lightening bugs and puppy dogs

We have a new member of our family...Molly Sue!  Joe gave her that new middle name just today...we will see if it sticks :)  Molly is a blood hound/labrador mix we rescued from our local animal shelter.  She is the sweetest thing in the world.  It is amazing how much we love her already, and she seems to know us now as her care givers (or parents, whatever :)  We find ourselves just sitting down on the kitchen floor in the evenings, having Molly lay her head on our lap, watcing her as she sleeps.  *Sigh*   9:30 seems to be her bedtime, and she sleeps all night long until I come down in the morning and she greets me with a stretch and wagging tail.  We are so happy to have her here with us....she fits perfectly!  We look forward to having more adventures with Molly by our side.  Now if only we could get her to walk beside us on a leash!

Boatrides and Ice Cream Sundaes

14 people in a boat for 2 hours= FUN!

For this past Father's day, Joe and I were able to finally participate in the very popular tradition on the Hughes' side of the family, which includes renting a pontoon (sp?) boat for 2 hours and driving around the beautiful Apple Valley Lake.  The whole family is usually there...and it is quite the adventure, let me tell you!  The kids are enthralled (until the very end...lets just say a few kids get the fidgets when confined like that :) and all the men usually get a turn at piloting the boat.  Sun shining off the water, a breeze blowing across our faces, and the occasional splash of water from a buoy being tossed over the side of the boat.  Which is promptly followed by "Caleb!  Where are you?  Please don't touch that!  (sometimes Nathan's curiosity would get the best as well, and the splashes would start all over again)   It is such a blessing to be this close to the family and be able to experience these outings while the kids are still very young. They will be grown before we know it!  Even the babies had life jackets on, which didn't look too comfortable, but they were champs about it, and i think they even fell asleep!  After the magnificent boat ride, we went back to Mt. Vernon for ice cream sundaes at grandma and grandpa's house.  Joe and I ended up staying pretty late, talking with his mom and dad out on the porch.   It was one of those evenings where the bugs weren't out yet, the breeze was blowing just slightly, and the summer air was just right.  Perfect time to relax on the back deck and talk about anything and everything.  *Sigh*  these summer days are going to pass by so quickly.  My goal is to enjoy moments such as these...savoring their sweetness and looking forward to the next.  Thank you, Lord, for boat rides and ice cream sundaes!   

Family Visit

Last weekend my mom and dad, sister and her husband drove out to Ohio for a visit.  It was very fun to see them, and to show them around our new camp and new house.  We stayed up late friday night, talking, laughing, and eating muffins that looked more like cookies :) hehe.  Saturday dawned beautiful, and after a little continental breakfast, we loaded up in the truck and hiked around camp.  We enjoyed lunch in the camp dining hall, and then mom wanted to buy me a flower pot for our back porch, so we all drove to a nearby greenhouse to get some flower arrangements.  When we got back home that evening, the boys fell asleep in the living room watching one of our faves, "Rocket Man" and the girls sipped lemonade on the back porch while talking about life and painting toenails :)  I enjoyed the time so much...although it went by very quickly.  Joe started up the grill about 4:30 and we were eating a scrumptious dinner of grilled pork loin, fresh garden salad and baked potato  in no time at all.  Mom and Dad were so kind to bring out their hutch and beautiful shelf dad made us, which were both stored at their house in Milford.  Now, our house in Marengo is a bit more beautiful with these pieces of furniture.  I look forward to another visit sometime...hopefully this fall maybe?  I love my family very much...and did miss my brother Ben, who couldn't make it out.  Next time!  So, a wonderful weekend with great memories.  Thanks, Lord...for giving us such a loving family!

Munchkins at the zoo

All smiles...nothing but fun today :)

Goin' to the zoo, zoo zoo

The annual Hughes outing to the zoo was last week.  A fun day with the family, that's for sure!  Columbus has a great facility...we visited the lions, tigers and bears.  Plus a few others.  One of our favorite parts of the day was watching the kids experience each of the animals.  The wonder on their faces was so apparent..eyes lighting up, smiles creeping onto their faces, fingers clinging to the fence.  Lydia loved the Kangaroos.  Caleb, the monkeys.  Joshua, the bears and manatees.  Nathan loved the elephants.  Johannah was excited for the ducks.  What a wonderful day.  

