Bloomington fun

Last weekend, Mel and I traveled down to Bloomington for a visit with friends. The first night we had pizza and then went ice skating.

Helena B.

Ava B. brought her own skates, but she ended up switching to the rentals part way through skating since her skates were too big.

Me with Jill R. and Jill W.

Helena's hat was so cute! We were supposed to arrive at Kelli's house that afternoon wearing a hat, and some people chose to wear them to the rink as well.

Mel and I hadn't been ice skating in 17 years, and I wondered how I would do. ;-) Having roller-bladed since that time though, I found ice skating to be fairly easy.

Jill, Mel, and Kelli

Don't ask me why they were posing like this because I don't know! I'd have to say they are definitely two of a kind!

I'm usually the one taking the pictures, but Mel did get one of me.

Sorry, these shots are a little blurry. It's hard to get good ones with people moving and getting in the way.

Sisters
(Ava and Helena are on the left side of the pic.)

About halfway through the skate time, a guy came out in this machine to put another layer of ice on the rink. It didn't take too long, and then we were back out there ourselves.

Part of the group

How many girls does it take to light a fire? After we went back to Kelli's house, we set the timer on the camera and posed in our hats. Can you see why Jill R. and I didn't wear our hats to the rink? I wanted to wear Melody's hat, but she told me I needed to wear one that was not "me".

I think I put a name to everyone else in the previous pictures except for Rachel (on the far right).

And now for a silly pose!

After posing with our hats, we watched a 4-hr movie. Some of us (Hmm...I wonder who that could be?) didn't make it all the way through and went to bed instead. The next morning, we sang some songs, prayed, and shared what God had been teaching us before heading home. It was an encouraging weekend!

Snow!

It seems like quite a few of our friends have been posting snow pictures, and we figured we'd better get in on the fun!

We attend church at a campground, and after lunch two weeks ago, many of us went out to enjoy the freshly fallen snow.

Reid Someone donated a 5-man toboggan and a 3-man toboggan, and we've had fun using them on our sledding hill. Christian, Reid, Zoe, and Gabrielle decided to use them like a snowboard. I don't think they got very far down the hill.

Cameron (nephew of the Kalebaugh s) joined us for church and fun in the snow.

Our sledding hill

Joy even braved the cold for a while, but I think she'd about had enough for the day.

Rachel made some snow angels.

After sledding, we decided to take a walk in the woods. While waiting for Becky to join us, the boys ganged up on Zoe.

I'd have to say she deserved it.

Our walk in the woods was fun, but it didn't last very long. We took what we thought would be a short detour to play on the frozen lake, but we ended up staying there for the rest of our time outside. We had too much fun playing on the ice to continue with our walk.

I don't know who started it, but we ended up dancing (and slipping!) on the ice. Hmm...I'm even being a little weird!

We cleared paths in the snow so we could slide.

It was hard to get traction, but we found if you ran in the snow and then jumped on to the ice, you slid farther and went faster.

I think Mel had just crashed into me in this picture.
Jessica brought her dog, Joschi, along with us.

Cameron enjoyed playing fetch with him.

Joschi had a hard time finding the stick in all that snow.

Zoe and Rachel decided to put their faces in the snow. Why? I'm not quite sure! Reid couldn't stand it for too long before he was complaing of "brain freeze". T

I think Zoe was getting Reid back by smashing a snowball on his head--all in good fun, of course!

Does it taste good?

"Walking in a winter wonderland..."

Can you tell what Melody stomped out in the snow? I spelled out my name, but we didn't get a picture of that.
Jess

The whole group:

Mel, me, Beck, Reid, Rach, Zoe, Jess, and Cameron (Crystal was taking the pictures)

Two of us had the same idea, and we started rounding everybody up to spell a word with our bodies.

My coat was too bulky to make this letter look right, so Mel took my spot.

Can you tell what we're spelling?

I think everyone was in a weird mood that day!

The twins started a train.

The only problem was when one of the people in front fell. If that happened, the rest of us ran into each other and went down like dominoes.

Some people may think we're a bit strange, but I like the fact that we can have fun together in whatever we do--whether it is taking a walk, admiring God's beautiful creation, dancing on ice, or just being with one another. I love this pic. To me it says "Spontaneity".

We do have our limits though. I don't think the three oldest thought it was fun to play "Pile on Rachel."
We enjoyed it from a safe distance.

There are some old vehicles and other odds and ends down by the barn. Zoe and Reid decided to do a little sunbathing.

Um...wrong end of the car, guys. I don't think you'll be going anywhere!

It was a fun afternoon!