CBH 2013

How in the world do you condense 500 something pictures and three AMAZING weeks into a blog post?  Painfully, that's how.  At least there is facebook where I can share hundreds of photos instantly but I still love to document things here also.  I made myself go through the pictures I took and pick out my top 13 favorites...it was hard to do, but here they are.  And there were SO many more that I agonized over but left out for simplicities and times sake.  It was one of my favorite years all around and I am crashing hard from being gone from there...a part of my soul and heart stayed back and readjustment isn't happening smoothly.  It is nice to have privacy and space and cleanliness back though...

The guys from our class...they got MASTER CAMPERS!!!  Woo Hoo!

Nerd Day--Epic

My 35th Birthday cake from my girls and niece

Our traditional family picture on 2nd Sunday

Levi and Ezra in Gramme's car, headed to the cabin for Levi's first official sleepover!  And he did great...minus the black eye from jumping on the bed. lol

Twins day...loved our outfits...my kids and hubby looked great too!  They won in their category and each got $5 Trading Post cards...a big highlight for them!

Our class meeting at Dan's Place

Me and Mini Falls--this hike was pretty much life threatening.  I was very proud that no one suffered a head injury while on this hike.

Playing Go Fish next to Eloy's Meadow, my favorite vista at camp.

Shawn got a shot of the full moon while we were at the cabin...beautiful

Love this picture of Shawn hiking...wish I had one of me too...guess I could photoshop myself in...but it's not the same. lol

Father/Son bonding while roasting marshmallows

Our family...love love love!

11 years

Eleven years ago, in 2003 Shawn and I took our 1st youth group to Camp Blue Haven.  We fell in love and we never looked back.  It's been just about the only non-negotiable in every job he's gotten.  We plan our babies births around camp.  We plan our job locations around camp.  We plan our year around camp's schedule.  We love this place and believe so strongly in what it is doing in the hearts of young people...and to be truthful, what it does to our hearts year after year.  These pictures were from our 2nd year, when Elle was 3 months old.  What an adventure we've been on.  We've brought all of our children from the time they were born.  It's been hard, but it's been well worth the work involved.  Our kids get two weeks in the mountains every single year; a break from this harsh world...and so do we.  This is the last year we will have all three kids in our tiny room with us.  Next year, Elle will be old enough to camp and I can hardly contain myself from starting to packing her now, I'm that excited. (not for the extra room, but for her to experience camp as a camper!)  Anyway, we leave in the morning for year #11.  Elle said tonight that it's more exciting than Christmas Eve...and I agree.  Camp Blue Haven does so much more than Christmas...we aren't just investing in a fun time; we are investing in our childrens' souls and those we are privileged to teach.  I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be tomorrow, than on the road headed west!

 

Finally a 4th

We rarely have been able to celebrate a 4th of July in the 10 years we've been going to Camp Blue Haven, but sometimes, 4th session hasn't begun until after then.  This year was one of those.  I decided that I wanted to make the whole day special. Enjoy the pics I took yesterday and I hope your 4th was as festive as ours!

We started by making homemade lemonade.  The girls loved the juicing process!

 

Now that's true lemonade...straight from the lemon shell!

 

Then I read the kids some books I had picked out at the library, all about America.

One of the books talks about cherry pies so we made mini cherry pies....nothing more American than that...except maybe apple pie.

 We also pulled out the Perler beads and made all kinds of creations.  Those things are so much fun to do!

After that, it was time for lunch and time to try out our homemade lemonade.  It truly was just right!

 

We also had shrimp boil kabobs....they are delicious and pretty easy to make!

 After naptime, we headed to our friend Craig's house for a good ol' 4th of July celebration.

 

I made watermelon cookies and they were perfect for little hands to help with.  I put the icing on and they added the "seeds."