Vaca in the Pines

As soon as camp was over, we headed a few minutes into the canyon for a stay at the Montandon Mountain Mansion.  For the last three years, this place has been our buffer between camp and going back into the real world.  It gives us a week of peace and quiet.  Except not.  This year was Loud. and Rowdy.  Our kids spent most of the time wrestling on the pull out couch in the main room or fighting loudly over who's turn it was to hold the poor lizard that wasn't fast enough to get away.  We still had a good week, but it definitely wasn't relaxing except for between the hours of 9:30 pm and 7:30 am.

We started with what has become a tradition of making S'mores around the campfire at camp with all the cousins.

We also got to bring a friend's four wheeler to her and Levi and Shawn drove it at night.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and took our traditional photo in front of Hermits, on our way to Santa Fe. 

After eating a delicious brunch at Harry's Roadhouse, we did some needed shopping and then headed to the square.  It took us about 2 1/2 minutes to walk the area where all the people sell jewelry. 

We did get off the beaten path just a bit and found a fun photo op.

Loved the set-up of this "shop"

After returning home, the Uno cards came out.  We played at least 49 games of Uno while at the cabin.  It's all fun and games till Levi gets involved.  Although he is fully capable of playing, there's a lot of directing.

Every evening as the sun was going down, we put in a DVD and gave the kids some kind of treat, whether it was icecream, popcorn, or cupcakes.  This was everyone's favorite time!

And I worked puzzles.  On this night I completed a 998 piece puzzle in about four hours....Yes, two pieces missing.  UUGGHHH!

We also took some hikes and had picnics out in nature.

They loved wading in the water, even though it was cold!

After hiking, we came back to the cabin only to realize we had left the keys to the cabin locked in the cabin.  Oops....thankgoodness I had left some windows open and we were able to pop a screen off and send Levi through!

Ava couldn't help herself.  She had to make a to-do list for one of our days.  She couldn't find paper so she wrote on a bowl.

This is what a lot of our hikes looked like.  One was dragging the other.  This was a very steep hill so I'm sure it really was hard for shortie.

We went to a cave not far from our cabin and it was FREAKY!  It had a tiny opening you had to lay down on the ground to go through and then it opened into a large space.

This was the cave entrance and was not in my comfort zone at all.

Us acting like bears outside the cave.

On our last day there, we took some of the cousins on a hike.  We stopped at one point and the two artists pulled out their paper and markers and started drawing what they saw.

This is the image I've always had in my head of what a little boy does for his mommy.  Roots and all.

On the last evening, we actually had a hail storm.  Lots of thunder and lots of hail.  It was awesome.

 This is what our car looks like on the way home.  It's a long drive, and it was so wonderful to be back home in our own house.  What a great three weeks!

CBH Year #12

Early Saturday morning, July 5th, we met with the youth group at the church building for another pilgrimage to Camp Blue Haven.  This year our oldest was riding the church van.  It was weird to send her with someone else!

After about 12 hours of driving, we arrived in Las Vegas.  Sunday morning we headed into camp and got registered.  This year was just so surreal for Shawn and me.  We've been going for 11 years and this year, we actually got to go through the whole process of camp from a campers perspective.  I can't even explain how excited we were to watch Elle experience all of these things we love.  Sunday night always starts with silly songs and crazy costumes.

Elle was part of the 5th-6th grade class and her teachers were Karen and Carlene, who have been teaching for over 20 years at 4th session!

On Super Hero day I made up my own superhero; The Green Gringo.  I have always wanted to dress in all green and this dress up day gave me the chance.

Green knitted cape and all.

Here's a picture of Elle's cabin with their AMAZING counselor Abby.

Another teacher, Todd, who has also been teaching over 20 years, offered to take my kids fishing for trout while camp was going on.  They were super excited.

After Ava caught yet another fish, Levi ran up to her and gave her a huge congratulatory hug for her catch. 

Then Todd taught my kids how to gut a fish.  As expected, Ava jumped right in a gutted lots of fish. 

Levi was pretty grossed out by it, but managed to pull the guts out of one of them.

He's even good at posing even when he's disgusted.

Elle's cabin after the traditional jumping into the baptistry.

Here we are on Patriotic Day.

Here are all the precampers this year....bless Mrs. Toni's heart and all her helpers!

Here's the 2014 teachers.  Many have been teaching 15+ years during this session.

Me and my honey

Ezra and Levi on Jungle Day.

I like to go a bit over the top with costumes.  I picked four animal prints for jungle day.

Twin's Day with Lindsey.  We went as camp nurses and our nametags read "Nurse Tough-It-Out" and "Nurse Walk-It-Off."

We weren't givin' no slack.  Our hats were awesome.  Lindsey's husband made our nurse hats out of duct tape and even meticulously cut out red trees to look like a cross between the CBH logo and the Red Cross logo.

Elle and Riley went as hikers that got caught up in some poison ivy.

Josey and Ava went as little French girls.

Here's our class we taught.

The banquet theme this year was "Pirates." 

Thursday, we worked on getting all nonessentials packed up since we were moving out on Friday morning.  Unfortunately, I packed up my rain poncho so when it was time for closing campfire (which became closing barn because of the rain) I had to improvise with trashbags.  Didn't need my poncho one time...till it was packed and out of reach.

It was another wonderful year at camp and watching my daughter experience her first year camping, was icing on the cake!