Memories Old and New

I have written before of my love for camp. Don't confuse this with "camping", as in sleeping in a tent or trailer, cooking outside, and roughing it. I'm talking about church camp, where I went every summer from 3rd grade through high school. Then I was privileged to be a counselor when I was a teacher and had summers free. Then I sent my kids, and now my grandkids.

At our beautiful campground here in Colorado, I spent many years going to missions retreats in October, when it was the most beautiful time of the year up there. It was always hard to head back down that mountain into the valley and "real life" after so much inspiration.

This past week-end was a true mountain-top experience for DC and me as we spent the week-end at Family Camp with my sister and her husband. (Don't you love the hair??)




We really needed a getaway, and didn't know until the last few minutes if it was going to work out or not. But about 4:30 Friday afternoon, we headed down the highway, hoping that we didn't get into too much of a traffic jam with the masses heading for Labor Day fun.

We were not even 15 miles from home, thankfully in the right lane (DC is a very even-tempered, non-competitive driver and doesn't change lanes often). Suddenly the left lane exploded into a disaster - at least 5 cars crashed into each other's trunks, with burning rubber pungent in the air and tires screeching. It was horrific, but we were going fast enough that we have no idea what carnage ended up destroying those families' holiday week-end. We thanked God for protection and continued on our way.

We had no problem getting through Denver, but close to Colorado Springs, the highway narrows into two lanes, and we did maybe 30 mph for an hour until the third lane resumed. In the meantime, it was getting closer and closer to the time of the first chapel service. One of the main reasons we wanted to go was because the speaker is probably our favorite preacher we've ever heard - and believe me, that's saying a lot for two p.k.'s like us!

We arrived at 8:00, one half hour late for the beginning of the service, just in time to hear the end of his introduction of himself to the audience. It is without a doubt that we were there for a reason, because every message, every song were just what we needed. (This is the view we used to see as we sat in chapel services - now they have turned it around so that this view is to your back - probably for a very good reason! Who could concentrate when you could see this??)





There were many young families, large families, diverse families and it was fun to watch them having fun. The four of us went there with one agenda - do nothing but relax, read, walk, rest. And that's what we did. There were so many activities available, but we availed ourselves of only one - the two guys played horseshoes for the first time in a very long time. See the horseshoe at the top of the picture? I love this shot - especially since DC is playing left handed, and he does everything else with his right.





They came very close to winning - lost by 1 point actually. This is our esteemed speaker who was a terrific sport and ended up playing the rest of the afternoon - he was surprised to keep winning.




The accommodations are definitely not 5 star - it IS a camp, after all. The mattress was about six inches of foam on a plywood base - it is somewhat akin to sleeping on the floor. My back just about did me in. But everything else was wonderful.

I'll bet you can't guess what I'm doing here!!




The aspens were starting to change already.





The mornings are so serene - with tiny wisps of cloud --




In the afternoons, the clouds tend to build up. We didn't have any rain, though.







We did a lot of walking around the awesome property --












There were many beautiful areas of wild flowers - these looked like miniature snapdragons to me.








Next summer we're going to have a family reunion in this beautiful facility.

Saturday afternoon the four of us took a little side trip over to Victor, Colorado - a former mining town. It was originally designed to accommodate 50,000 people. Now there is a permanent population of approximately 500. We enjoyed their annual art show at the historic, very old, Elks Hall. If you look one direction, you see the leavings of the mining - not a pretty sight.

The other direction was as lovely as the view from the campground. The buildings were built very artistically, and it appears that the town is working very hard to restore them to their original beauty. Most of them had the year 1899 displayed somewhere.








These old mining carts filled with wild flowers were all over the sidewalks.

The night sky was so amazing - it has been a long time since I've been so close to the stars, and had such darkness to see them so well. This came from a devotional book that I read on Sunday morning:

"When the sun set at the end of Adam's first day, did he know it would rise again? Lying wide-eyed on Eden's grassy carpet, did he stare into the twinkling void, stunned by the glory above? Did he invent song to express the wonder of being alive in such a world? I see Adam, in Charles Wesley's words, 'lost in wonder, love, and praise.'

"David must have spent some nights considering the heavens. Could the God of such vast beauty be mindful of one lowly person, let alone care for her or him? The scale of God's concern beggars comparison." (Duane Brush)

Psalm 8:

³ When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

⁵ You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

Summertime and the Livin' is Easy????

So does anybody's life resemble this song? Or the one by Nat King Cole - "Lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer"? I feel lazy, but that doesn't mean I can take it easy. Fortunately, I live in a dry climate, so the days aren't hazy. Crazy is the only word in this song that really applies to my life. As I said on Facebook recently (with apologies to those who have already read this), in the math of summer, 2x2 is exponentially much more than 4!

My other slogan for the summer is "terrible twos times two!" They are absolutely adorable, and are so much fun, but they are definitely more of a handful than they were last summer. Kate and Emma went to the doctor recently and they are in perfect health - weighing 22 and 23 pounds. It seems that either Emma is catching up with her sissie, or that Kate has slowed down a bit - don't know which. They are still conversing in their own little language, but they are letting us in on their conversations more often now. That part makes it easier, for sure. The doctor no longer mentioned speech therapy - thankfully. These little rascals don't believe in napping, at least at my house. In fact, their favorite two mini sentences are "No Nap" and "No Nigh-Night." (They do end up sleeping at home after they go home around 2:00 - lucky Kristen!) I do enforce a bit of quiet time, for my sanity, and this is how they occupied themselves the other day --

"Shhhhh - don't tell Grandpa!"

