FCA Camp 2012

I can confidently say that this year's FCA Camp was the best one yet. We are so blessed to be able to do this each summer.  We roomed with the Salyers family again and, since we've moved 4 hours away from these best friends of ours, we were so excited to spend the whole week with them!

 

This isn't the greatest picture to start off this post, but it happened the first night and I have to include it.  The coach and I have a long history with possessed smoke detectors.  As I was getting the kids ready for bed that first night of camp we heard the beep of a smoke detector.  After hunting around the 3 level apartment we realized it was in our kids' room.  Of course.  The apartment manager was out for the night and we had no batteries or ladder.  Keri was working on getting the schedule set for football camp that week, but when he finally headed home he stopped by and picked up enough batteries for the whole apartment, as we know from experience that when one goes off and you fix it, you can bet another will go off an hour later.  Just a funny night!

 

The kids slept through the beeping of the smoke detectors and the train at midnight.  In the morning (and every other time the train came through) we all ran outside to watch it.  Brock especially loved it.

 

Great minds think alike, Ashley and I both brought wagons to pull the kids to and from the cafeteria and the pool everyday. 

 

These kids had the best time together!  Rylan 5, Doak 4, and Brock 19 months enjoying a poolside dinner at camp.

 

The girls of the group.  Poor Addie is outnumbered by all the boys!

 

Cody and Keri have the best friendship.  I'm so thankful for the whole Salyers family.

 

We had a fun week!  The kids had 2 days of VBS in the morning while Ashley and I went to the women's Bible study.  The speaker was fabulous this year and I learned so much!  In the evenings we had dinner poolside as a family and then the kids went to childcare while Keri and I went to couples Bible study.  Again, the couple leading it was so gifted, and we learned so much about how to improve our marriage.  We also had free time in the afternoons.  One day Ashley and I took the kids to the aTm ballpark, where they recently built an awesome playground!

 

We got all the kids dressed in their patriotic gear on the 4th of July.  Look at these sweet friends!

 

I love that these kids are growing up together!

 

Here's a very blurry picture of the kids and Keri after breakfast at the cafeteria.

 

On the night of the 4th we parked our cars up on the top of one of the parking garages on campus.  The kids hung out in the back of Keri's truck and feasted on watermelon while we waited for the fireworks to start. 

 

Brock loves watermelon! 

 

Brock and Hudson, messy and happy!

 

One of my favorite parts of FCA camp is being around other coaching families.  There is a certain camaraderie among us and it's so refreshing to not have to explain why we moved again, but just to know everyone understands.  Bethany and her family have become some of our favorites to reconnect with each summer!  

 

Love spending time with my big girl watching the fireworks.

 

Brock is crazy about his Daddy.  He sat with Keri during the whole fireworks show.

 

My view during the fireworks. 

 

Our best friends, the Salyers.  Hudson, almost 3, Rylan 5





Keri always amazes me with how he can plan and execute this football camp for almost 300 athletes and 30 coaches.  I'm so proud of him and I love hearing all the other coaches and FCA staff brag on what a great job he does.  (His first year of camp there were around 50 kids in the football program.  This year they had 280+ athletes in football and the whole sports camp is now the biggest in the country!)


 

This summer it hit me.  We may never be able to go to Pine Cove or Kanakuk for family camp, but this is our family camp.  This is what our kids will remember.  I'm so thankful for that. 

 

Colt McCoy camp

One reason for our trip to Abilene, was for Keri to coach at the Colt McCoy football camp. Colt is from Jim Ned, which is just outside of Abilene. Keri and Colt's dad are friends, so Keri was so happy to be asked to be a part of the camp!



Keri coached the quarter backs and Colt coached alongside Keri for part of the day.



Keri spoke to the kids about growing in wisdom, stature, and favor with God (Luke 2:52)



We came up the second day of camp to watch Keri coach and meet Colt.



These kids are at home on the football field! Here they are drinking out of the "cow".









Keri was so happy to see this picture! He won't mind if our boys don't play football, but he sure would love to share it with them!



Doak was not wanting to be in the picture at all! Someday he'll appreciate that we tried to get a picture of him with Colt!

_______________________

After 2 days of camp in Abilene, Keri went to Austin for the Colt McCoy camp there. All the coaches stayed in a really nice hotel and Colt took good care of them! They ate at Steiner Ranch Steakhouse and Keri was in heaven!

Keri was so impressed what a great man of God Colt is and was blessed to be a part of his camp in their first year. He can't wait to go back again next year!

FCA Camp 2011

The end of June means FCA Camp! It's hard to believe that this is our 5th year to be a part of this amazing ministry.

We were blessed to be rooming with the Salyers again this year. I love that we get to spend a solid week with them every summer. We're so thankful for their friendship and we love raising our kids alongside them.


This is obviously not a great picture, but it's all I have of the kiddos from our time together.



