Beavers Bend

Bryan and I have been blessed to be apart of a small group bible study for the past 6 years.  The people in our group have changed over the years but I am so grateful for all the friendships we have made.  The week we started going to Farmers Branch Church of Christ we started a small group.  The group had several people from ACU that we knew a little but not a whole lot.  Over the years we have grown together - we've moved from apartments to houses, have had kids, and have had our fair share of struggles.  I don't know where we would be without these friends!

Each year we go on a "camping" trip together to Beavers Bend State Park (we stay in nice cabins, so camping is a lose term!).  Each of us look forward to this trip every year because it's a time we set aside to just be together and to not be distracted by the worries of our everyday life.  Since we started attending the small group we have had to split 3 times because our group had gotten so big.  So this camping trip is really special because it's a time where we can all be together as one BIG group!!  Here are a few pictures from over the years.

2005

The Girls: Kelly Baker, Kristin Brewer, Stephenie Brewer, Me, Janet Wheeler, Andrea Egan 

The Boys: Bryan Stone, Chris Baker, Chris Brewer, Ben Wheeler, Chris Egan, Jeremy Brewer

Bryan and I by the river

Kelly and I

2006

The group after a canoeing trip

Bryan and I, Jeremy and Stephenie Brewer, Chris and Kristin Brewer, Chris and Kelly Baker, 

Jason and Laura Burnett

Laura, Kelly, and Me infront of the foggy river during our cookout

Bryan and I standing at our Devo spot.  On Sunday morning we hike to this lookout point and have a devotional before packing up and heading home.

The Girls: Stephenie Brewer, Kelly Baker, Janet Wheeler, Kristin Brewer, and Me

The Boys: Ben Wheeler, Chris Brewer, Jeremy Brewer, Chris Baker, and Bryan

Our group on Friday night eating at Abendego's

2007

A view of the river in front of our cabin

Our cabin

The girls before our cookout: Kelly Baker, Stephenie Brewer, Amanda Stigers, Laura Burnett, 

Me, Janet Wheeler, and Kristin Brewer

This isn't the highest quality picture but here's a look at what our camp fire usually looks like.  After our cookout we'll sit by the fire eating smores and share whatever stories come to our minds.  A lot of funny moments have been shared by the campfire!!

Of course the campfire would not be complete without Ben yodeling!!!

Our Devotional

Bryan and I at the Devo site

The girls: Me, Stephenie, Laura, Kelly, Amanda, Kristin, and Janet

The boys being, well, the boys: Chris, Bryan, Ben, Jeremy, Chris, Jason, Mark

A better shot of the boys!

2008

This year was the first year the "Specialty Cabin" was available.  

We stayed here with Ben and Janet Wheeler and Chris and Kristin Brewer.  

Nice face Stephenie!!

Bryan and I by a pretty tree in front of our cabin

Bryan and I at Abendego's

The group hiking.  This was the first year we had kiddos with us.  Jason and Laura brought Bonnie and Elena, their nieces who live with them.  It was really neat to see Beavers Bend through their eyes.

Bryan and Stephenie

Kelly, Amanda, and I

A few people stopped to have a stick race

Taking a time out for yet another picture!!

Here's the 3 who fell in the water  :)

After our hike we decided to go canoeing.  The Burnett's and us were having a race back to the docks.  Looks like they won!!

Jason, Laura, Elena, Bonnie, Bryan, and I

Kristin, Amanda, and Kelly making their way to the dock

Bonnie and Elena

Bryan and I

The girls: Laura, Amanda, Kelly, Stephenie, Me, Kristin, Elena, 

Bonnie, and Janet (pregnant with Marin)

The boys: Bryan, Mark, Chris, Ben, Chris, Jason, Jeremy

Hanging out at the campfire!!

Rex decided Kelly's lap was more comfortable!!

