GIRLS CAMP

The week of June 23rd was a very odd one for Lizzie Muldowney. After evaluations that Monday, Lizzie and her father went running errands for one of the most interesting experience of her young life. She was extremely excited although she did not know what the promising week actually held for her. On the 24th she departed for the most notorious YW activity of the year: Girls Camp. As always, the stake went to Camp Lou Henry Hoover in New Jersey. Lizzie was a 5th year AKA a YCL (Youth Camp Leader). She was thrilled to be presiding over the 2nd Years with one of her best friends ever.

The week evolved and became, as I said before, very interesting. While at the ropes course performing impressive feats for her young'uns she accidently smooshed a poisonous caterpiller against her arm. These buggers were everywhere! Well, her arm began to get lumpy and sting. She bears the scars to the present day! To make the week worse, the girls her own age begin being very dramatic (AKA immature) and she was kept up aaaallllllllll night. This lead to a brief mono relapse at the end of camp that stuck with her until the following week. Thankfully, she is better now. The last evening of camp she was also forced to walk 7 looooooong miles (or more) after walking all day. This did not aid in the recovery of her illness. She was glad to be home.

Note from Lizzie: After all the tribulations of the week in New Jersey I somehow enjoyed myself. There were a lot of other wonderful things going on. It showed to me that the Lord is truly miraculous. I had a great time with my second year girls!!

The Invalid

Poor Mr. Abraham took a little tumble of off a rock. A BIG rock. In fact it was the Big Rock.

There are some very large rock formations in the woods behind our house. For those who have never been in those woods, it is basically a large hill covered with trees and at the foot of the hill there is a lovely oil filled creak. So these rock formations jut out creating little cliffs. We've named these rocks and the largest of them all was dubbed Big Rock. Well it just so happened Abe was playing in the woods a couple weeks ago and fell of of the infamous Big Rock which has a 7 foot drop before you land on the jagged rocks below. But this didn't seem to phase Abe. It didn't occur to him to tell his parents until the next day when the pain and swelling had greatly increased. Finally, in the evening of the second day he asked his dad to take him to the ER because he thought his arm might be broken. Dad observed his arm and was shocked at its state. Mom thought perhaps that if Abe only said it might be broken that maybe they could wait until the next day. Dad summed up the sitution by saying "If Abe thinks it's broken, then it is." So they went to the ER and found out that he did indeed have a Buckle Fracture.

And this conludes another tale portraying Abraham's iron strength and unusual ability to endure things that are painful.... at least painful to normal people.

BOOK SALE!!!

The Radnor Memorial Library had its annual book sale this weekend. Mom and Dad were careful not to buy to much as they are trying to get rid of most of our overabundant library. The price on the books has gone up a whole quarter, in some cases 2 quarters!!! They're ripping us off. Anyway, Lizzie expanded her own collection with 8 classics and it set her back a total of $3.50. It's getting pretty expensive these days.

The Father and Son's Camp Out

As is tradition, our ward had a Fathers and Sons Camp Out. Dad and the two boys packed up all of their camping gear Friday and headed over the church's property near the Freedom Foundation. Only a few faithful tradition upholders were in attendance. But to spite lacking numbers, the boys had a great time. Sadly there are no pictures of the Father because he was taking the pictures.
Back at home the women had a girl party to celebrate the guy’s absence. It wasn't really a true girl party because Mimi joined us with Doug. But he was welcome company. We had lots of fun getting Wawa hoagies, baking cookies, and watching Freaky Friday and Mostly Martha (a fabulous German movie) while enjoying homemade slushies.
Even though we enjoyed our evening, we were all really happy to have Daddy, Abe and John come back home the following morning. Now we're a whole family again. Well... that is if you don't include the 7 other children not at home. :(

Old News

The aunts gave us visit! Yeah, it happened a week ago, but it was still awesome.

Mommy, Aunt Joanna, and Aunt Linda all went to Boston for a family wedding while Pops held down the fort with a little help from Lizzie. We also got an little addition to our family for the weekend. Kevin, Aunt Joanna's 9 year son, joined our ranks for a couple of days. He entertained us quite a bit with his sage advice and unquestionable wisdom.

The ladies had a fabulous weekend with their family. We were so glad they got the opportunity spend time together!!