Family camp at Crystal Springs...

 Some events are fun, and some are SO FUN!    The pictures below show that this event best fits with the 2nd definition of "Fun".  :)
 

Most of the pictures that Andrew/my mom/myself/friends took were of the Family Olympic games on Saturday afternoon.  (Mom and I just went for the day, my dad stayed home to keep the farm going, but the boys spent the night and stayed for part of Sunday morning, then left to go pick up a 4-wheeler Andrew bought in Jamestown, and then headed home to help get the cover-crops planted....). 

They are not necessarily in the order they were taken, as my computer mixed them up somehow and I don't feel like fighting with it tonight. SO, here are the pictures:

My little brothers and I, watching...

 ...some people get wrapped up in cling-wrap to see if they could race that way (there were 2 other teams), which they did.   It was a pretty slow race though!

Add caption

There were lots of cameras clicking...

 

 After the "Olympics", most of the guys and some girls played volleyball, while most of the girls (and some guys) headed over to the lake to splash in it or to go down the huge water-slide.

 Andrew told me that they were lining up to pick teams for speed volley-ball...

 We, once again, met several new people and it will be fun (hopefully) to go to camp again in February to see them all again and to get to know each other better!  Some new friends are very seriously considering coming to our next Appleseed shooting event, so that is something else to look forward to!

One of the ladies my mom met (and really liked and talked to for, literally, hours) had just had this cute little boy named Miles 3 weeks before...

 Babies....  Oh, so precious!

 Mrs. Geiger and Mrs. Fettig, visiting....   I had a nice long talk with Mrs. Geiger while sitting by the water slide, watching people go down, and learned some new gardening tips that I want to try next year!

 Close to supper time, I was watching these 2 young ladies (Gwendolyn and Emily) set up a newer version of "Life" than what we have, and then they asked if I wanted to play, so I said "Yes" and we got about halfway through our lives before it was announced that supper was ready, the bell was rung, and we put our game indefinitely on hold!

By the lake of shining waters (AKA: Crystal Springs)...

Ping pong time!

 My dear "old" friend, Miranda and I, smiling through the blur....

Lots of people---friends, just waiting to happen.  ;)

For the family olympic games, each family (if large enough) was their own team, and if they weren't large enough, then smaller groups of families were combined to make a total of 10 people per team.  Then, there were 2 heats, in which there were about 7 or 8 teams each.   The first 3 "Winners" from each heat then played the game again in the finals, where a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner was selected.  Later in the evening, the Sip family (the hosts of the family camp) gave out medals (chocolate kisses with wrappers of gold, silver, or bronze, tied to red, white, and blue strings) with Olympic music playing in the background.   Mrs. Sip did some fun interviews of the team-mates, asking them how long they'd been training for such and such event.  It was so HILARIOUS!   :) 

SO, the first event in the family olympics was the Hula-Hoop pass, in which each member of the team held hands and then the one on the end crawled through the Hula-Hoop, passing it on to the next person, all without letting go of the other person's hand.  Once it reached the other end, the Hula-Hoop had to return the same way it came, all the way to the other side, then the end player ran to the judge (AKA: Rebecca Sip) several yards away.

 Visiting with the Geiger family...

 The announcers/score-keepers/judges, Christopher and Rebecca Sip...

 Such a nice, hot, sunny day!

 The shade of the tree and building felt really good while waiting for your teams' turn...

 Line up and hold hands...

 Andrew, going through the hoop before passing it back down the line... 

 Hurry, hurry!

 We were teamed up with another small-ish family, of which I cannot think of their last name!  (HELP, anybody?)  We really enjoyed them and now have new friends who we may not have gotten to know any other way if it weren't for these silly/fun games!

 What a pretty contrast the sky and grass make, with the people scattered here and there like sprinkles on a cake!

 The boys enjoyed getting to know Nate U. better...  (and I had a great talk with his sister, Anna!)

 Pretty tree!

 The next event was the coolest---literally!

 Each team lined up, kneeling, in a row, facing a full bucket of water...

 The photographers got out their cameras....

 The rules were given out via mega-phone...

 More picture taking...  (Hi Hannah!)

 Then, the fun began!  The front person in the team filled a very large sponge with as much water as possible, then handed it over his/her head to the next teammate, who proceeded to pass it down the line....  When it got to the last person, they turned slightly to squeeze what water was left in the sponge into the empty pail behind him/her.  Then, the sponge came back up and over each person, 'til it reached the person in front again, who then filled the sponge and sent it on it's sploshy little way again!  The first few people especially got wet, no, soaked.  The goal was to get the back bucket filled with water, then the end player would run to Rebecca and try to be there first. 

 Look at all that water!

 Running to the score-keepers....

 (Hi again, Hannah!  :)

 Here is our team (my mom sat out on this one, as you were only supposed to have 9 players...)

 Little girls, playing with the now unused Hula-Hoops...

 "Who made it to the finals?"     Our team actually made it to each of the finals, so did each of these events twice!

 The finals, I think, in the sponge race....  We met this family (the ones in front) in February at camp, so it was nice to visit a bit with them again!

 The Karges clan, plus Nate U., as they must have needed another player?  Each team had a judge at the end of the line to tell when the bucket was really and truly full enough.

 Ready for a shower, Andrew?

 He was a very good sponge-filler.  ;)

 That was cold, and felt so nice on that hot day!

 Somehow, our bucket got tipped over in the finals here, so we had to go and go and go to finally get it full, which meant we were quite drenched by the time we were done!

 Drip, drop, drip, drop, drip....

 It was so funny!

 The Geiger team (and Abby)...

 The Karges clan again....

 It was a bit like taking a shower....

The last race that everyone participated in was the water-in-the-cup relay race.  It was allowable to cover the cup with your hand as you ran down to the other end, but then you had to dump the water into a large pop-bottle (without a funnel) that was resting on somebody's forehead---usually the Dad of the family got that job.  Our team is lined up way on this end...

 My brothers, ready to run....

And me, running!

It was such a fun time!   There was also lots of yummy food to eat (provided by the Sip family!) and a couple of great messages to listen to and songs to sing.  They showed a movie called, "Be a man" that was, naturally, aimed towards all the men and boys in the group, but I think all of the ladies found it interesting too.  Late in the evening, there was a message geared toward the mothers and daughters.  Then, there were banana splits for everyone (Mom and I left about that time) and more volleyball or roller skating?  After supper, Miranda and I had a pleasant chat out on a large rock, taking in the beauty of the lake and the pleasant breeze.  I had a headache by this point for some reason, so it was a nice way to relax and get caught up with my dear "Old" friend of 10+ years.  :) 

So that, in a nutshell, was what family camp was like.  Oh, I should mention that a lot of the guys did dishes at one of the meals and they did a great job!

We look forward to (hopefully) attending the next family camp in February!

I'll post another time about the nice time we had with family and friends today, celebrating my Bornemann grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary.......