Since Janet was pregnant, Ben, Janet, Bryan, and I headed to our devo spot early so we could take our time walking up the hill.  Whenever we got there it started raining and lightning so we ended up having to go back.  We snapped a photo before heading down!  This year we had our Sunday devotional at our cabin instead.

A group shot of the girls and boys before heading home

Janet and I

Little did we know how many future play dates we would go on!!

2009

This year it was bitter cold outside so most of our days were spent inside hanging out and playing games!

Bryan, Ben, Janet, and Debbie and Kevin Harris (and me) playing Settlers of Catan

Chris, Bryan, Me, Kelly, and Kim and Gary Bones playing Phase 10

This was Matthew's first trip to Beavers Bend.  He was just barely 2 months old!  

Janet and Marin playing.  This was Marin's first trip to BB as well!

Bryan, Matthew, and I.  Isn't he a cutie in his bear outfit?!?!

Kelly and Me

Here's Matthew helping Bryan hold all his cards

A photo on the deck.  Matthew was NOT happy to be taking this picture since it was so cold outside.

Kim, Matthew, Elena, and Laura during our cookout Saturday night

Since Sunday was Baby Dedication Sunday at our church, we had to leave Saturday night and therefore missed our yearly group photo at the devo site.  Laura was helpful and held Matthew while Bryan and I packed up the car.  She's giving a thumbs up because she was able to get him to fall asleep after him fighting it for so long!!  She had good practice for little Clara who was born a few months later!

2010

Be Warned!!  This is the first year we have had all the kiddos at Beavers Bend and it was warm enough for us to do outside activities.  There are TONS of pictures!!!!!

This year Janet and I headed to Beavers Bend Thursday afternoon right before the kids naptime.  Here's what our load looked like.  I was really impressed with us!  We were able to pack both of our families items into one car PLUS a wagon and a jogging stroller for Chris and Kristin Brewer!!

When we got to the park we just relaxed in our cabin until
the rest of our friends arrived later that evening.

Marin and I reading a book

Janet, Marin, Matthew, and Bryan playing

Marin enjoyed running in circles through our cabin out onto the patio and back into our cabin through another door.  Matthew enjoyed watching her through the window!

It wouldn't be Beavers Bend without a picture on our patio!
Matthew is just a little bit bigger than last year :)

Bryan teaching Matthew how to put the shapes in the shape sorter and
how to knock over the stack of cups.

Our first wagon ride of the weekend!

Our traditional dinner at Abendegos has been changed to Pizza Hut due to families going down to one income.  Here we are chowing down on our yummy pizza!  This is only half of our group, the rest of them arrived the next day.

After dinner and a brief visit to our campfire, Matthew and Marin took a bath.

They REALLY enjoyed splashing the water around!!!

On our first full day the wives took the kids to the park while the husbands played golf.  Here's Matthew and me about to slide down the slide!!

All the kiddos
Outside Wagon in back: Sierra, Elena, and Marin
Inside Wagon: Sutton, Clara, and Matthew

527 pictures later these kids were ready to get out of the wagon!!!

Such a sweet picture of Matthew looking up at Elena.  Elena was so good with Matthew, she even took him down the slide!

Too cute!!!

After our trip to the park it was back to the cabin for lunch and naps!

Once the kids woke up from their naps we made a trip to the train station.  This "kiddy" train took us through part of the park where we saw some deers and other wildlife.

Laura and Clara, Kristin and Sutton, Amanda and Elena, Me and Matthew, Janet and Marin,
Kelly (and baby Riley), and Stephenie and Sierra

Here's the crew before our train ride started

It was such a beautiful day we decided to go to the park again after our train ride.

Marin and Sierra enjoyed playing Ring Around the Rosy!

The next day we went hiked through some of the trails.  Kevin got us this backpack carrier for Christmas and it is really cool, Matthew loves it!!!

