Apr 26-May 2: Church Retreat

This year, for the first time, the Johnson family decided to attend the annual Forest Lake SDA Church Retreat at Camp Kulaqua.  So many of our friends attend this retreat each year, it seemed a shame to miss out on all the fun.  We opted to stay in one of the little "chalet cabins" (read trailer home) which have 2 bedrooms plus a loft.  The kids were very excited to go camping and to be able to be outside with all their friends for a whole weekend.  And yes, staying in a tiny house in the woods qualifies as camping - I have lots of bad experiences with tent camping, so you won't see me doing that in the future!!  One big shocker of the weekend was that it got COLD at Camp Kulaqua in the early morning & evenings!!  It is only a few hours north from Orlando, so I wasn't expecting much difference in the weather.  Thankfully, I did throw in some long sleeve shirts, long pants & jackets for the kids at the last minute.  We had a great time hanging out with our friends, riding bikes, going for walks, etc.  We even saw some wildlife - outside of the small zoo that the camp has!  Our little cabin was chuck full of spiders (normally I don't mind spiders, but after finding a few in each of the beds, I was a little weirded out), Kelli saw a snake swimming in the springs during a baptism after church (yep, you won't ever see me in the springs there) and then Kelli also saw an armadillo outside the cabin on Saturday night (not sure who was more startled - it or me!  We both kinda froze before the armadillo recovered & ran away.  It was between me & the door to my cabin, so I wasn't sure where I could run!!).

On Sunday, before we headed home, Kent & I took the kids on a go-kart ride and also on the pony rides.  We first went to the go-kart track; thankfully, Elin was allowed to ride even though she probably, technically, was too small.  I'm pretty sure that this was also my first time in a go-kart, so I was a bit nervous.  I didn't want to do anything to scare Elin from attempting new adventures in the future!  I drove rather slow and used the brakes a bit more than I normally would have, but I'm happy to report that while, yes, I did come in last, I wasn't that far behind Kent!!  After the go-kart ride, we headed over to the horse stables and let the kids go for a few pony rides.  Since they were the only little kids riding at the time, we were able to take a few rides back to back.  Both kids were thrilled with their rides and fussed when we made them stop (Kent ran out of cash, I think)!!  We may have 2 little equestrians on our hands!  Elin, again, was on the verge of being too small.  Kent had to actually hold her helmet in place the entire time (see below)!

Here are a few pictures from our weekend:

Picture of all the kids (I think we are missing 1 or 2, actually)

Our Camping Home away from home

Karis & Kent with their baby girls!

Kent with both kiddos (and yes, it was COLD there!)

Amy, Kelli & Karis

Seeing a snake during Sabbath School (notice where Kent & I are! Ha, ha!!)

Elin & Mommy on our very first go-kart ride!!

Erik's pony ride

Elin's pony ride (Kent had to hold her helmet on!

In sibling news, Elin and Erik continue to play together more often & fairly well.  Elin has also begun to pinch cheeks as a sign of affection!  With me, she will normally put both hands on my cheeks and then lean in and give me a big smooch, along with loud sound affects.  However, when she attempts the same trick with Erik, she must get sidetracked with his cute cheeks and she just ends up pinching his cheeks really hard & laughing!!  Erik sometimes tolerates it, but this activities often deteriorates into tears & retaliation!

Pinching Erik's cheeks!

Erik showing her how to use gentle touches!!

I'm going to include a few funny/cute moments that have happened recently; some of these took place in early April, but I'm going to add them to this blog entry before I forget to add them again!

1. Erik was singing the Old McDonald song and apparently couldn't think of any animal names at the right moment, so he sang "Old McDonald.....had something"!!  Elin was nearby and she chimed in with a loud "E A E O"!!

2.  I've been using competition as a motivation tool with Erik, so I will race him around the house - first to the tub, first to the potty, first to get dressed, etc.  Well, it has clearly resonated with Erik because he has woken up a few times recently and the first thing he says is "I'm going to win today!"  Oh uh, I hate it when a good idea from yesterday comes back to haunt me today!

3. Elin nods with her whole body!  She is a very emphatic little girl in her answers!

4.  Elin has gotten really good at saying "Dear Jesus".  She will remind us at mealtimes and at bedtimes if we forget.  She will repeat the last word of each sentence as we pray, which is awfully cute.  One night, as I was praying, she apparently didn't like the names I was using, so she changed each one as we prayed.  It went like this:

Kelli: Thank you for Dada

Elin: Da-dee

Kelli: Thank you for Mama

Elin: Mommy

Kelli: Thank you for Erik

Elin: Gee-geek

Kelli: Thank you for Elin

Elin: Ee-ah  

Elin loves to say "Dear Jesus" - such a sweet girl!