Mark's 1st Swim- 7/7/09

We've been blessed with wonderful friends in Cleveland. I remember when we first moved here and our constant prayer request was to find friends. God has a neat way of giving us way more than we could imagine! That said, this summer I've been getting together with my "mom" friends a couple times a month. One of these friends generously allows us to use her heated pool when we get together. It's FANTASTIC!! We all love it--- including Mark. He lounged in the bath-like water for over an hour! It was a great afternoon!

Mark is 4 months old today!!

Wow! Mark is four month old today!! Time has flown by. It is hard to remember life without him even though it really wasn't that long ago that he was a mystery to us. We didn't even know that Mark was going to be a "he" four months and a day ago! Yikes! I was reminiscing of the fun we had with our family and friends the day he was born. The Lord was truly gracious to me by granting me an exciting and enjoyable labor process as well as giving us a healthy baby boy. Thank you to all of you who have shown us massive amounts of love and support in the months leading up to Marks arrival and the months since. We thank the Lord for you!! I have several updates for our blog--- Mark's first swim, Papa's 50th birthday, Mark's first bites of cereal (that was today!!)--- I hope to get to that soon. In the meantime... if you are praying for us, we'd love it if you prayed for wisdom as we raise this little boy the Lord has trusted us with AND if you could pray that the Lord would give us clear direction in our house hunt (whether or not to keep going with it). Thanks!!! If you have anything that I can pray for you... please let me know... Mark is a great sleeper, which gives me lots of time for praying!!

Keene Camp

Keene Camp has been in my family for generations. In short, my grandmother's grandmother bought about 100 acres in the Adirondacks which she has willed to her offspring through a trust. There are several cabins on the property that men in the family have built (my dad is currently working on one). Growing up, I don't think a summer went by when we did not go up to "Keene Camp" at least once. Chris proposed to me on the property...to be specific...it was at the "Look Out"--- that's the cabin built on a hill. It was beautiful!!

Back to this summer --- From Ohio, camp is a 9 1/2 hour drive. With a baby...it was about an 11 1/2 hour drive. The drive was interesting, but we made it and it was certainly worth it. Here are some pics from our week...

Here we are as a family at the same spot Chris proposed and we shared our first kiss. (almost 4 years later) It was fun to reminisce and to have little Mark along.

crossing the bridge on our hike up to the "Lookout"

Mark with his grandma at "Tail o' the Pup"---a fun bbq restaurant.

We have a rule at camp--- "You must put your feet in the brook if you ever want to come back." Here is Mark's first brook experience. We expected him to shriek due to the frigidness of the water, but he actually took it like a champ. He didn't even wince!!

We played lots of floor pong throughout the week-- so fun!!

Mark with his Aunt Kate

Aunt Beth

Mark took a lot of naps at camp. The humming of the brook was a fantastic sedative. Many times he slept along side his Poppie. Here they are after a refreshing sleep.

Uncle Jon was always looking out for his nephew.

Disclaimer: Mark only drove on the driveways on our property. (He's still a bit shaky behind the wheel, so we thought we'd keep him off the roads.)

"Hmm...If I aim just right I might be able spit up right in Aunt Beth's mouth!"

Can you spot the Adirondack chairs in the pic?? -- Don't they blend in well with the wall?

Of course we have many more pics, but we'll stop here.

Good times were had by all!!