New Blog!

I have started a new blog! It was time for an all new start. The new link is justthefirstdance.blogspot.com if you wish to come follow it! Please do :) Much love.

Women's Outdoor Adventure Camp!

I am so far behind on my blogs that I am just now blogging about the Women's Outdoor Adventure retreat! But I wanted to make sure that I was writing something about it, because it was a pretty incredible weekend. It was the first big thing that our summer staff worked together on, and it was so awesome!! We had a lot of fun and laughed A LOT that weekend! But more than that, it reminded me once again of how much I love camp. Hanging out with these women, talking and making cappuccino drinks for them was really gratifying work. It's weekends like these that I feel most connected to the Lord, and feel as though I am really doing His work. Jon and I ran a couple outdoor cooking classes over the weekend and that was also a BLAST! I love working with Jon - we are so blessed to have such different gifts that really work well together! Doing this outdoor working class was really our first taste of "Wild Side" and it just made me giddy with excitement, thinking about the summer!!! (since then we have had many more larger tastes of what Wild Side will look like, and I am stoked!!!). Here are a few shots that I got over the weekend:

Jon teaching the group his awesome outdoor cooking skills

Jinny getting right in there and helping. Jinny, your constant encouragement and love towards us is astounding, and you are sooo important to us!! The way you just always believe in us means so much, and you participating in this class was yet another example of your support! We love you!
Jenni-Lynne and Court eating the deeeelicious food that was made!

Me and Maelle hanging out!

I feel as though there is so much I could say about this weekend, but words can't really describe it. It was well put together, well thought out, and well carried out. God cares about this place more than we all ever could, and it blows me away when He showers us with His goodness. I am thankful for camp, and for this ministry and the chance to do with my husband.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

And fun we did indeed have! I was missing Sharon (and she was missing me too!) and we wanted to spent some sweet time together, so we made plans to spend the evening together one night when I was all done work. Sharonmel time is always a blast! Little did I know the surprises she had in store. She came over when I got home and handed me a wig and a pair of boots that I was to wear. I laughed and said OK!! I love fun adventures, and this definately had fun written all over it. When we came out, all dressed and ready to go out, Jon just looked at me and said "have fun!". That made us laugh even harder - our husbands weren't even really phased by what we had on! That must mean we are just typically REALLY fun girls. The first stop: Romeo's Restaurant for a slushy drink!

Everyone just wants to look at my "boooooots" right Sharon!

OOOOOH LA LA!! Model in the making!
The second stop: Jinny's house! She had no idea how to respond to us, which was pretty funny in itself! My favorite part of this picture is Sharon playing with her "hair". She was so obsessed the whole night with the way the hair felt, and kept telling me to play with mine too. haha!

Overall, it was a super fun night spent a woman that I adore and respect and love so much. She has walked with me through some pretty tough valleys in the short year we have been friends! I have loved living next door, and becoming a part of her family. She has constantly pushed, encouraged and loved me, and gained a permanent spot in my heart and life! The Burdges mean a lot to us, and I am so grateful that I have been given a friend like Sharon! I mean, how can you look at those pictures and NOT want to her friend?!

'Tis the Season...

...For double dates! I have so missed having other couples to go out for dinner with, play games with, have over for dinner, pray with, and just to go out and have fun with! So this spring season has been awesome having Ben and Shayna around!! Not only do we have sweet times together at work, it is just so awesome that we also get to get dressed up and go on double dates with! The first of what I hope is many was the boys telling us that they were taking us on a suprise dinner date. So we got into the car, played some fun music, and drove through the beautiful area that we live in. The boys took us to Youbou to a restaurant there that was great!

We took a bunch of fun pictures outside, but they are mostly on Ben's phone, so I need to get those from him. But this one totally cracked me up, because Jon said "ooooh we need to get a picture of Ben and Shayna" So they stood there while I stepped aside and waited in the rain. This is the picture that came out. I had no idea I was in it, and Jon didnt feel kind enough to let me know haha. But it is a great one of Ben and Shayna! Cutest couple I know :)


Ben and Jon pretending they were on a date.

One of a bazillion pictures that we have of the four of us over the years. I love it!

We seen some Elk on the side of the road and this sent Shayna into a happy tizzy! She was just so stoked about it! Her love and excitement for "little" things in life is what makes her so endearing.

From dinner we went to Country Grocer and got a ridulous amount of candy (YAY!!) and Shayna and I were also given free, dying flowers. Then we ended with an epic game of killer bunnies! A very fun, relaxing, and joyful night spent with people we love dearly.

Go Canucks Go!