"Emma did it, Grandma!"

Grandpa took it much better than I expected - it took him 1.5 hours to put his files back together. We put Emma's bed in front of the file drawer (which has no lock, unfortunately), but somehow she managed to do it again yesterday, not quite so much. Grandpa wasn't so blase about it this time! After he put the files back together again, he put the kabosh on any further shenanigans in those drawers!

And he's looking ahead to the day they learn to climb out by themselves and help themselves to the other drawers --

Do they ever love being outside! And Grandpa is their best buddy and most fun playmate.

They can discuss anything with him!

Playing nigh-night is much more fun than the real thing.

Playing with a floatie is just as much fun on grass as in the pool!




What is she thinking??

The big girls get to go to Bible camp this summer - Care Bear has been already and Feisty will go to a three-day in two weeks. Care Bear chose to go to Camp Itch-ow-ee this year instead of staying in the cabins. Here are the lovely accommodations:




We picked up the kids at the end of the week - I have to say, I wasn't favorably impressed when we went down to have a look before we went back home. Care Bear, on the other hand, loved every minute - she called it "Home Sweet Home!" They sleep in the tee-pees, use porta-potties, no showers, meals outside on picnic tables (not in pristine condition!), and all of their chapels and fun times around the campfire. The only reason they go across the road to the rest of the camp is for swimming, archery, and all the other recreational activities. Little bitty Care Bear was the smallest in the group, from what I could tell. When we got there, this is the condition we found her in:



Turns out she went horseback riding and came in contact with a tree branch. I never did get a good explanation for how it happened and nobody else was hit. It could have been so much worse - we are so thankful for the angel that was on the back of that horse with her and kept her from falling off! Her glasses went flying, and thankfully somebody found them before a horse stepped on them. She says she didn't even cry. That was the "owie" part of the week --

Here's the "itchie" part --



The day after she got home, she went swimming and the scabs came off. She had me take a picture so she could send it to her two favorite counselors, along with letters and drawings.

Well, I hope this one publishes okay - it's the second time I've written it. It was a good day for a re-write - it's a gray, rainy day.

A-Camping We Will Go!

The title does not mean the kind of camping that was described in one of the best pieces of writing I've read in a long time - by my good friend Robin. Check it out for a good chuckle or two. I agree with Becky, that you couldn't pay me enough to do that kind of camping!

But going to camp - now that's a different story entirely. I love Bible camp. Camp has been a part of my life since I was a little girl. The memories just poured in this morning when Care Bear left for her first camp experience. She's only going into second grade, but we have a mini camp for kids that young. She was so excited all week, and up until the moment everyone started arriving. I wanted to take a picture of her with her suitcase and sleeping bag. Then she suddenly felt like this:

I finally got her to pose with the luggage in the back of the van. The green sleeping bag you see went to camp with both Kristen and Kevin, as well as her half brother, Anthony, a couple of years ago. It could tell lots of stories!

The report later in the day is that the four little girls are settled in the same cabin and doing fine - I can only imagine the amount of giggling ahead!

One reason this was so nostalgic was that when Kristen was 6, they had this same kind of camp - I took a carload of 6 first graders to camp, and got to stay for the 3 days and enjoy the beauty of that spot in the mountains. I also helped out in the kitchen and even enjoyed that.

When I was single, when I was teaching and had summers off, I spent two summers counseling at that same camp. Such good memories. Such a beautiful place. Summer camp is a place that kids get close to nature and close to God. It is where many children commit their lives to Jesus.

But my memories go way back - to when I was younger than Care Bear. Mom and Dad moved our family to a little place in Arkansas - on the grounds of Trails End Bible Camp. They worked with Child Evangelism Fellowship and we spent our days visiting little country schools, telling Bible stories, singing songs (a trio, my sister, brother, and me, aged 4, 3, and 2 - see next picture). Can you believe that was allowed?? What good days those were in that respect. The children earned their way to camp by learning scripture verses. The camp was rustic, but all I remember is the fun of being around those big kids as they came each week.




I began going as a camper when I was in third grade. I went every year through high school, and then worked at camp the summer before college. We didn't have much money in those days, so in our family we earned our way to camp by working in the school cafeteria.

I have gone back to camp in my mind today - the new friends, the games, the crafts, the times of study, the week-long romances (which never happened for me!), the evening campfires with crazy skits, inspiring singing, challenging messages; the final banquet - the spiritual growth.

Lining up for chow.

The old swimming hole.



Cheering for the team --



The winning team --




The goofy gang - can you tell which one is me? I thought I was overweight in those days - oh, my, how I wish I was fat like that again!

One year my sister and I ended up working in the kitchen (are you sensing a pattern here?) We had to get up way before anyone else to get breakfast going. We had to hurriedly clean our rooms (there was inspection every day!), then head for the dining hall. We worked very hard, but had so much fun. The next year we worked at children's camp so that we didn't have to work at our own. Two weeks of fun! Here are the two guys on our crew - really fun guys.



I am so glad I have such rich memories. Camp continues to impact the lives of so many young people. The camp where Care Bear is this week recruits college students to work as staff every summer. They not only earn a scholarship for school the next year, but they make life long friends - and my nephew met his wife there and they were married there on the grounds of the camp 5 years ago. It is where Dan was last year when he woke up in heaven - and now a chapel is being built and named for him, dedicated to his memory.