Jersey Shore Summer Mission Part 2

Here are some other highlights:

I got to train two awesome staff girls, Becca and Sunny. I also LOVED time with Alyssa. It was so fun making new friends! 

 Fun treats and outings with the boys. They especially enjoyed walking on the Boardwalk and stopping by the arcade!

 We loved bringing the boys to the weekly meetings with the college students. 

We had lots of great conversations with people about Jesus on the beach and Boardwalk!

 Celebrating Father's Day! We gave Tim some gifts and cards and then went out for pizza as a family.  

 We brought the family to NYC with the students. We walked the Brooklyn Bridge with them and then split off and took the boys to Central Park with two other families. We had a blast taking the boats out on the lake and playing at a splash park.

For one of the days off we had a staff fun day at a place called the Fun Plex. They boys got to go on rides, do bumper cars, bowling, an arcade and laser tag!  

 Beach time! The boys loved crashing into the waves, finding crabs and diggers, as well hunting for sea glass.

 Nine UND students came with us!!

 These are our roommates, Courtney and Eric Horrmann. We enjoyed getting to know them and did most of our meal together! Court baked a couple of pies with Crosby! 

 The 8 Jersey Boys! They played together daily and did childcare together around 4 days a week.  

Being on a skinny island, we had beautiful sunrises and sunsets! All in all it was a great summer!!!!

Jersey Shore Summer Mission Part 1

 On May 11th we left Grand Forks for the Jersey Shore. The kid's teachers were great about letting us pull them out of the last three weeks of school. We were all excited to return to The Shore!

 These guys are travel warriors. We hardly watched any TV...lots of music, talking, audiobooks, and reading.  

After we unloaded our stuff the boys begged us for some New York style pizza!

 The boys are used to sharing a room so bunking up for the summer is no big deal. We also tried our hardest to keep up on reading and writing. 

 This beautiful beach was just 5 houses away from us all summer! We spent a lot of our free time swimming and playing here.

By the end of summer there were 8 staff kids but the first 2 weeks it was just us and the Rickerts so the boys logged a lot of time playing with Caleb and Isaac!

 We had SO MUCH RAIN this summer. The first 2 weeks were especially bad and the boys went stir crazy. We used whatever dry spells to hit the beach or boardwalk.

 After being in Jersey for not even a week, we had a fun women's day up in NYC. Mimi and Gramps came up to help us with the boys so Mimi was able to join us girls. We saw the musical, A Bronx Tale, and ate some great Thai and Chinese food. 

 These 2 were such a blessing to us! They spent a ton of time watching the boys while Tim and I were in meeting and setting up the Summer Mission. They had to be extra creative with all the rain! Thanks for coming Mimi and Gramps!

JSSM:Road Trip Home + WI Dells

We broke up our trip home with a stop in the WI Dells. Tim's parents got a 1 bedroom spot at a resort through a time share presentation and generously booked us an extra room. It was nice to not have to do the trip all at once.

 Feels like we spend A LOT of time in this minivan! 

 We stopped the first day to see Tim's Uncle Rob. He set up a picnic for us at a park off the highway!

 We made it to Toledo, OH the first day. Love seeing how the boys sleep:)

 The Roorda's also stayed in Toledo so we had one last night to hang with our buds. 

 Day 2 miracle: 3 sleeping boys!!

 The resort was celebrating the 4th of July when we arrived so the boys joined in on the action! 

 Day 2 we spent a lot of hours at the pool and the boys got to tie dye shirts at the activity lodge. 

 Day 3 we went to the Circus Museum and saw tigers, elephants, and a great show! 

After some good rest and bonding time with Steve and Bev, we left and drove another 8 hours home. Our minivan now has 221,307 miles on it!