Family Camp at Tanalian Bible Camp

Back in April, just before Passover, we spent the weekend at Tanalian Bible Camp in Port Alsworth. Every spring they host a family camp. It is always a good time of fellowship and good Bible teaching.

It always falls during spring thaw so there is lots of mud and snow. The little boys love it!

David swinging...

Paul and I along with Lavonne and our kids Joshua on down, decided to take a hike toward the falls. It was a gorgeous day, perfect for a hike. It didn't take us long to wish we'd brought a sled for Sarah.

The boys could have used a sled for sliding too, but they are very creative. They made do with what we had. Sarah's mud boots kept falling off. By this time she was asleep in Paul's arms.
Benjamin's raincoat worked the best. He was like a little otter sliding down the hills.

Lavonne took a picture of the rest of us resting alongside the trail.

Caleb found a fun tree to climb.

Remember the post about the guys that came up from Iliamna to snowboard with our kids in Nondalton? While on our walk we found some graffiti that one of the guys, Lee to be specific, left behind on a walk he took with his family about an hour previous to our walk. At least this graffiti will clean up very nicely all on its own.
Lake Clark Air and a few of their planes lined up alongside the runway. The plane to the far left is one that Paul flies a lot.
Lavonne, Josh, Tia, Caleb and Sarah are stuffed in the plane for the short ride home. They got to hold their pillows:)
We love Family Camp, so much so that we are planning a trip down the Alcan to a week long family camp in Canada this June. Paul's Mom is going to drive up from North Dakota and meet us there for the week. We are all getting excited for another motor home adventure. We love traveling in our motor home. Even though the quarters are tight, it is always a special time that produces lasting memories.

Lake Walk & Mud

Spring has come! Most of the ice on the lake is now melted. One gorgeous day in April we took a walk across the still frozen lake.

Caleb and David, being boys, found a puddle on the lake.

The guys brought their bows and arrows and they shot and retrieved their way across the lake.

Paul & Quentin shooting.

Abigail &Quentin with Paul looking on.

Of course we had to line up for the family picture... I thought it would be a nice touch with the village in the background.

Sarah was quite enthralled with the puddles in the road.

It made my hands cold just to watch her playing in the puddles.

William &Lee, friends from Iliamna drove up on their ATVs to go snow boarding with the kids on the last of the snow. Our older kids drove halfway to meet them. Paul went with them part way to make sure the lake ice was good. About 5 minutes after he left them, they broke through the ice in a huge puddle of water. They got soaked to their knees getting out. By the time they got home they were covered in mud.

But smiling :)

That evening they rode with them part way again on their way home. It started snowing the biggest flakes I've ever seen as they left.

By the time they got home, they were caked in snow, wet, very cold and tired.

Deborah, taking off her dripping coat with her frozen fingers...

Paul & Anna turn a year older

My beautiful sweet Anna turned 12. She still loves climbing trees and she can still wash dishes with her feet on the counter or in the sink. She is maturing though, just tonight she asked if she could re-upholster the lazy boy chair. We girls did one already, but I haven't gotten going on it's twin yet. I told her to go for it and she took it apart. Hopefully she stays motivated for the project tomorrow:-)

Anna opening her birthday present.

Quentin and Josh A. lighting the candles for Anna's cake.

Anna

Paul and Anna

Two days later was Paul's birthday. We were in the midst of a community three man volleyball tournament.

Paul serving.

Paul, Quentin and Josh A. made up one team.

Abigail, Deborah and I along with Regina, made up another team. We both won one game and lost one game, so of course the tournament bracket pit us against each other. One of us would be eliminated! The girls had a simple strategy, keep the ball away from Paul. My handsome husband is a good volleyball player, and while the boys will be great one day, they just don't have as much experience as the rest of us. Our strategy worked well and we beat the guys. But they were great sports about it. That is one reason I love sports, under proper supervision you can really develop your character for the good while playing sports. Nothing shows your good and bad character traits faster than a good competitive game. We have taught our children how to play and have fun and be good sports and it was a joy watching them play in the tournament.
Last year Paul used a blow torch to light his candles (you can see that post here). This year instead of putting all ? candles on his cake, I used the candles to write his age. Can you make it out below?

Paul, "Where's my blow torch?"

Happy Birthday Paul. May God bless you this year as you lead our family!

Passover, Unleavened Bread & First Fruits

Praise Yeshua (Jesus), our Redeemer, our Salvation...

Passover is a celebration commanded by God. It commemorates the escape of His chosen people, the Israelites, from Egypt and Yhwh's protection from the Angel of Death. Yhwh's perfect timing caused Yeshua to become our salvation as He again saved us from eternal death on Passover.