All creatures great and small, out God made them all!

A day in the garden

I just got inside from planting a few new plants around the house.  Yesterday, Pam (my mother-in-law) helped me to pick out several perennials from their old house.  We had so much fun walking around the flower beds and picking out which plants to dig up.  She wanted to thin down some beds, so there is not so much to take care of, and invited me to come and gather whatever I wanted.  Talk about a blessing! I feel like I have just gone to a garden center with a gift certificate and come home with a car full of treasures.  It was rather funny when Joe caught sight of how many plants we had dug.  He proceeded to exclaim "I thought you were going to get a few plants.  This is not a few!"  I just smiled and giggled.  Tomorrow, work will not begin until 12:30 for me...I believe will spend the morning in the garden.  Smiling.  And digging...

A beautiful day....

Here are some pictures from Libby and Gabe's wedding (back in May).  We had such a wonderful time getting ready for the big day, and everything went great.  Beautiful weather, lots of laughter, a few tears, and wonderful memories.  It was a bit surreal, I'll admit, to think about my "little sister" getting married.  But she is not so little any more, she is a woman!  Who loves this man tremendously.   And that is a wonderful thing.  

My favorite part of the wedding was definitely the ceremony itself.  Pastor Chris gave an amazing message about love and respect within a marriage.  And as I was watching Gabe and Libby, I knew that these two would strive to do just that.  Love and respect each other, protect and trust one another.  It was a very touching time to even reflect on Joe and I and our marriage.  Do I respect Joe all the time....even if i don't feel "love" from him in certain moments.  Jesus tells me to respect Joe in love, lay my life down and basically 'crucify my flesh'.  Usually i find that if i do that, the outcome of the situation is much improved, as i have trusted in the Lord, versus trying to do it on my own.  

  So thank you Gabe and Libby, for already providing an example of the unfailing love of our Heavenly Father.  I am so happy for these two and the adventure they have begun together.  There is something so sweet about life with a companion, a best friend, a soul mate.  

Graduation

This past weekend we took a trip to indiana to watch my sister libby graduate from college!  It was much fun, and exciting to see her accomplish such a goal!  After a nice meal with all of our family, Joe and I stopped in at Huntington Unv. to see our friends Matt and Laura Bruce.  Laura and I traveled to Spain and studied there together during college.  She was also in my wedding...a good friend!  The weekend was spent playing frisbee golf, eating at the "HUB", hanging out and talking alot, learning how to play settlers of katan (sp?) and laughing ALOT.  It was so refreshing to be with another married couple our age, something we have been missing since here at heartland.  Thank you Lord that you enabled us to stay with them!  Matt and Laura are just so funny, so it is a riot to be around them.  God is taking each of us as a couple on a similar journey right now, so talking about what our heavenly father has been showing us was a common topic of the weekend.  Sad news is that they are probably going to be moving out to the west coast in the very near future to pursue grad school/R.D. position out there.  Well, it is not sad for them...they are very excited about the possibility...and we are excited for them in that way as well.  But is still kind of a bummer that as we reconnect with friends and couples, most of them seem to live far away, or are getting ready to move!  *sigh*  but our friendship will not end just because a little distance is put between us  :)  Good friends seem to be one of the best blessings you can give us, Lord!

The.Ram.

It's friday night, and I am sitting here writing while joseph is in the maintenance garage here at camp working on "the truck".  I am starting to understand what it means for a man to have a truck.  It is an amazing thing...he loves to tinker and fix that thing up.  My eyes are opening to a new world...new things that we can do, now that God has provided us with a truck!  So yes, the dodge is growing on me as well.  Muddy roads that used to make us leary to drive through now don't even make us think twice, as long as we are in the dodge.  Have some wood or large rocks that need to be moved?  We have a truck!  Hmm, well, now we can help family or friends move.  We can pull a trailer.  We can haul our bikes any where (without a bike rack) .  And i can throw my muddy rubber boots in back, and it doesn't even matter!  We have decided to use the truck as a work truck while at camp.  Joe can carry all of his tools in the back, which is very handy.  And while we are building so much around here, an extra truck is welcome.  *sigh*  so I guess its ok to have a truck.  Although, joe keeps threatening to put to large smoke stacks on the back, to fit in to the local fleet of pickups running around Morrow county.  I just grin and roll my eyes...he will never do it.  But he did re-install the hood ornament that had managed to fall off before he bought the truck...the dodge would not be complete without it!   So as a wife, I am learning what a special machine a truck can be, especially to my husband.  A man and his truck...now all we need is a puppy dog to jump in the back!

