10 Days Was Just to Short!

Tuesday, May 19th, dawned bright and early for Damarise and I! Sleeping seems impossible when something exciting is about to happen! :D And something exciting was indeed about to happen! :) We'd been counting down the days for this special day since November 3rd, 2008!! And we were up with the crack of dawn! :) We got dressed and ready to go.

**Fun Fact** For this trip of flying, Damarise and I traveled with the least amount of luggage ever! Usually when we fly we are flying overseas and taking our whole house with us, but this time we just had a carryon and a purse! It felt SO cool! :D Actually, while we were on our way back to MO this gentleman who was behind the escalator we were on came up and was like, "I have never seen ladies traveling SO lightly! You guys must've been on a half a day trip!" Hahaha...

Grandma dropped us off at the airport since Mom and Dad were at the FIRE conference. We got all checked in, got on our flight, buckled in, and pretty soon we were up in the air! :D I love flying!!! It's such a cool sensation! While on our flight we got pretzels :) Mmmm :)

Damarise and I were really excited to be flying by ourselves :D

When we got to Buffalo airport we were greeted by Ruth and Mrs. Dyck!!!! :D :D

They were holding up a sign that said "The Party's Here" and a welcome balloon :)

It was so fun to be greeted like that :D

Awww :D Back together again after three years! It was SO great to see Ruth again!

We got home late that night, and after hellos to the rest of the Dyck family we went to bed. Zzzz

Wednesday:

The next day was the NTMC Academy's field day! :D So we went down to cheer Titus on.

Left to Right: Jared, Titus, Jake and Garret.

Damarise, Ruth and I with blowers. :) "Gooooo Titus!!!"

Some of the NTM students timing the races :)

The blowers :) Mrs. Dyck uses them for many occasions! They definitely add life to things! :D

Ruth and I :)

Titus doing the triple jump!

And the high jump! YEAH!!! he made it!

After field day... and a sunburn (ouch!), Ruth showed us around Jungle Camp. :)

One of Damarise's cool pictures :)

Our old house :)

Some of the beautiful tulips by the Dyck's house :)

After the walk around the campus Ruth gave Cuddles a bath :)

Awww... soaping him up.

And drying him out :)

Thursday:

We all woke up with glowing red skin! :P Ouch! Not putting on sunscreen the day before wasn't the smartest idea :P But we made it through the day :)

We made some chocolate ball things. :)

Mrs. Dyck made rolls!

Ruth and I dunked the stuff in the chocolate to make them chocolate balls :)

We played the Wii! :D FUN! :D

Then came the blowing up of the many balloons! :D We sat down and watched Numb3rs while we blew, blew, blew. :)

Then we rolled out tortillas :) It brought back some fun memories :D

We helped hang up Graduation decorations! :)

And in one pack of balloons there were three HUGE balloons! Way to go Ruth on blowing those up!!

Balloon Galore! :)

One of the balloons popped on Mrs. Dyck's foot! OUCH! look at the mark it made!

Damarise and Ruth with the many balloons :)

After we were done with the balloon blowing, hanging and taping we sat down to relax :)

We waxed our hands.

Painted nails :)

Ruth did a french manicure on herself! Talk about talent!!

I'm no where near that talented, so Ruth painted mine :) Thanks Ruth!

Friday:

The big day!! :D We went to the hair dresser with Ruth to watch her get her hair put up.

Awww look at all those curls!

What a beautiful friend I have :)

Then the hair dresser put Ruth's hair up. I have never seen so many bobby pins or hairspray go into someone's hair! It was amazing!

Sticking in the bobbypins. :)

Ta da! The finished product! It looked beautiful!

Back at the house, Mrs. Dyck was preparing food for dinner :) Thanks Mrs. Dyck for all the food you made! It was all amazing!

The dinner before Ruth's graduation.

Ruth's Aunt bought Ruth and Zachary LSSU t-shirts (That's the college they're going too :) )

Then came the time for pictures :)

Ruth and the graduation puppy :)

Damarise, Ruth and me with the graduation dog :)

Bestest of Friends forever and ever :)

Ruth and her parents :)

Hehe, giving the dog kisses :)

Ruth and Zachary... the two college freshmen :)

Zachary, Ruth and Titus :D

Mother and Daughter :)

Father and Daughter :)

Awww :) I love em! :)

The cake for the graduate. :)

And the graduation began!

Ruth's brother, Caleb, played pomp and circumstance on the guitar while Ruth walked down the aisle :) it sounded really cool!

Everyone clapped as Ruth walked down :)

Mr. Schmidt opened up the ceremony.

Mr. Penner said a few words.

The amazing band! :D Left to Right Kris, Caleb, Carly and Seth played the drums. They played Everlasting God, Mighty to Save, Beautiful One and Lifesong. All of them did an amazing job!!

Mrs. Penner gave a nice speech. :)

Then came Ruth's speech :) It was a very sweet speech!

She surprised her Mom with flowers :) Awww...

Mr. Penner presented Ruth and Zachary with their scholarships to LSSU.

Mr. Dyck gave a really nice speech to his daughter :)

Then Mr. and Mrs. Dyck said a blessing for Ruth.