Our small fellowship celebrated the Passover together again this year. We've kind of been taking turns leading the celebration and this year it was the Martin's turn.

As the lady of the house, I got to light the candles to start off the celebration.

Teri carves the lamb as we look on.

Paul &Sarah

The kids dipping the celery.

David Martin breaking the unleavened bread.

Children are an important part of the Passover service. In Exodus 12:26 & 13:8, God specifically tells us to explain to them what and why we are celebrating. Traditionally this is done by having the kids ask questions during the dinner.

Below Benjamin is asking his question with a little help from Quentin.

Caleb, reading his question.

Joshua

Passover starts the feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days His people are to eat no leaven. This is to remind us of when His people had to rush out of Egypt so fast they didn't have time to raise their bread. I have gotten into the habit of making challah bread on Friday evenings to start our weekly Shabbat. Friday is Anna's day to cook and she is in the habit of making pizza every Friday evening. Because we were in the midst of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, she made unleavened pizza and I made a special unleavened bread with a little cinnamon and sugar spread on for fun.
The day after the Shabbat during the week of Unleavened Bread is the First Fruits celebration. We are commanded to wave the first fruits of our harvest in thanks to Yhwh on this day. As believers in Yeshua it is important to note that He rose on the celebration of First Fruits. It is a beautiful picture of His resurrection. The First to be resurrected to eternal life. We celebrated at Regina's house (she has a huge living room) with dancing and dinner.

Lavonne watching the little kids take a turn with the flags.

That's me in the dress, keeping up with the youngsters. Not only did we have a great time of worship, but it's really good exercise too!

Afternoon at Keys Point

We took an impromptu trip up the lake. It was a gorgeous day and the sun was shining brilliantly on the lake so we decided to go up and visit Cam & Nicole's cabin. We babysit baby Hazel for Cam & Nicole and they're building a cabin up at Keys Point, a 15 mile ride up the lake.

Before we could go, we had to do a little maintenance on one of our snowmachines :) and unhook the tobaggon load of wood Paul and the kids had hauled in.

We all piled onto three snow machines and Quentin drove Cam & Nicole's ATV. They needed to get it up to their cabin before the lake thaws so they'll have it there for the summer.

Quentin on the Honda and Joshua driving for he and Deborah on the snowmachine.

Abigail & Anna on the snowmachine pulling David, Benjamin & Caleb.

My self portrait with Paul and Sarah is tucked in between us.

She stayed pretty snug, but her hat kept sliding off.

Igiugig means the place between waters. We live on Six Mile Lake and the Igiugig between it and Lake Clark stays open all year. We hugged the snow and ice that are still remaining to stay out of the water and off the sand.
This pressure crack stretches across the width of the lake. It was easy to find the best spot to cross. The trail we were on is used so much it's like a highway and we just followed the tracks others have made.

When we got to Keys Point, Paul pointed out some wolf tracks to me.

Cam & Nicole's cabin sits right on the lake. When they are able to get up and work on their cabin, they live in the shed in the middle while they work on the main cabin. The shed on the right is used for storage.
It was our first trip to their cabin so the first thing we did was nose around and check everything out.

The wood stove in the little shed.

The bucket for washing clothes in the storage shed.

Next the boys gathered wood for a fire. Here's David carrying a log almost as big as he is.

Caleb's doing his share.

They had the fire going on the beach and in no time we were all sitting or lying down and relaxing around it.

The beach in front of their cabin is all small pebbles. The little ones filled their pockets full. Below Sarah is showing Abigail her treasures.
The boys worked on their rock throwing skills. It quickly became a game where they threw to hit a large boulder so that the rock would skip as far as possible past it onto the ice of the lake.
They were concentrating so hard that they screwed up their faces as they threw. I caught them all looking goofy at once.
We tried to get a good family picture. I set the camera on a tiny tripod on the beach and let it run, then I snipped it to make a picture when we were all looking.

The sun started going behind the trees so the light wasn't great for the pictures on the lake.

Joshua jumping for joy.

I had a hard time getting everyone to hold still. (It could have had something to do with Paul throwing snowballs at them.)

He's still at it...

It finally broke out into a huge snowball fight!

Joshua

Joshua making another snowball before Deborah or Quentin hit him with one.

Benjamin eating snow.

Quentin

Loading up the sled and snowmachines to head home.

The ride home was beautiful.

Paul and I pulled the sled on the way home. The kids bundled up tight to keep the snow from blowing on them.
Just before we got back to Nondalton we stopped to look at two fishing holes. They have a net spread beneath the two holes. Apparently they have been catching a lot of delicious fish.