Vacation....

The sun had to set on our vacation, but I thank God for the time that we had.

Vacation.....

Enjoy the scenery, I certainly did.

Vacation....

A reflective moment.

In the boat with Farmor.
Sweet, tired boy...

Samuel and Farfar look at the ocean after an island dinner.

Time to play, Samuel is cleaning his legs...

It was wonderful to spend a week at the ocean. I absolutely love the ocean. I even caught a cod. However, apparently the cod has been overfished and so I threw the cod back in the ocean. Thank you for everyones patience during my silence. I hope you enjoyed some of the pictures.

Blessings,

Laurie

Vacation

This post is to let everyone know that we are on vacation at the Kjernald's ocean house (mom and dad's ocean house to be exact). So I haven't had time to post because we are busy relaxing!!!! Today is Andreas's birthday (34) and I was able to get a few minutes on the computer to post. I hope to have lots of pictures for you soon. I pray everyone is well and having a great summer. God Bless you all, we are very thankful for our friends and family.

Love,
Laurie

Independence Day

Happy and Cade Weaver and of course Samuel. (Samuel really likes these two).


Jennie Weaver, gorgeous Swede!

Dessert, thank you Jennie (notice the colors)

Silly little people.

Of course Sweden doesn't celebrate July 4th, but we still try to make it a special day by getting together with other Americans. So we ate a wonderful steak meal with some friends. Pictured above you will see Samuel and his friends Happy and Cade. You will also see their mom, Jennie. However, and I am very sorry, I neglected to get a picture of Twain (who is the American in the family). They have become really good friends and I enjoy their company greatly. Best of all, they love the Lord, which makes their company all the better.

Twain is from Pennsylvania and, as we found out on the 4th, an excellent griller of steaks. Jennie works during the evenings at a bakery and is a fulltime mommy. She will soon be a Pastry Chef (I think that is the equivalent of what the Swedish term is). Happy and Cade are Samuel's good friends and Samuel constantly wants to play with them. We had a great 4th together and Twain lit a candle for our fireworks. We also had the priviledge of having Jennie's youngest sister with us, she just returned from 10 months in Hawaii working with Teen Challenge. Thanks for the great evening guys!!!

I hope you all had a great 4th of July. If anyone has any extra Old Navy shirts for this year we would love to have them. Samuel needs one, the one he had last year is now a middriff shirt (not so becoming).

Blessings,
Laurie

Family Camping, Part 1

Andreas is finally on vacation and it was time to pack up the family and go backpacking. This wasn't like the trips that we took in the states... mainly because instead of hiking we took a row boat out on a big lake and found places to play and camp. No one else was on this lake and it was wonderful to be alone. We named our camping spots, the first one was "Thomas's secret hill" and the second "the island of Sodor". Guess who named them? We had a lot of fun and were able to relax and play with Sam. Of course there were times that were not so fun, such as breaking the oar on the very first day, Sam waking up at 4:50 in the morning in a small tent, the million biting knats that we endured the first night and morning and always making sure that Samuel was not too close to the water's edge!! However, it was glorious to be out camping again. We only did it once when we lived in Mississippi and so we have missed it greatly. Samuel loved it! Of course camping with a three year old means that taking as little as possible is thrown out the door. We had to have toys and life jackets and more food and so on. However, it worked. There were a million pictures, but I couldn't put them all on, plus the fact that Samuel enjoyed himself most when he was without apparel (those pictures will be kept under lock and key until Samuel has a fiance and then we will bring them out for embarrassment).

Enjoy,
Laurie

Pappa and Samuel heading for the boat.

The view from our first camping site - "Thomas's Secret Hill".

Samuel relaxing while we put up the tent. Of course tiger is also relaxing.

Our tent.

Play time! He loves his little boat.

Family Camping, Part 1 1/2

Samuel thought that splashing was great fun and spent a lot of time in this pursuit.

So cute!

Fun feet!

I love this picture. Yes, of course tiger had to come with us. Notice the rugged hiking boots, the Thomas the tank engine backpack, the stuffed toy, the "Recovering Jesus" book and the children's books. All in one camping trip! Camping takes on a whole new meaning when you have a three year old with you.

Kelty enjoyed himself also.

Family Camping, Part II

Samuel loves to be big like his pappa.


Having fun with my camera, don't worry, your computer isn't messed up I was messing with the color functions. Andreas and Samuel rowed to this island and "explored" it together.

The first morning Samuel woke up at 4:50 a.m. If it was dark he would go back to sleep, but as it was - he was up. When Andreas took him out to play this is what they saw (mom got to sleep a little in the tent). It was a gorgeous morning and would have been totally enjoyed had it not been for the 10,000 biting knats!

Samuel in pappa's shirt.

Family Camping, Part III

That little person out on the rock in the sun is the contemplative Swede that I love!


I love all the lillie pads and flowers in this lake.

After 3 days and 2 nights out camping, Samuel is done. He fell asleep as we rowed to go home.

He was so tired that he even stayed asleep as we left the boat.