Mrs. Penner gave Ruth a rose for being a great student. Ruth's gotten straight A's since 10th grade!!! AMAZING!

Mr. Penner gave Ruth her diploma.... and a hug :)

The 2009 graduate of NTMCA!

Hehe, when Ruth got her diploma about 40 people had blowers and we all blew, blew, blew to congratulate Ruth :D Mr. Penner was cracking up! It was great!!!

Auroralyn (Ruth's niece) blowing away :D

YEAH!!!! CONGRATULATIONS RUTH!!!!

Ruth's Uncle ended the ceremony.

And back down the aisle Ruth came... only this time she's a HIGHSCHOOL GRADUATE! YAY RUTH!

Yep! The Class of '09! :D

Ruth and Katie :D Awww :D

Now we're all graduates :D

One of Ruth's presents. Very cutely wrapped.

Awwwww... Mr. Dyck and his grandkid :)

:D Mrs. Dyck and her little grandbaby. :)

For Ruth's graduation party we did karaoke!! :D

Ruth's Aunts :D

Carly and Ruth! :)

Katie and Ruth! :D

Damarise, Ruth, Carly and me.

Katie and Carly! :D

Awww Carly's so pretty! :D

They were SO fun to watch!

Awww Katie and Ruth!

They had the best expressions! :D

Katie!!! She was awesome!!!

Ruth and her Dad :)

YAY!!! Karaoke :)

Mr. and Mrs. Dyck danced to a song :)

WOAH! It was a late night! But totally worth it :)

Saturday:

Saturday morning... well... we slept in til 11... so we kind of missed the morning. But we did have a GOOD breakfast! Mmmm :)

After breakfast Ruth, her mom, Damarise, Ruth's Aunt and cousin, and I went out to a lil' town to walk around. Then we stopped in to get icecream at a 50's diner :)

How fun!!

After a fun day out on the town we came back home to relax :)

Nice foot soaks!! :)

Sunday:

After church and lunch we decided to lay out and soak up some sun! Ahhh :)

It was nice and warm:)

Then we took a drive to the dam in town to walk around.

Awww :) Cuddles!

Ruth.... she's an AWESOME driver!!

Cuddles loves the feeling of wind on her face :)

Uh! Is Cuddles DRIVING?!

At the dam :)

The girls :)

The Dycks with Mr. Ed and Ms. Helen :)

The Dycks and Mrs. Dyck's sister Ruth.

Some of the stunning flowers!

Oooo pretty purple! :)

Bleeding Hearts :)

Ruth with her adorable niece!!! Awwww

Yummmy icecream! :)

Mmmmm.... :) :)

Fun with the grandbaby :)

Mr. Dyck bbqed hamburgers that night! YUM!

Enjoying the amazing food! :)

Then we played some ball game. It was fun! :)

The adults hanging out :)

Mr. Dyck found us marshmallow sticks :)

They were leafy :)

but after the leaves were shaved off we had the perfect sticks :)

Monday:

We were off to the lake :) We went to Lake Huron and to Kincardine to spend the day! :) It was fun!

The Canadian flag. Yep, we were actually in Canada :)

Us girls at the lake :)

The group of us who went to the lake, minus Mrs. Dyck.

Mr. Ed and Ms. Helen :)

Awwww what a sweet couple!

:D What great people!

The lighthouse :)

Pretty flowers!

The lighthouse from the front.

A red telephone booth!!!!!!! I have always wanted to see a red telephone booth and thought I'd have to wait til I was in England, but lo and behold there was one there!! :D

Ooo la la! We love this telephone booth! :)

But... it was locked! AHH!!!!

Oh no! The van ate Ruth!!! :oO H

Then came the fun pictures :D

"WOW! I just won this boat!!"

"Ohhh it's mine!!"

:D Hanging out by the boats. :)

"I can't believe it!!! I won this!!!"

"HELP! I'm falling!"

"Oh no! I can't get you... HELP!"

"Here I COME!!!"

:D Checking out a boat.

"Oh my goodness!!!! I just won this!!"

"Ok, so not really, but can I PLEASE have a ride in it??"

Nice shot Damarise.

Oooo pretty flowers :)

These white ones were SO soft and smelled amazing!

"Oooo what is that over there?"

I loved this!!! This chair was huge! :D

Best Friends :)

Oooo what's over there?

Mr. and Mrs. Dyck! An amazing couple and super sweet!! They're like family :)

Playing on a playground! You can never be too old for that! :)

But this rock wall... it was a rough climb! ;)

I love slides!!!

AHHHH!!!! Her ear got SUCKED up into it!! Noooooo

Oooo I found a diamond! :D

Hanging out.

Fun times on a walk together.

Say cheese :)

Brrrr it was cold!!

The Wiebe's took us all out to eat :) Thank you!!!

Then we walked around Kincardine. They had amazing murals!

:D

The whole town was so quaint :)

I love barber shops :)

This clock was cool too!

Oh no!!! We're getting shot at!

:) Friends Forever

Back in the warm car again... ahhh :)

UH! What is that!?

