!! He was so excited, and I was too... so much that I didnt have my camera ready to take a picture before the fish wiggled his way back off the hook back into the water! But Cason walked around for the rest of the day, just as proud as can be, telling everyone that he caught a fish!

Everyone was so tired from all the play that we slept late on Sunday morning. So I sent Clint down to the mess hall to get up all muffins and we had a picnic on our porch that morning.

Micah worked up some nerve and he sang with 3 of his friends in the talent show onSaturday night. They were the 4 Amigos, and they sang "Blue skies and Rainbows" So sweet!

Cason & Coby with their buddy Ethan at the creek.

Brinton and Bryson splashing it up... the water was C.O.L.D.!!!!!

Micah jumping off the big rock down in the river.

Ryan & Ethan, Clint & the boys, Devan & Brinton