Ahhh, another windy ohio day!  It was mulching day for those of us in Outdoor Ed...fun stuff.  Hard work, but alas, we need the mulch for our projects!   As we were stepping out of the trailer to head off to work (in the 1986 Dodge Ram, might i add!) I noticed a large semi-trailer coming into camp.  That's funny, i wondered.  Well, that little truck had a load of mulch, just for us!  It was a little overwhelming viewing the large pile of chopped trees looming before us...but after a hard days work, we made much progress!  The ground is drying out now, after all of the snow and rain, and work is a bit easier.  

Joe and I are making meatballs tonight...one of his favorites!  And at 7:00 we have bible study with fellow friends and staff members here at camp.  This had become a one of our favorite times during the week.  God has been teaching us some great things about himself, and his word while we gather with fellow believers.  Usually we gather in the lobby of camp, where there are sofas, a fireplace (ok, its a gas fireplace, but still...) and a comfy feel.  We would host..but, ah, well lets just say we don't have enough room, hehe.  

This past weekend we traveled home to my parents house in Milford, IN.  It was a fun weekend, spent hanging out with the family.  Libby had a bridal shower on saturday, so Mom and I drove down to Anderson, IN to celebrate with the women of the church Libby and her fiance Gabe will be attending.  Gabe is a currently a youth pastor there, and Libby has befriended many people from the church already!  We had a wonderful time...and were reminded that there is only 46 days until their wedding!   Time flies...but we are very excited.  I think their wedding is going to be so much fun, very beautiful, and such a reflection of the love of the Lord.  

We took a trip to our storage unit yesterday and found the tikki torches we had been saving for some random day...so Joe brought them home and they now reside on either side of our concrete patio.  You could say that we a slightly excited about warmer weather and campground cookouts.  Joe says he is going to "grill-out" every night.  :)  The boys next door think this is a great idea and are all planning on what kinds of meat they will bring to the BBQ.  Problem: we don't have a grill.  But....we hope to find one this spring so we can hold up our end of the bargain.

The bikes came out of storage, too.  With such a large camp, bikes will be an essential tool of life.  I love riding my bike.  Oh!  The meatballs are done...i must go an finish the rest of dinner.  Joe is making a new recipe, which i can't look at until he is done preparing the masterpiece!  I think it has potatoes and peas in it.  yum...we shall see what the outcome is. 

Now in Ohio

Sorry to anyone (Liz Stambaugh) who has been faithfully looking at our site and are sadly disappointed every time.

Well Katie and I have resolved to keep up dating our site so that people can keep up on our  lives and see what God is doing next and what the next adventure He is taking us on.

The current adventure God has led us on is to Ohio to work at a camp call Heartland Conference and Retreat Center (www.heartlandretreat.com Check it out!).  We are helping start an outdoor environmental school which is similar to what we did in Michigan.

God has taught us a lot and taken us through a lot since we moved in November.  One thing God has been teaching us is to be thankful for how blessed we are and that we should not put stock on earthly treasure.   One way he has taught us this is by making us move all our stuff and making us realize how much STUFF we have and how we don't need it all and how materialistic we have been.  He also has humbled us by moving us to Morrow county and provided a trailer for is to live in. (for those of you who live near Morrow county you know what I mean.)  

Here is a picture of our lovely camper trailer and be sure to check out the camp web site.  

Keep checking back for more updates on our life and what God is doing.  I (Joe) am also working on starting my own site which will be an online journal for me to write thoughts, rants, vent, spiritual  insights, etc...  So look forward to that coming soon.

