This weekend was the first time that we got to go on the Jr. High Retreat as a FAMILY! I went last year and Karis Mae stayed with Nana and PawPaw, but this year, we ALL went! At first, Karis didnt really know what to think. I had tried to explain it to her, but it just didnt make sense! Of course, she wanted to ride with all of the girls, so Miss Sonia let her ride in her car with 4 of her favorite girls in the youth group. After a fun filled ride, we arrived at Lake Tomahawk. It is a retreat center out in Livingston, Texas. We got there a little later than planned, so our activities started a little later than planned. We had a great time with our small groups getting to know our girls. Karis jumped right in and wanted to be part of the group. After group time, we had a time of just hanging out in the common room. I was trying to get Karis to start calming down.. HAHA. We ended up not getting to bed until about 1 in the morning. She decided she was ready to get up and start another exciting day at 5am. You would think she would be a little cranky... tired... nope.. not Karis Mae. She was in the best mood and had great fun with all of the kids! She latched on to one of our boys, Tate. He was so sweet to her. All the kids were really. We have the best junior high group! If Karis wanted to play with them, they let her play. If she wanted to go outside, they took her outside. If she wanted to jump up and down and then fall down... they followed. She had kids wanting to play with her ALL WEEKEND! I thought they would've gotten tired of her and just ignored her, but they didnt! These are an amazing group of kids. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was when a group of our boys were playing some sort of tackle football, but not really football. Anways, we have a new sixth grader and he is autistic. AMAZING KID! He wanted to play. The other boys (mainly our "popular" "athletic" group of boys) let him have the ball. They were leaping and pretending to miss tackling him, giving him time with the ball. When they finally did tackle him, it was more just a big bear hug to his knees. It was a very proud moment for Jordan and for me also. I can't brag enough. I have one picture of Karis Mae that one of the mom chaparones took that I am in LOVE with. Its Saturday night at the bonfire. The other picture of her running just captures the fun and joy she had all weekend! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do :)
Saturday night at the bonfire! I think we will make her our Jr. High Mascot!
This is what the whole weekend was about... running and be happy and free! 
This is just one of the picture of how the teens included Karis in whatever they were doing! So proud of those kids! 
Kara, Drew told me about the boys and Connor playing football, and I thought that was such a great example of the FANTASTIC group of kids we have!!! Connor had the best time, and he was telling me how he got to play football with the other kids. Yes, you and Jordan should be proud, and all our parents who raised such great kids should be proud, too! We love you guys!! You and Jordan are AWESOME!!!!
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