August was another busy month for the Casey's! We started out the monthly making the famous Catlin pickles at Ted and Pat's house. Here are some of our secret ingredients.
Everyone has a job to do. Ted and Pat pick up all the things we need at the Farmer's Market, wash the cukes in the washing machine, and then put them in the bathtub with ice water to soak! When we arrived, I cut the dill. Pat makes the brine.
Ted, Paul, and I stuff the jars - making sure none of the ingredients are left out. Sometimes we even double the garlic or hot peppers!
There is an art to getting all the pickles into the jars so they look good. Paul is a quick learned, but Ted often adds just one more pickle to the top of our jars.
After Pat pours on the brine, Ted tightens the lids and carries the finished product to the dining room table so I can write the year on the top.
DO NOT OPEN until Thanksgiving!
Our VBS this year at Waterbrooke was called SKY - where we learned that we can Trust God in every situation. Here, Carl and I did a skit during the opening each night.
Flash was always getting himself in a pickle and he needed to Trust God to help him through.
Christy helped by leading all the actions to the songs. The music was really fun - we'll keep on singing these songs all year in Sunday School.
Mark and Maria Elena led the games - how about a little Vaseline on your nose, Kaitlin?
Use your sticky nose to pick up cotton balls and transport them to the orange cone. Way to go, Jeremiah!
Bruce led the Imagination Station, where they had all sorts of sciency gizmos to experiment with. The cool part was being able to take it home and demonstrate how we can Trust God through the experiments!
Pat was in charge of the Wild Blue Yonder Bible Adventure, and she really got into a hands on experience for the kids!
Sandra did the Movies and Missions class, and the kids learned about missionaries who had to Trust God halfway across the world. We raised money to buy mosquito netting for kids in Mali who die from malaria.
Jacob was one of our teen crew leaders. Each night we did a Spotlight Drama, a digital photo skit that the kids really enjoyed participating in. All we had to do was set up a scene and snap the picture. Paul downloaded them into a power point, and we showed the skit with narration during the closing.
This is the Roman soldier who learned he could trust Jesus to heal his servant without even going to his house.
Not EVERYONE listens when we set up the scenes! Forward, march!
Each day we shared God Sightings with our crews and added puffy clouds to this banner. We will continue during Sunday School until it is complete. God is at work in our lives!
The day after VBS was over, we took the Youth Group to the Carver County Fair as a reward for helping at VBS. They got free tickets for rides as well as their entry fee. The teens do a great job of helping, and we couldn't do it without them!
Of course, you have to EAT at the fair.
I spent most of my time looking at the animals in the petting zoo.
Isn't this llama cute?
Why did the chicken cross the road? To show the raccoons it could be done.
No, we didn't go on the ride - just liked the pretty lights against the night sky.
We had a freebie gift certificate for $100 off a two night stay at Lutzen, so we headed up north to relax after VBS was over. We explored Grand Marais and did some Christmas shopping.
There are tons of gulls down by the beach, swooping VERY close to your head!
Now this fish looks a bit out of place.
We signed up for a canoe trip on the Poplar River. We had to hike a ways up past the ski area.
Our guide had a bit of trouble figuring out how to get 14 people in the allotted number of canoes, but we finally managed to get out on the river.
It was an easy paddle - no rocks and rapids - a beautiful day.
This voyageurs canoe looks really heavy - I'm glad we had the aluminum kind!
We had supper at the old Lutzen Resort restaurant down by the lake - nice view from out the windows - and they make Grandma Linburg's rye bread!!! You get a basket full with every meal - yum!
After supper we went for a walk down by the lake. The Poplar River empties into Lake Superior right below the restaurant.
We explored the river and used my portable tripod to take a picture of ourselves - well - it's a little fuzzy.
I think this one will NOT be on the Christmas card this year.
The sun was setting so it was time to head back to the car.
Oooo - one more shot of a flower along the trail.
We went golfing at Superior National Golf Course on Tuesday - they have 3 nine hole courses to choose from.
YES ... I made it over the hazard and onto the green.
Hey! Leave my ball alone!
Wild life and wild flowers make for a great round of golf!
I think I could put this on a post card - beautiful!
This is a cool tree - totally splits into two about half way up.
This hole was a bit wet - Paul's ball almost got buried in the soggy grass.
More wildflowes.
This is an awesome hole - you have to hit it over the river and land on the green to the left of the path - whew, made it!
This is the same hole from the other side of the river.
On the way home we stopped at Temperance River and hiked down towards the lake.
There was a kayak group heading out into the lake for a guided tour. Lutzen offers lots of special events - maybe we'll try this next time!
Wow, I'm almost caught up on all the summer activities. My goal was to be done blogging before school started and I ALMOST did it. Stay tuned for the final installment of Summer 2012!