A hike wouldn't be a hike without someone falling in.  This year Chris Baker was our casualty.  We were trying to figure out how to cross this creek and as Chris was making his way across he slipped and fell into the water.  However, he was able to keep the camera on his back out of the water, impressive!!

Ben and Bryan playing poker but betting Marin and Matthews toys instead of money!

It was the girls turn to get some time away from the kids and we decided to go canoeing!

Here's Kristin and Laura - it's amazing they didn't turn over!  I don't think they ended the trip very dry though!  Amanda and I were in a canoe together and we tried our hardest to stay away from their line of fire!! :)

Half way through the trip Elena decides to hold on to their canoe!

The master canoers Janet and Kelly.  They made it seem so easy!!!

Me and Amanda

Ben and Marin around our campfire

Janet, Marin, Matthew, and Me

Mark and Amanda

Bryan, Matthew, and Me

Chris and Kelly (and baby Riley)

Ben, Janet, and Marin

The boys cooking our meat on the grill

Ummmmmmm.....

A group shot after our cookout

Kristin's camera will take a series of shots consecutively in a row and our attention spans thinned out by the time the camera was finished taking all the pictures.  I think this picture captures the "real us"!!

Bryan, Matthew, and I at the devo site.  (Plus Jeremy admiring the landscape!!)

Our group shot before heading home once again

Thank you Jeremy, Stephenie, Chris, Kelly, Ben, Janet, Chris, Kristin, Jason, Laura, Mark, and Amanda for all the fun memories and being such a constant presence in our lives!!  We would not be the couple or the parents we are without your love and support!  We are looking forward to another fun year at Beavers Bend in 2011!!!!!

Football!!!

It's that time of year again!!  Last night was our first time to see my cousin Russell play football this season.  There have been a few illnesses going around in the Stone household that have kept us from doing much of anything the past 4 weeks.  So we were really excited to head to Arlington for the Martin vs. Arlington football game!

On the way in the gate we ran into my good friends Lance, his wife Tayler, and Tyler Parrish.  I grew up with Lance and Tyler and Lance is now the youth minister at our home church, Pleasant Ridge.  Weird huh?!?!  The youth group has this thing called 5th quarter where they go to a football game and then have a devo afterwards at someones house.  They decided to go to the Martin/Arlington game since it's a pretty big rivalry.  I didn't know they would be there so it was a nice surprise to run into them!!  They ended up sitting with our family (which they are practically apart of anyway) and we chated the whole game.  They made fun of me and my sister since we were sitting on the Martin side after graduating from Arlington.  :)

Martin ended up winning the game by 20 points!  Here's a picture of Russell and Matthew taken after the game around 10:45, WAY past Matthew's bedtime.  He had been a trooper the whole game so I wasn't surprised he got fussy once it was over.

I am so proud of Russell!!  He has awesome grades, is involved in extracurricular activities, and has recently committed to playing football for Purdue!!  It'll be sad not being able to watch him play every Friday night next year but I am really excited for opportunities he will have while in college!!  It's hard to imagine my youngest cousin is old enough to go to college.  Seish I'm getting old!

First Day of School...Well, Mothers Day Out!!!!

We hit another milestone today!!  Matthew is now attending a Mother's Day Out program at a local church.  My good friend, Janet, recommended a school at the Christ United Methodist Church since our church does not have a Mother's Day Out.  Her daughter Marin attended the program last year and loved it so I thought Matthew would have a great time as well!

This morning was filled with rushing around trying to get Matthew and myself ready but we paused for a few pictures!  Here's Matthew with his new backpack and lunch box.

While we were waiting in the car I snapped a few pictures of him holding his lunch box.

Here's Marin and Matthew before heading inside!!

I tried to get Matthew to stand in front of the school bus painted on the wall but he didn't want any part of it!!

Here are all the names of the kids in his class, lots of boys!