We are STUFFED!

Eww... I think we passed a cow farm! :P

It wasn't us!

The look ;)

AH! We're drowning!

Hahaha, fun with lips :P

huh??

Crosseyed... or something eyed ;)

We are super happy! :D

And slightly strange!

singing :)

And thinking :)

About an hour after we got home Carly took us out for coffee :) Thanks Carly and Ruth!!

Awww the coffee was cute :) hehe...

Tuesday:

Ruth coloured Damarise's hair... well streaked it :)

It's hard work.. :)

Fun fun!

Then I started getting bored.. So snapped some pics. A Baby Ruth bar, she had them at her graduation party :)

Still streaking Damarise's hair.

Haha, what a great sign.

Almost done! :D

Then Ruth read the recipe for the cheesecake :) Haha, I love how relaxed she looks.

Titus and Cuddles :)

Look at how tall Titus is now!!!! AMAZING!

Damarise, Ruth and I went on a walk... and saw some beautiful flowers!

It was fun! :D

I love lampposts! They remind me of the Chronicles of Narnia :)

The Dyck's house.... well.. the left side is theirs :)

Wednesday:

We went to a mall in Hamilton. Had fun walking around :) And eating some Greek food! MMMMM... Then Ruth and Mrs. Dyck took us Booster Juice! MMM!!! The juice there was amazing!!! It was soo good and fruity!

:D

Advertising it :) hehehe

Ooooo SO good!

Thursday: *the last full day* :'(

We made pretzels :) Ruth kneaded the dough! :D

Then she curled my hair! :) Thanks Ruth!!

curliness abounds!

Rolling out the pretzels...

And waiting to be cooked.

Ta da! The finished pretzels!

Oh, and the cheesecake!! Mmmmm It was amazing!

Damarise and I :)


Little Auroralyn :) She's SO cute!

Chocolate covered strawberries! YUM!

Then we decided that we weren't about to let this last night together pass without any fun! Thus the planning began! We took all the many balloons down from around the house. Loaded them in bags...

Then stuffed them in the Dyck's van for transport.

So... what were we going to do???

Well, we decided to go balloon Carly's car :) But we couldn't just put balloons in and that's it... Oh no! We went all the way! We decided to dress up in black. Put on lots of black eyeliner and RED lipstick and skimasks :) Hahaha...

So we got ready.

Do we look scary?

I love these girls!!!!

Mmmhmmm!

Ooooo :P

Puckering up :P hehe

Cheesy grins! :D

Uhhh....

Hahaha... I love this! Ruth and I are doing... who knows what, and Damarise is looking at us like we're crazy :) hehe.

HAPPY! :D

Hahaha... Eyes and Lips!

Oooo the glare!

Hehehe :)

Awww, they are so pretty!

I love her!

The ski masks... :)

Shocking!

Now the ski masks are all the way down. Oooo scary!

Ready to go out into the darkness... bwa ha ha!

Armed and ready ;) hehehe.

Our ammunition ready to go! :)

Mr. Dyck was our driver... and cameraman for the fun :)

Loading our driver balloon in Carly's car. :)

Stuffing them in!

Hahaha, we couldn't make it through the ballooning without cracking up and popping many many balloons!

After the ballooning we went back up to the house and decided that we still need some fun to end the night with. So Zachary volunteered to be our cameraman and take us around and snap pics of us :) Our first stop was at Timmy's to get some coffee for the night :) Then on the way back to the camp we couldn't resist posing by L&M :D Hahaha... Nooo we are NOT breaking in!!

Posing by the NTM sign :)

:D

We'd always wanted to touch construction cones!!!!! :D :D

Oooo a fire hydrant!

Fun on a tire swing! :)

*gulp* These things make us feel... sick!!!!

Trying to get up on the sign ;)

Yay for NTMCA!!! :D

WOAH! We see a kid!!! ;)

Slow please!

Say what?!

Stealthy and Sly ;)

Ahhhh! We're tipping!

Craziness on the bridge ;)

I love this picture! :) Thanks Zachary for taking all the pics :D

Hahaha... our faces are so... ummm....

We can't get in!

Do some random face...

Ahhh! There's a black masked person above us!

Say cheese! :D

They're just a little out of reach.

Oh! We are SO strong ;)

And happy :)

The Dyck's smoke house :)

Friday:

It was a sad day as our last day came :( We packed up all of our stuff. And said goodbye to the Dycks. :(

As we were driving out of the camp we passed Carly with her car stuffed full of balloons :D

Since Damarise and I still had some Canadian money, we stopped off at Timmy's to spend it :)

Mmmm yummy!

We got to the border with our passports in hand :)

We got to the airport... and said our sad goodbyes :(

One last picture before the last goodbye :(

It was an amazingly fun 10 days!! I'm so thankful that God provided the money so that Damarise and I could make this trip! And I'm SOO thankful for Ruth! She is and has been an amazing friend! She's more like a sister to me and I'm so thankful for her and the time we got to spend with her! Thank you to the Dyck family for hosting us! You guys are so much fun to be around!! And both Damarise and I had a wonderful time!!!!