For the first time since 1994 the Canucks have made it to the Stanley Cup Finals!! This means that our house has been chaotic for the past month or so! The first round against Chicago produced the most intense game 7 I have ever seen! We watched it at Tim and Lois' house and it was MAYHEM!! Tim even impulsively bought us all pizza and wings in the heat of the excitment, which then led to the delivery guy coming into the house and watching the game for a good ten minutes before relunctantly getting back into his car! Round 2 against Nashville resulted in many shots of Carrie Underwood on the TV and the announcers focusing more on her than the game. Luckily the Canucks won that series in 6 games! Round 3 was a less intense series (in my opinion!) against San Jose and won in 5 games. Sadly for that series, we watched most of the games up here, because we weren't able to get down to Vic too many times. Now its' the finals, and we just won the first game in the series! I like when the Canucks win, because it means I have a happy husband. He does lots for me, so the least I can do is cheer for the Canucks :) And Henrik likes watching the games, because his namesake is on the TV!! Here are some shots over the past few weeks watching the games:

Ben, Jon, Ryan and Maelle cheering for the Canucks during round 2. Maelle looked adorable in her jersey!!

Wearing shirts that we bought for them! So cute! I love this amazing little family SO MUCH!!!
Lois watching intensely during round 1 in her beloved Linden jersey!

Game 7 against Chicago!! I have never been so stressed out during a hockey game before watching with these people! But it was SUPER fun!!

Even Makenna is a Canucks fan - "Go boooys!" Cutest little girl in the whole world

Me rockin my jersey that I got as a present from the Lampard's at our wedding!

Happy Happy!

Go Canucks Go!

In the words of Jon - "WE WANT THE CUP! WE WANT THE CUP! WE WANT THE CUP!"

Appreciation Banquet Night

There was a camp appreciation banquet that the Imadene Foundation put on at Lambrick Park Church. It was a catered event, and us staff were the waiters! We had a ton of laughs as we were taught how to do it properly (always serve to the right, clear from the left!) and then scolded when we did it wrong! The food was delicious, and the staff had fun coming together as our first task as a "team" and totally rocking it!

The girls! How beautiful we are :)

Typical boys
Two of my favorite girls! I love this picture!

Love you shaynie!

My very best friends!

Awwww!

More in love every single day

The best part of this night was being in the bathroom washing my hands, and having some lady come up to me and say "wow you sure look great! You have lost so much weight since last summer, at least fifty pounds right? You were severly overweight last summer when I seen you." I just stared at her and then started laughing - WHO SAYS THAT?!! So I just thanked her (at least she thinks I look good now!) and then went out and relayed the story to a laughing Courtney and Jennie-Lynn! Oh dear.

Staff Kayaking Fun

On the staff's first weekend up here, we had a beautiful sunny day on the sunday! This was perfect, as Jon and I were hoping to be able to play outside! We all geared up to get wet, and went kayaking/canoeing. Jon has been dying to kayak down the creek that divides camp property from the property beside us, and follow the stream down to bear lake. Everyone was up for an adventure and was stoked to go! So with our lifejackets on, and lots of excitement we headed out onto the lake!

Calea and Marika rockin some hot lifejackets! Calea is an LIT supervisor this year and Marika is a lifeguard! How sweet it is to have these two girls that I adore so much out here with us this summer! They bring an energy and love for camp that is muchly needed!

Sarah Gray is out here this summer as a lifeguard. She is SUCH a sweetheart, and I am SO happy that she is here! Her calm demeanor is a much needed personality on this team!
Miss Erin Hilchie!! Oooooh having her here makes my heart just sing!!! She is so positive and energetic, and just soooo loving! Her tenderness and attetion to detail and hardwork will make her one AWESOME LIT leader this summer! I'm stoked to hang out with you lots this summer and really get to know you Er!

Ooooh Kevin. What a silly goof you are. I look forward to many "KevinMel sandwiches!"

Ben manhandled a canoe all on his own! He struggled a bit, by no fault of his own! But he did great, and we laughed a lot!

At the start of our adventure

What we had to paddle through. This was NO easy feat! Shayna and I were in a canoe together.

YAY! We made it! Well we made it to the bridge. Our canoe couldn't go any further, so we pulled it out, but all the kayakers made it all the way to bear lake! Jon was so happy!

At the end of our adventure. So much fun! What a great start to the summer!

Summer is HEEEERRRE!

Summer staff FINALLY arrived after so much praying and planning!! Jon and I have been praying for this staff since last September, and it is really amazing to see the team that has been pulled together!! We wanted time to get to know everyone, and have some fun before work started on the first monday of May, so we invited them up to our house for the weekend before work started. I have more pictures on the weekend coming, but here were the first two pictures of the summer - YAY!!! It's going to be the BEST one yet! :)

Shaynie is the camp secretary this summer! She is going to rock at this job!

Kevin and Ben are here too!!! It feels soooo good to have so many great friends around! Kevin is the program leader this summer, and Ben is going to do maintenance stuff. Kev is such a spiritual warrior and he makes everything so much more fun! And Ben is such an important person to us that it just overwhelms me with happiness to have him come be a part of what we love! They are leaving room for Jon in this picture, because he was nowhere to be found when we snapped this!
Summer 2011 is shaping up to be the very best one yet!