Here's Matthew and his teacher, Ms. Kate.  As soon as he saw his classroom he walked in and then ran out to play in the hallway a little more.  When I picked him up to take him back to his room he started crying and he didn't stop until she turned on some music, any guesses on what song played first?????  Luckily for Ms. Kate "The Farmer In the Dell" was the first song and it worked like a charm!!  I'm hoping he cheered up once more kiddo's showed up, we were the first ones there.  This is a good shot of his classroom - thanks Janet!  (I was hiding around the corner)

This picture means so many things......

1. Yea!!! He's off to his first day!  

2. Yea!!!  We made it through the rush of the morning!

3. Yea!!!  I didn't forget anything!  

4. Yea!!!  I have 5 hours to do whatever I want to do!  

5. And most importantly, Yea!!!  I didn't cry!  

My sister and I had a bet on if I would cry or not...I WON!!!  But I have to admit, if we didn't have that bet I probably would have shed a few tears!

I'm praying he has a good time and has fun with all his new friends!!  I can't wait to see what this year will bring!

Mission Organization and a Humbling Experience

If you know me just the slightest bit you know I am a little obsessed with organization. I like things clean, orderly, and labeled. My house definitely follows the motto, "A place for everything, and everything in it's place". Before we had Matthew all our "stuff" was evenly distributed between our 3 extra bedrooms and their closets. After we decided which room was to be the nursery we had to do a major reshuffle of furniture and the other items to get that room and it's closet empty. Ladies who have been pregnant will understand when I say I have never known exhaustion until I got pregnant. I had NO idea how much energy it takes to grow a baby! So as we were reshuffling things I didn't have the patience to organize it all and ended up just shoving everything into the 2 remaining closets.

Now that Matthew is a year and a half I have decided it's time to bite the bullet and dive in to my closets. I have purposely not looked in them too much because it stresses me out to see everything in them. I wanted our guest bedroom closet to be empty except for the infant swing, infant car seat, and a few toys Matthew has outgrown. So that meant everything that was in that closet needed to come out and go somewhere else. Plus I needed to reorganize the study closet. Our study is a computer room, guest room, and scrapbook room rolled into one. In the closet I had 3 different, very large, cardboard boxes with memorabilia in them (high school items, college items, and wedding/married life items) to use with my scrapbooks. I have saved EVERYTHING! I have movie ticket stubs from 12 years ago, sorority newsletters from my college years, friends wedding invites and their baby shower invitations/announcements. It was my plan to include all these things in my future scrapbooks. However, I have come to the sad realization that I just don't have enough time to make extensive scrapbooks like I would have liked. So instead of keeping the boxes in the closet and having them take up much needed space, I went through them all and condensed them into 2 quite smaller plastic tubs. I could probably put all the things I have in both tubs in one of the cardboard boxes and still have some room left over in the box. I wish I would have taken a before and after picture to show you just how large the boxes were. But anyway, I'm extremely proud of myself for throwing stuff away, it was not an easy task!!

But that leads me to the second part of my title. As I was cleaning out the High School box I ran across pictures from a youth group mission trip to Maine. One afternoon during our free/fun day we went on a whale watch and as the boat was making its way back to the shore a bunch of us gathered on the top deck to hang out. A few people fell asleep and others of us just relaxed with the swaying of the boat. I like this picture because no one is posing, it's just a still shot of everyone hanging out. As I looked at it I focused on individual people and started to reminisce about different things that happened on that trip or fun memories from other events. But then I started thinking about all our lives since we have "graduated" from the youth group. One girl lost her brother in a car accident, one guys wife has had several miscarriages and finally was able to have a baby girl, another girl has had many miscarriages as well. A friend of mine was killed in a car accident during my sophomore year of college, it was her freshman year. And just recently one guy has battled cancer. As I think of all these things I can't help but feel extremely blessed by the life God has provided me. Sure, my life has had it's road bumps and detours, but nothing compared to what some of my other friends have experienced! The annoyances I am experiencing that I once thought were big don't seem that bad after all. I am thankful for this reminder!!