Too much happened in February to even begin to think it could all go onto one posting but since it was so busy and went by so quick, it will have to do.
Last weekend of January/First of February, Julie took Alivia and met her mom, two sisters and one her mom’s sisters and two of her daughters and drove to Tennessee for a wedding.  The Klassy-Pickens Wedding turned out great despite the weather that nearly put a damper on it.  Freezing rain from St. Louis to Nashville and everywhere in between made for trecherous traveling conditions and nervous drivers. 

Heather Klassy

Julie with her two sisters

Julie with her cousin Heidi Pickens

Superbowl Party
A few friends from camp came over for a chance to watch good football and eat good food. As usual Julie knocked out some killer hot wings.

Eatin Pie anyone?  For the second year Matt has challenged the Awana T&T kids with a reward for passing sections. The reward, smashing a pie in his face.  As usual, the kids loved it were really motivated again this year. 

Valentines Day Cookie Tradition continued this year this Hudson
Each year Julie tries to make cookies with the boys for Valentines day.  This year while Simon and dad were at Awana, Julie went ahead and made cookies with Hudson.  He got into it as much as Simon has in the past and really had a good time with mom.  The next day, Julie took the boys over to friends Ben and Kaylee’s to decorate the cookies and get them ready for shipment. 

The Wrucks Visit for the Weekend
Last weekend the Wrucks from Platteville, WI visited here in the northwoods.  They were on a family vacation and finished the vacation visiting the Huffman’s.  We had a great weekend of playing games, taking the boys tubing on the big hill at camp, Julie and Beth went skiing in the afternoon at camp, grilling out for supper, more games and lots of hungry hippo’s with the boys.  Russ and Beth’s oldest son Rusty is a few months younger than Simon. 

So What has been happening at camp?  Including Matt’s day to day responsibilities of managing the stores at camp, he has logged 2788 miles in box truck for Gift in Kind.  Needless to say it hasn’t been a slow winter. 

Sorry to disappoint but with Julie in Tennessee for the weekend at a wedding with the camera we have no pictures of guys weekend.  But I guarantee you Simon, Hudson and Dad had a great weekend. 

The weekend included a plumbing project in the basement redoing the drain line for the tub, a trip to the local True Value Hardware store, lots of time playing with trucks and wrestling on the floor.  It included dinner at Taco Bell / KFC with Simon creating a little excitement for the rest of the customers. 

Sunday included church, donuts from the grocery store, setting up the tent in the living room and sleeping in it Sunday night.  Monday concluded the weekend with a trip to the library to find some new books to read, dropping Simon off at a friends to play and a trip to Wausau for Hudson and dad. 

I can honestly say that I had one of the best weekends ever and I most definitely have a bigger appreciation for my wife than I have ever had.  I had some great snuggle times with each of the boys and see how their differences change each day.  I love to see their interest’s develop and to see that while Simon may sometimes act like he isn’t paying attention and then out of no where you realize he has a memory like you wouldn’t expect from a three year olds.  Then there is Hudson who acts like he is shy for all of two seconds and then grabs life by the horns and brings it down to his level. 

So thank you Jon and Heather for getting married this weekend because I had a priceless weekend with my two boys.

The same year that we came on staff at Camp Forest Springs, so did the Schutts and Smiths.  It’s crazy to think that that was already almost four years ago. At that time we all lived in the same apartment building and spent many evenings together playing games and hanging out. Four years ago though, none of us had kids.  Now that we all have kids it is not nearly as often that we get to spend time together.  Bedtimes tend to cut into the evenings. However, we did get together again the other night for dinner and we had such a good time watching our kids play together.  It’s crazy to think that four years ago none of these beautiful children were around.  Between the three of our families we have had seven kids in the last four year! Crazy! Talk about the next generation of staff kids!  We are so blessed!

Simon, Lauren, Hudson, and Truman

Alivia, and Tava

The other day was Matt’s day off.  I sent the boys upstairs with Matt to get dressed, and put Alivia on our bed while I went to get myself ready for the day.  About a half an hour later I went upstairs to see what they were up to.  And this is what I found….



As you can see, they obviously didn’t get dressed, but instead were playing Mr. Fix-it on our bed. It was just so funny I had to share!

Well it has finally happened! (actually it happened sooner than I expected it to) Hudson has decided that he is a big boy!  We had been telling him for months that after Christmas he was going to be a big boy and not wear diapers any more.  So he got big boy underwear for Christmas to try to help build the excitement.  We started off letting him wear it when he wanted to, which was typically just in the morning and then in the afternoon we would go back to diapers.  That lasted for a week.  I was all ready to keep having to buy diapers for a while still.  In fact I had just bought a new case of diapers when one night Hudson informed me that “I big boy mom, I not wear diapers anymore!” And since then we’ve been pretty close to accident free!  Good Job Hudson! You are a big boy!