  

Back in Michigan

Well, Joe and I have found ourselves back in Michigan by this time...and boy it has been a while since we have blogged anything. Sorry! We are working on retrieving many of our pictures... much to our dismay, our external hardrive has been scratched, and is no longer accessable. We are hoping it send it away to a retrieval service to get back our some 3,000 pics from the summer :( Bummer, we know. But we did save pics elsewhere, so i will have to get those on here. The evacutaion from Clydehurst was such a crazy time...forest fires can be so hazardous and quick. They rushed us out of our beloved valley on August12th....we only went back once to camp to clean up and get the rest of our personal belongings. Smoke hung in the air...the Hicks park fire was only about 10 miles away! Sleeping at the fair grounds, at Emily's house....taking shelter in the Civic Center of Big timber...it was all very surreal. Joe even got to live out an adventure, as he was asked to go back into camp the night we were evacuated to retrieve our horses from camp, so they would not be harmed in the fire, should it get that close to camp. Boy was he a happy camper! Rescue!!! So we belive all is well with camp...we haven't hear otherwise. A great trip back to Michigan helped relieve anxieties about leaving early. We stayed with good friends Michael and Liz in Kansas City, and then with Derek and Sam in Iowa city. So much fun at each house!!! We are so blessed to have good friends, for sure. Well, it is late, and I must get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow we are doing High Ropes with our staff here at Michindoh...yesssss!

Goodbyes...

Well, today is the day my friend Jana Lynn leaves for Georgia. She has been my bestest friend in the kitchen ! But school starts soon for her, and she must go! It is making me realize how short our time is here in this beautiful place. We took pictures in the kitchen to commemorate our last day together. Wearing our homade aprons and picking out the craziest utensils from the kitchen, we posed for a pic. Funny stuff!
Well, this past weekend, we actually made it up the mountain at Blue Lake...talk about amazing. The off-road trip up the mountain was an adventure all in itself! We piled into the matress-clad back of 4 camp pickups and drove about 2 hours up the mountain. These roads were 'primative', and so not maintained. This equals many boulders, mudholes, divits...you name it! And so we would rev up the engine, and fly through! I guess it is tradition to stand up behind the cab, hold on to whatever you can, and scream your way through the mud holes and everything else...needless to say we were covered in dust and mud! But it was a blast. Except for the part when Old Blue broke down on us b/c too much water in something-or-other parts of the truck. So we got out, split our selves up between the other pickups, and took off! We ate lunch at Solomon city, and abandoned mine city waaay up in the mountains. Broken down buildings and shacks scatter the landscape..very interesting. 8 more miles and we were at Blue Lake...just beautiful. We didn't want to waste any time, so we hopped out onto the rocky ground, cinched up our packs, and headed up the steep mountainside. Mounument loomed before us...i actually couldn't believe the feat we were about to tackle. Within the first few moments, my lungs started to hurt...oh no..not a good sign! Well, we were at about 10, 000 ft above sea level...of course the burn is going to happen!! Slow and steady, we crept up that mountain face. There were some meadows along the way, which were actually full of flowers and grass. The high elevation parts of these mountains are actually in their late spring/early summer season. After about 1 hour, we finally reached the top of the mountain. 10, 995 ft. But Greg says with our heads we hit about 11,000 :) Being up on the top feels like no other thing in the world....all i could do was just sit in awe. And praise the Lord for making that creation! We could see for miles and miles...just more mountains! We even caught sight of the tallest point in Montana, about 15,000 ft. There was a book to sign, saying that you had been to the top. I guess Joe can now check off one thing on his "life's to -do list": climb a mountain. We will try to post pics soon...although they don't do justice!

Stefan

This is our good friend and co-worker Stefan who also hiked to Steeple with me.

Me On Steeple

This is proof that I actually made it to Steeple...it is an incredible experience!!!

On the Way to Steeple

This a another view awesome view on the way up to steeple.

Steeple

This is and amazing view from the top of Steeple. For those of you who have never been to Clydehurst and don't know what Steeple is...It is a really hard hike to a rock that is at the top of the mountian right above camp. It is pretty amazing to be up there!!

The Family

So we hiked up to Trinity falls while everyone was here...and took this great picture. Ben was quite the acrobat, as he had to balance the camera on a rock, hit the timer, run across a few boulders, and then jump into the picture. We had a wonderful time...especially dad!! Lets just say he was brave enough to jump into that freezing water! Mom did very well, as we had to cross the river twice, over 2 logs and everything...she was a trooper!!

Sun Set

Here is one of the many beautiful sun sets that we get to enjoy on a regular basis here at Clydehurst. We can't actually see the sun set because the mountains are in the way but we do get to see the beautiful effects of it.