Pick it up

One or two nights a week, we have found ourselves gathering with fellow mid-westerners here at camp to play the beloved game of Euchre! It is quite interesting, as staff who are originally from the west really have no idea how to play the game, and some have never even heard of it! But we have 5 people on staff from Ohio (wow!) so that makes a few teams for playing. Plus, we recently taught Laura and Curtis how to play and they have caught on very quickly. We played together just the other night...Joe and I were playing well and won 2 games :) He claims I am getting better...whew! We usually find a spot up in the dinning hall at night, where many of the family campers gather to play games, munch on snacks, and just hang out. However, if we want to be in a quieter place for the game, we hike on down to the "Children's Chapel" and set up. We have so much fun, fellowshipping and playing cards at the same time. Probably one of the most enjoyable evenings of the week for us! (well, ahem, besides when we fish, of course!)

Hose Head and more..

The Splash Ball...
Lindsay, Katie, Joe (getting wet!), Shelby, Bethany, Anna (behind)
Megan versus Anna
Tatum looking a bit odd...

Another night of fun! We put on a game night for our crew kids and played splash ball as well as hose head. I am pretty sure I learned about hose head from my camp adventure days :) and splash ball was new this year here at Clydehurst. Hose head is just a hilarious game, as your face gets smashed and distorted from the panty hose on your head. And then if you struggle with coordination at all, it is magnified when the two players try and swing the ball around in the air and twist it up with each other. Wow. I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time...we had so much fun together! It is always refreshing to hang out with the kids outside of work time. We played a huge game of mafia later on in the evening, which brought back many memories of Huntington, as we played that game all the time my freshman year! Good times, for sure.

You've gotta friend in me...

We took the crew to natural bridge a few nights ago for a fun outing. We climbed all around the rocks and just had fun together. Joe taught a few how to fish. We have certainly enjoyed doing special things with the kids amidst the hard work each day. It is hard to believe we have less than 3 weeks left with them. We have seen life changing progress in many of their lives, which is just so amazing to witness and be a part of. Praise the Lord!!!

Self Defense Course

A few weeks ago, one of my girls, Vickie, asked if her brother would be able to come up to camp and give a self defense course to the rest of the girls. We had a blast, learning different techniques and practicing on each other. Here we are, posing in what we thought the best defensible position we knew how. Wow. Silly girls :) But we had fun!!

Change Over Weekend

Two weekends ago, all of camp worked very hard to make the turn around from kids camp into family camp. A tradition for the crew boys is to load up all of the unused bunk mattresses and haul them up to the barn. Of course, they love to use a big truck and then pile on the top! Here is Jake, Peter, Dustin, and Danny waiting for Joe to jump in the truck and take them to the final destination. Despite lots of hard work, seemingly all day long, the boys often find time to make the work fun!!

The 18 incher...

A few weeks ago, Joe headed out for a nice calm evening of fishing on the Boulder, just across the road from camp. Little did he know that he was about to catch the largest trout yet in his career :) He came home and was literally grinning from ear to ear and proudly displayed his catch. Amazing! There were a few other guys around right then who could appreciate and "ohh & ahhh" over his prize, which made him feel all the more like a true Montana fisherman. We were so excited to cook that thing up on the grill, too. Delicious is all I have to say. Nothing beats fresh trout grilled over some glowing coals. Since then, we have had many fishing adventures, as the river is slowly receding and great spots are opening up. *sigh* We love this hobby!

The Games We Play...

During kids camp, the counselors and staff join together to play a game we like to call "Safari Hunt". Here I am with Laura, Lauren, and Hillary before the game begins. We are all "elephants" who squirt kids with our "trunks" aka, water guns! We look a bit intimidating in this picture, but don't worry, we were much more cheerful while squirting everyone :) We had quite the time...there are also other counselors acting as lions, tigers, snakes, monkeys and hippos. I personally also wanted to be a hippo...they got to swim in the pool and the jump out when the kids came close and give "hippos hugs!" haha.

We play many games here at camp, in fact pretty much every night during the kids weeks we are doing a new game. It is so refreshing to watch kids run around and just be kids. No worries, no pressures. Just enjoying life and squealing with delight. Camp in the mountains is somewhat of a "sanctuary", if you will, for the children and adults that come to camp. A safe haven to come to, away from life at home and all that comes with it. I am so thankful to be here and experience the refreshing and refocusing power of living in the wilderness (well, somewhat of a wilderness). We only have 4 weeks left...I am hoping to take advantage of every little thing!

Waiting....

Here are some attempts (and failures!) we have had at capturing the animals in our lives. And right about now, we miss them! But God is good...and we will see them in a very short while. For now, we are here learning teaching and growing. It is very good. But we still miss these guys.

