A beautiful fall day. Perfect for a walk!

Here it is November and we still had gorgeous weather! So why not take advantage of it and go for a walk?

Rachel had sustenance! (M&Ms :P)

And when that ran out she found some corn! Nummy, Nummy!

She actually tried it! :O

Mrs. Hemmer had fun trying to figure out the game that Lauren and Wolfgang brought.

She was determined to figure it out and she spent nearly an hour with it! Talk about determination!

Summit joined us! She ran the entire time!

She also found out that she loves Dandelions! She kept running and pouncing on them!

Pretty as a picture!

We took our walk into the woods and went to the creek.

I heard it was really cold!

But everyone enjoyed it because it was a really warm day!

Everybody joined in on the fun whether they were in the water or just watching!

Great explorers!

After that we were all 'Dog Tired'. :)

Snow!

Sunday afternoon we saw our first snow of the year! Although it wasn't quite like snow and it wasn't hail but it was some where in between.

I think we were all thinking (or at least I was) that it really cool to have snow but it was just way to early in the year!

We were all freezing!

You might be wondering why we were nuts enough to be out in this cold. The reason was that a giant tree had just fallen down and we all wanted to see it.

Some of us were trying to remove it...

Alright the tree wouldn't budge for them but thankfully Jason had his truck there! Hurray for Big Louie!

The Refuge Tree Service?

Personally I wouldn't want to see those two with a running chain saw! ;)

Along with the snow came another celebration this Sunday.
Jordan got a new puppy this week! Her name is Summit (I hope I spelled that right!)
Sorry no pictures with the proud Poppa but isn't she cute?

A visitor from Germany

For the last couple weeks Kathrin was visiting Wolfgang and Lauren from Germany.

She has such a fun personality. The Refugees were blessed to join Lauren and Wolfgang in enjoying her company! We all had so much fun with her but alas the time of her visit flew by far to quickly!

Asian Invasion

Along with the gorgeous warm weather that we have been having comes the Asians Beetles!

Last Saturday at the campground Mark went to check on the church and this is what he found! :p

Yes all of those little black dots are beetles! Just what you want your little kids crawling on! Right?
On the stage. I'm glad my flute wasn't up there!
They loved the windows because of the light! Ew!

A big thank you to everyone who worked so hard to get the building cleaned up before church!

Saying Good-bye

As the weather gets cooler when fall comes so does the time to say good bye to the work campers at Mendota Hills.

Recently we all went to Lauren and Wolfgang's site to show our appreciation to Dave and Orla.

Since we Refugees can't do anything without having food involved we had ice cream sundays.

Everyone brought their favorite toppings (potluck style ;)

Dave and Orla are so special to so many people that we had quite the crowd!

Feed me Mom!

Someone brought this game that is very similar to bean bags. The difference is that you play with disks and try to aim them into several different holes.

Loyal fans...

I was pleasantly pleased with this picture because if you look close you can see the disk just leaving Zeb's hand!
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We are sure are going to miss them while they are gone! Not only for the fabulous job that they do at the campground but also for the wonderful gift of friendship that they have given to each of us!
We hope that they know...
...how much they are loved by all of us!

Wedding Bells

On Sunday we got to celebrate the wedding of Dan and Magdelina at the Refuge.

After church all the Refugees worked together to make the church look beautiful and then wait for the bride and groom to come.

Magdelina walked down on a carpet of flower petals to Canon in D.

As a church we joined them to open the ceremony with singing.

We sang the songs: How Beautiful and the song Blessed Assurance.

We rearranged the chairs to be facing a side of the church instead of the front and decorated that area with and arch.

Wolfgang was the photographer.

I also had my camera and tried to stay out of his way. :)

While Wolfgang took pictures of the couple I tried to get pictures of the guests including some of theses cute kids.
The flower girl and her cousin had fun playing with the flower petals during the ceremony.

They had a traditional ceremony. But it was also unique for them as a couple.

They couldn't get both candles in the frame when they went to light the Unity Candle so the best man held it for them.

During the lighting of the unity candle the Twins and I played You Raise Me Up.

Notice Melody is holding Rachel's music? We forgot our stand!

You may kiss your bride!
If you want to see more pictures from the ceremony you will have to ask Wolfgang if you can see his!
Cutting the cake.
Lauren helped walk them through the proper way to cut the cake!
Joyful servants!
Time for more pictures!
There were pictures of the bride and groom, pictures of them with the brides family and then ones with the grooms family, pictures with friends...
...even pictures with the pastor!

And there were plenty of photographers!
Wolfgang wasn't around to take pictures of the rings so I stole these!
I was pleased with how they turned out!
Here are couple of my favorites of the bride!

The arch looked so pretty we had to get pictures of everyone by it.

Kaleb just looks cute everywhere!Just over a year ago these two got married under this arch!