We spent our time at camp swimming, going to Bible School and Bible study, and hanging out with friends. Addie and Doak took a popsicle break outside our apartment.



I put the kids' clothes in ziploc bags by outfit to make the suitcases neater and mornings easier. I sent both kids to get dressed and this is what Doak put on. He was a little confused because he hadn't ever worn this outfit before.....uh, that's because it's Brock's! Silly boy!

We don't have many photos from this year's camp but here's one I found online of Keri doing his thing. Over the past four years of running the camp, the football program keeps getting bigger. This year I believe he had 250+ football players, and 35 football coaches. About 90% of those coaches were there the previous year too. Keri makes sure that each coach gets an afternoon or morning off to spend with their family during camp. He is so organized and works so hard to make it a great week for the kids and coaches. This man is a born leader and I love watching him use his talents for God's work. I'm so proud of him.

Want to know why I don't have many pictures of camp this year? It's because our week was cut short. Doak fell on his knee in the apartment on the first day of camp and totally flipped out. His cry told us that something was really wrong, this was not an "I want a bandaid cry". He was in pain. His knee looked as if it had a splinter in it, which made the fall painful. Keri tried to pull the splinter out but that proved unsuccessful. Ashley (who is an RN) took a look at it later that night and we all agreed that it looked horribly swollen and infected. Keri took Doak to an urgent care center where they confirmed that it was a staph infection. By the next evening the knee had doubled in size and pussed up. Ashley told us it needed to be drained so we took Doak to the ER to have it lanced and drained. It was no fun for any of us and it's so hard to watch your child in pain, but we knew if we didn't get it under control the infection could spread. WARNING-pictures below












These were taken June 30 right before we went to the ER








24 hours later it looked so much better!



We knew there wasn't much Doak could do with an infection like that-he couldn't swim or participate in the Bible school and being stuck in the apartment wasn't going to work. So the kids and I drove to my parents' house for the remainder of the week while Keri stayed behind to run the camp. We're looking forward to next year's camp and praying that no one goes to the ER next year!




Check out the past years here 2007 2008 2009 2010

FCA Camp

Last week we had the pleasure of serving again at the FCA Sports Camp. This year was amazing because we had 8 of Keri's new football players attend the camp. And due to lack of transportation for them-they even rode with us! On the way to camp we carpooled with the Salyers which made the ride much more fun for me and the kids! Cody was so nice to drive my car full of our players so I could ride with Ashley-thanks Cody!


Our family of four in our sweet apartment at A&M. It had 3 levels-1st was kitchen/living/bath, 2nd was 2 bedrooms/1 bath for the Salyers fam, and 3rd floor had 2 bedrooms/1 bath for our family. The kids had so much fun running up and down the stairs! But Ashley and I decided that we never want to have a 2 story house! We walked up and down those stairs probably 15 times a day!


One of the perks of the family apartments was the resort style pool. We swam every day and it was such a nice treat for us to relax in the pool every day! Miss Addie is officially a little swimming fish now and she loves to wear her goggles and just swim all over the pool on her own.


Doak enjoyed the water and really loves his new floaties. We were so happy that Keri got to join us almost every day. He would come straight from football practice and wind down in the pool with us before dinner.


My sweet boy(s) and me!



Hudson, Ashley, Cody, and Rylan. We love sharing FCA camp with this awesome family! This is our third year to work it together.


Our evening worship was held at Kyle Field. The first night the kids came with us and loved singing during worship time. This picture shows the kids "putting their hands up" for Jesus!


A view of the 800 campers praising God during worship-awesome!


Addie just loves Hudson!


Thank goodness for the computer-it served us well for a little down time for the kids and the adults. (Luckily there was a redbox nearby so I made a few runs to check out movies during the week!)


The kids are in heaven when we visit Keri at the indoor field. Just like last year, they aren't intimidated by the 280+ huge football boys all around them!


The kiddos love their Daddy!


Sweet Addie loved practicing her gymnastics, handstands, and dancing all over the field.


Coach Keri multi tasking like no one else can. He amazes me! He runs the whole football camp and organizes the week for 280 players and 30 coaches. What a servant.


Keri and Doak checking on all the huddle groups playing Navy football.


Look at that sweet face!


I think it's hilarious that Addie was doing ballet on the middle of the practice fields. Silly girl!


Yeah, I'm embracing the camera and it's not even Thursday!


The football players had a devotion time after lunch. This is Case Keenum sharing his testimony with the boys. Case is a talented football player who plays QB for the University of Houston. He's a Heisman Trophy hopeful and, more importantly, a man of great faith!


The football players and coaches


And here's "our boys" on the way home from camp. We took 8 boys and 7 made a commitment to Christ during the camp. What an amazing week!


This is our fourth year at FCA camp. Click here to see year 3, year 2, and I guess year 1 didn't get blogged!