The End of Summer

The final week of camp for the summer was a little more relaxed. The kids decided to color themselves with chalk.

We found the first ripe blackberries on our way to breakfast one morning.

I found both girls with books.

For our final Friday dinner, we all went up to Outpost and Christina cooked Outpost pizza.

We finished the evening off with chocolate creme pie.

Saturday was the summer celebration. A number of the summer staffers, including Evan, left that evening, so we had to say goodbye after the celebration. We said goodbye to the rest of them the following morning.

David has been busy working on a new climbing trick.

It's pretty crazy to have finished our first summer back at camp. There were so many good things that happened, as well as a lot of hard things. But through it all we saw God at work, and it's an amazing thing to be part of. I'm very much looking forward to a slower pace and getting to see Joshua more though!

Week Six

We took a little break from summer at camp to visit Dad and Mom. The kids had their first swimming lessons.

We returned home in time to head down to Sherwood for the Week in the Forest dance.

We built a house out of cardboard.

We had a picnic on the mini green for staff dinner Friday.

The Family Week

The week of middle school, Sherwood, and AIM camps we had quite the party in the mountains. Emery, Ezra, Solace, and Amari were campers along with some of our friends from FPC Visalia. Jonah and Michelle were cabin leaders for Ezra and Emery, Heather was the nurse in Sherwood, Gayle came up at the beginning of the week to visit Solace and Amari, Dad and Mom stayed in Cedar Lodge for a couple of days to build bunk beds and watch Elias, and Natalie came with Dad and Mom to stay with Heather. Since Evan was on staff and already here, that meant that almost my entire family was up for a lot of the week. It was fun.

Elias spent a lot of time hanging out with us while Dad and Mom worked on bunk beds. It was so fun to have him around.

We had pancakes for breakfast Tuesday morning.

We went down to Sherwood every afternoon to visit, and Elias, Mary, and David got to make their first Sherwood candles.

We made sure to say hi to The Heather Channel in the infirmary.

Mary and Hannah made a vinegar pie at the end of the week.

I made key lime pies for the staff dinner Friday.

Family Camps

We had two weeks of family camp, which gave us some fun opportunities to participate in kid-friendly activities.

The kids enjoyed playing hide and seek with various staff members at meal times.

 

Mary and David loved going to the craft condo during free time.

The Sherwood faire and campfire were also a big hit, both the first week

and the second week. We had a number of friends at the second family camp, and it was fun to get to spend time with them. Mary and David also got to go to kids club this week, which they loved.

I got to make a bunch of fun desserts to encourage the operations staff halfway through the summer.

The three headed kitchen coordinator from the summer of '06 reunited! Christina, Ben, and I co-coordinated the kitchen team in 2006, and we were all at family camp this summer.

It was a fun, but busy, couple of weeks, and it was nice to have Saturday to be at home together and do usual things, like look for new places to climb.

O-Week

On Sunday, the rest of the summer staff arrived and we kicked off orientation week. It was pretty exciting.

The kids loved walking over to the dining hall for meals with Joshua and the staff. Hannah became quite the little hiker.

David held a little cricket at lunch one day. This was especially exciting since we've been enjoying listening to the crickets so much at bedtime.

The kids got to watch the wash cycle.

They also got to watch parts of the lifeguard training.

Wednesday evening we all headed down to Sherwood Forest to help the Sherwood team practice making Sherwood packs.

Joshua trained them how to build a good cooking fire and cook the packs. By the time the rest of us arrived, they had a nice fire with lots of coals going. It was a lot of packs for one fire, but things went smoothly and the Sherwood packs were tasty.

After dinner, we got to roast marshmallows for s'mores. The kids (as well as Joshua and I) are so excited that Evan is on staff this summer.

Thursday morning, the kids and I went to Visalia. We enjoyed lunch with Michelle and her kids, did some grocery shopping, then headed to Dad and Mom's house. It was Dad's birthday, so a particularly nice time to visit. The rest of the family who was around came out Friday for birthday dinner.

 Mom made waffles for breakfast Saturday morning, then we came home to catch up with Joshua and try to relax after a busy but great week.

The Build Up to Summer

We have been preparing for summer since we arrived at the end of November, but things kicked into high gear a couple months ago and are really moving now. I thought it was fun to get a welcome sign on our door like the rest of the summer staff. The staff started arriving this week with the events team coming Wednesday to start training and the coordinators arriving Friday.

We hosted a dinner for everyone on the hill Friday. I made a bunch of sourdough bread for the occasion, as well as some other sides.

 It was fun to have everyone here, and to get to start meeting the summer staff. There's so much energy going into summer. Joshua lead an all-day training for the coordinators today, the final day before O-week and the official start of the summer season.

Anniversary

 Joshua and I celebrated our twelfth anniversary right back where it all started. We had a delicious dinner at home on our anniversary followed by a lunch date the following day. We went to Danny's Pizza Factory for lunch, which is where we went on our first date when we sat outside with Ben and Rachel and listened to Swing Shift. 

Matching Pajamas

Hannah and David both have construction truck pajamas.

 And Mary and Hannah both have strawberry pajamas.