Cat Nap

I took this photo a few weeks ago...couldn't let the cute moment pass. We technically are not supposed to have the "camp kitties" in our cabin, but from time to time, they happen to "wander in". Hmmm, how does it happen? This is a little black kitty who we have taken a liking to (not enough to bring home, though :) Her camp names are Bertha, Soul, and Oatmeal. There are probably others floating around out there as well. She has a little white patch under her chin. During family cat, these kitties are chase around all day by little kids who "just want to play" hehehe. Poor cats! We caught one little boy throwing rocks at the cats..yikes. They have found refuge under our cabin...which makes for an interesting site, when children begin to crawl underneath, or bang on our cabin walls, hoping the kittens will run out and into their arms. Oh my. Most of the cats are adopted at the end of the summer and go home with campers and staff. Hopefully they are mentally sane (the cats, that is!) and will make good pets. :) For now, I just miss Molly and Al back at home. In fact, i think I will post some pictures I have of them, in their honor. Soon, my pets, soon we will be home!! :) haha.

Fishing @ Natural Bridge

This week on our night off, we decided to take our first fishing trip of the season. The river has been so high lately, and fishing just hasn't been the greatest. But we heard there were some descent pools down below the falls at Natural Bridge. So I packed us a little dinner of pb&j, apples, cherries and chexmix and we took off in the Subaru for the falls. It was quite the trek to get down to the bottom, as we practically slide in the dirt most of the way. A thunderstorm popped up as soon as we got there, but Joe found a little overcropping of rock to sit under and eat dinner while it passed. The fishing was pretty good, and we caught about 8 all together. I must take some bragging rights and say that I caught the biggest trout and we kept it to grill later on . Woohoo! Fly fishing is just one of the best sports, i think. Joe and I both agree that once you start, it is hard to go back to any other kind of fishing. Especially since we have fished on a river like the Boulder. We look forward to more fishing trips this summer!!!

Take me out to the Ball Game...

My first semi-professional baseball game! On the 4th of July, Clydehurst staff took an outing to Billings to see the Mustangs play a game versus the Bozeman Ospreys. What a beautiful day to see a ball game. The Mustangs are a field team for the Reds, so it was interesting to watch and wonder who would be the next pick of the season! Unfortunately, the Mustangs lost, but the experience was great. We did the "7th Inning Stretch" and everything. Joe even bought us peanuts and cracker jacks just to complete the experience! :) There was a little girl sitting in front of us, waving that huge hand like crazy.. i thought it was cute. After the game, we made a stop at a huge carnival in town to grab a bit to eat and then it was off to Walmart for a supply run. When you live in the middle of no where, you begin to realize just how important these supply runs can be :) I splurged and bought red ripe cherries and peaches to take back to camp. I miss eating them!!! That night we saw a fireworks show in Billings that was probably one of the best we have seen. Plus we were in the good company of friends Laura & Curtis and Liz & Michael...much fun! It was a late night getting back to camp though. I was in the 15 passenger van with Joe, who was driving. We bought some ice to chomp on throughout the drive home to keep us awake and watch for elk and deer by the road. We pulled into camp around 1:50 a.m. Sunday morning. Oh my...talk about late. But we all agreed that it was worth it!

Big Timber Bowling

We took our crew kids out for a fun night of bowling in Big Timber last week. Despite being plagued with a flat tire on the way to the outing, we all had a fun time together. Joe came to the rescue, along with several other guys, and fixed the tire in no time flat. Haha. No pun intended. Anyways... These are a few of my girls whom I am in charge of, Shelby, Tatum, and Bethany. Sweet girls and I am so blessed to know them!

Meat Rack Hike

Last week, Michael and Liz came up to camp on our night off (Wednesday) and took us on a challenging but well worth it hike. We started on the trail at 5:30 pm and didn't get back to the car till 10:00!! Joe was quite excited, he got to use his head lamp. This is a picture of the destination of the hike... the "meatrack" meadows up in the mountains. Following a steep, climbing trail (that we hard core hiked up) we ended up at this beautiful opening, where the mountain tops open up, the river runs wide, and Native Americans used to dry meat here in the valley. Very cool. Perfect area for moose and bear. We found FRESH evidence of bears...very cool, yet kinda eerie :) After dinner at the top, we practically ran back down the mountain, to beat the lowering sun. Round trip, 9.5 miles (approx.) Whew. It was amazing...lets do that again!

Cow Saddlin'

This is the big event of the rodeo for Clydehurst staff. The guys started talking about the "Cow Teams" before the summer even began :) We had two teams in the contest this year. Object: Saddle a year old cow and ride it around a barrel. Seems easy, right?? Well, lets just say these guys were pretty exhausted after running around with this little lady. They got her saddled and then she wouldn't budge!! They tried pulling, pushing, kicking...oh my. I must confess, admidst the yelling and cheering, i was laughing pretty hard! But they guys did very well...and were all in one piece at the end!

The Rodeo!

Here are some pictures from last weekend at the Big Timber Rodeo. It was so much fun to be back at this popular western event, mingling with the "locals" if you will, trying not to stick out like a sore thumb, too much. There was excitement everywhere and we loved it. My favorite part was the "Mutton Busters". This part consisted of 4-7 yr. olds who would ride as long as they could on the back of the rams & sheep. Oh my, how cute!