Luke is a Lucky Man

And if you were at Boys Week at Camp Ne-O-Tez last week, you're giggling right now. It's hard to see in the picture, but the vanilla wafers in the pudding spell out "I "heart" Luke." This was only one of the many special memories we will take away from this week at camp.

Kelsey & I are back from a week working in the kitchen at Camp Ne-O-Tez. Today we want you to meet Luke & Monica. Luke was a Bible teacher and Monica was a cook last week. They are engaged to be married in October. We sat down with them Friday afternoon in the gazebo where they graciously agreed to talk to us about their first ever week at Camp Ne-O-Tez.

T&K: Had you heard of Camp Ne-O-Tez before? How?

M: Yes. My great-grandmother was Dorothy Spencer who used to cook at camp.

L: Yes. I heard about camp through Joe Taylor. He promoted the food.

T & K: What was your favorite meal?

L: Hot dogs with chili becauase it combines some of my favorite foods - hot dogs, chili, cheese and bread.

M: Grilled cheese sandwiches with chicken fries because cheese and chicken is the best combo.

T&K: Least favorite meal?

L: The bacon was too crispy. I prefer it chewy.

M: Hamburgers. I just want CHICKEN.

T&K: What was the hottest meal to cook? Personally, I felt the tator tots were hands down the hottest meal we cooked.

M: Mashed potatoes and chicken tenders.

T&K: What was your favorite dessert this week:

M: Chips Ahoy cookie dessert (Thanks to Sherri's friend Wendy for this awesome recipe. The boys loved it!)

L: Banana pudding

T&K: Did you feel you got enough butter in your diet this week? (You don't even want to know how many pounds of butter we went through this week.)

L&M: No, you can't ever get enough.

T&K: What was the funniest thing that happened this week?

L: Eating lunch with Dalton and Isaiah. They make me giggle.

M: The day every kid came through the line and said to me, "Luke is a lucky man."

T&K: If you could change one thing at camp, what would it be?

L: Bottled water in canteen.

M: More sugar in the kool-aid.

T&K: What was your favorite quote of the week?

L: MC saying, "You must have gotten drunk on coffee. You're crazy for getting married."

M: Aaron in the amphitheater asking if flash photography was allowed.

T&K: What was your favorite campfire song?

M: Beaver song

L: I've got confidence

T&K How about your least favorite campfire song?

M: Tarzan song. It's obnoxious and annoying.

L: The same.

T&K: Monica, how did you enjoy your trip to the Ne-O-Tez spa?

M: 5-star experenience. It surpasses the Four Seasons. It had a great massaging rock and cool, running water.

T&K: What was the best thing about camp?

L: Watching the kids do yuck games. And the scenery is awesome; there are so many different beautiful things in one area.

M: The scenery: Crystal Falls, the bluff, the cave. All are awesome.

T&K: What was the worst thing about camp?

M: bugs and insects

L: No PDA

T&K: Did you make new friends this week?

M: Yes, some of the new friends I made this week were Ellen, Sandy and Valerie.

L: Yes, I made friends with Ed, James, Dalton and Marcus.

We really enjoyed working with Luke and Monica this week and we're so happy they are as excited about Camp Ne-O-Tez as we are.

~ Terri & Kelsey

Tuesday Lunch at Camp Ne-O-Tez

Kelsey & I have just returned from Boys' week at Camp Ne-O-Tez where I was a cook and she was a dishwasher. Like always, the week included plenty of sweat, hard work, new friends, good food and lots of fun. Tuesday at lunch I had my camera handy and took some behind the scenes pictures of what goes on in the Ne-O-Tez kitchen.

Here's Director Joe "tasting the corn". I think he decided it was fit to eat.

Melissa makes amazing lemonade.

The diswashers get to enjoy a little down time before the campers start bringing them their dirty dishes . Our dishwashers were Melissa, Sydni, Kelsey & Laney. Beka is not pictured.

Hey, where are those campers anyway?

They are lining up outside. Before you can eat lunch you have to listen to the cabin inspection report.

Today, Cabin 2 was declared the winner and they get to eat first. Here they come!

Lunch today was chicken nuggets which are a camper favorite. The chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorites on the camp menu.

Even lizards get to enjoy a Ne-O-Tez lunch.

Jimmy knows how to clean his tray for the dishwashers.











We had a great week in the kitchen, but now we're looking forward to trying out some new restaurants. I think we deserve it.

~ Terri

Four Square

Mom and I were heading over to STL to take me to grandma's (who was then taking me to Sherri's to spend some time chillin' with the boys.) and we decided we needed some lunch and why not go somewhere new. So Grandma told us about the Soda Fountain Square, an old time diner type resturaunt. (Remember, it doesn't matter if guests have already been to the resturaunt).

So we had a good meal.

I had chocolate chip pancakes (breakfast anytime.) They were big and fluffy and downright delicious.

Grandma had a breakfast burrito which she said was also delicious. I had a bit, even I thought it was good (and I'm not a fan of eggs.).

Mom actually had lunch. She had baked potato soup and a salad. Both were quite good.

Okay. so the real reason we went to this particular resturaunt (besides the fact that it was in Lafayette Square) was because we heard they had a cupcake bar.

So we scoured the desert menu and mom got the artist cupcake. Meaning they gave her a cupcake, some icing and some sprinkles. She had more fun decorating it than anything, and the cupcake itself was also pretty good.

Grandma had a phosphate because none of us really knew what that was. She had strawberry, which I would recommend. They had some flavors like Chocolate and Vanilla but we think those would probably wouldn't be as good.

I had a Hot fudge brownie sundae. The brownine was really good and hot, and it was covered in ice cream hot fudge and whipped cream.

All in all, this resturaunt was definitely somewhere we would go again, and I think desert is a must here. They have a really cool bar area where they make the ice cream at that you can see from your seat.

After lunch we took a little stroll around Lafayette Square.

Then we took a little drive around the park before we headed back to Grandma's. This was a really fun lunch and we hope to go back again.

~ Kelsey