Michele's Small Group Comes to Visit

Many, many months ago, Michele looked at our upcoming summer schedule and asked if she could bring her small group high school senior girls over to our house as part of a fun retreat for them.  They started out on Thursday, spending the night at a river side cottage along the Metolius River - and along the way they hiked to waterfalls, caves, and had dinner at Red Robin in Bend.  From there, on Friday, the headed south to spend the next night at our home prior to going out on the lake on Saturday before returning to Dallas late that afternoon.  They packed a lot of fun in a very short amount of time!

Following a bar-b-q chicken dinner following their arrival to our house on Friday night,  the girls wanted to hear John and Travis tell their "Stories".  God's done some big work in both of those guys' lives - as well as the stories of how they got together with their respective "Steph's".  =)  We called it "church time", as the girls were so attentively listening to what the guys had to say.  

Things got a lot more relaxed as we headed out to the patio - 

From left to right in this photo (taken Saturday morning):  Megan, Margi, Sarah, and Anna (and Michele - their fearless leader).  I think Sophi (who is missing in this pic) was getting her gear on behind them to wakeboard.

The lake was GLASS!!!!

The girls really wanted to kneeboard.  That's not really our thing, but we had one to use.  They borrowed the other from the Meyers...

The girls were all super impressed with Travis' skills - plus we always try to pile folks at the back of the boat to create more of a wake for him to jump.  It all made for a great pic!

Travis and Megan getting down with the music!

There's Sophia in this group picture - all the way to the left.

Love this pic of Michele - in fact it's her new Facebook Timeline Cover.

We got John to get out on the slalom.  It only happens about once a year, but it's always impressive!!!

On this day I was able to pinpoint where the bald eagles roosted that appear over the lake.  I think I was pretty much the only one obsessed about it, but it's not an everyday occurrence to see these majestic birds!

Sadly, our day came to an ABRUPT halt when we went to put the boat in gear and it did nothing.  Long story short, the shaft holding our prop randomly broke off, so our prop is now sitting 18 feet below the water level in the lake.  We were a long ways from the dock, so we were so thankful to this sweet family that gave us all a tow back.  While we didn't get a chance to bring out the tube, the girls all had about 5 hours to play, so we were blessed that the break didn't happen until it did.

As soon as we dropped off the boat to the marina, we did our traditional stop at DQ, and then the girls headed back to Dallas.  It was just a 24 hour time span with them, but they all already feel like family to us.  It's a bummer to know they all graduated in June and are heading in different directions, likely preventing a repeat adventure from happening so easily.  But, we'll definitely count on being available if ever a reunion is able to happen.