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!

Learning in Laundry...

So, I have learned what happens when too much soap goes into a high efficiency washer with only a few pieces of laundry in it...Lets just say that I am thankful for towels and helping hands! Last week was just not my week in Laundry. First, I washed a sleeping bag and sheet that someone had gotten sick on (eww, right?) I wasn't thinking, and put the white sheet into the same washer as the RED sleeping bag. With warm water. You all can guess what happened :) Well, to try and fix that mistake, the girls and I took some spray and wash to the sheet to try and undo the "Dye Transfer", per instructions of a laundry manual. Well, this sheet ended up with ALOT of spray and wash on it (the thing was practically all pink) so I put it in the washer, by itself. As well as some laundry detergent to get it clean. Half an hour later, we couldn't even see the sheet in the front loading washer, due to the mountain of suds filling the machine. Oh man. Trying to think quick, I put the cycle to Rinse and Spin, hoping that will dilute the suds, and rinse it clean. Hmmm, that didn't work. Ok, well mabye I can just open up the washer and scoop out some suds to help it along. Thinking they were fluffy, light suds, i grabbed a laundry basket to catch the growing mass. Turns out that these suds were thick and soupy! As i opened the door, water & suds came pouring out everywhere! I yelped and shut the door quickly, laughing hysterically. Oh goodness, what had I done?? After many buckets and towels later (and the help of one of my girls, Lindsay, who thought this was just hilarious) we cleaned up the soapy mess and restored the laundry room to its original non-sudsy order :) Remember the white-now-pink sheet that was the object of this obsession?? Well, of all things, it came out of the suds still pink! Of course :) So that trial was a bit of a failure. But if anything, I have learned from those few mistakes and now have a bit more laundry skills under my belt. I am glad God has a sense of humor and that He gave that to me as well. *Sigh* Live and learn, as they say, right??

Together

You are my best friend, the one I love. We are on this adventure together. Each day, I try and realize how blessed I am to hold your hand. To call your name and know that you will answer. We walk, hand in hand, sometimes not knowing where we are going. But we trust the One we Love. He will show us where to go. We must only follow and know that it is good. We lift our eyes up, where does our help come from? From the maker of heaven and earth. Higher than these mountain peaks, stronger that this rushing river before us. Our God speaks, and we listen!

I am so happy to be here with you, as we learn to love others more than ourselves.

~j&k Trinity Falls, '09

Trinity Falls

Here is my group of high school crew girls on our first hike we did together as a group, Trinity Falls. These are 9 beautiful (both inside and out) young women whom I am so privileged to work alongside for the summer. They are full of joy, spunk, passion and love. It is amazing as I begin to develop a relationship with each, God is revealing bits and pieces of their lives and what has made them into who they are today. All are still figuring out who exactly they will become and what road God is leading them down. They are capable of doing so much (more than they think at times!). And their hearts are so big...what an amazing opportunity, that as I teach them, they are teaching me right back. I saw a quote once, and I loved the humble meaning behind it. It read, "I teach. I learn." I am trying to take on this philosophy for the summer. We are currently taking the girls through the book of Proverbs for our daily bible study. Wisdom is key in that book, and these first few chapters have been full of advice on why wisdom should be sought after, the importance of it, what happens when we ignore wisdom. Whew! I have never really done an in depth study of Proverbs, so this has been really neat. And so many of our girls are at pivotal deciding points in their lives right now, so learning about all of this will hopefully make an impact on how they make decisions about their future.

Well, it will be quite exciting to continue this journey for the summer, trying to listen to God as he directs me in mentoring these girls. We have so much fun together, amidst the hard work, and I am so thankful for that!

An early morning jaunt proved fruitful as we got to see this little cutie! He was jumping all around the other adult bison...very cute! The image above is of a place in the Tetons called Oxbow Bend...a classic photo opportunity! We went here several nights, set up some chairs and watched for wildlife as we sipped coffee. Talk about amazing!

more of the trip..

Michael and Liz, Paul, and Katie standing in front of hidden falls...wonderful friends for our camping trip. The print beside Joe's hand is from a bear, we're thinking maybe a grizzly?? Or maybe just hoping...

Our Teton Adventure

Here we are in one of the most amazing canyons ever...Cascade Canyon in Teton National Park. We camped for 4 days before heading out the rest of the way to Clydehurst last week. Pretty awesome...

The First Day!

So, we arrived here at clydehurst yesterday (Sunday) and were welcomed by a chilly wet afternoon! Actually, to be correct, it was snowing! We were too excited to be let down, though :) After hugs and squeals of excitment (ok, most of the squeals came from Joe... ahem, i mean Katie ) we enjoyed introductions, lunch, and a move in time. Joe and I were happy to find out we were going to stay in the same cabin as 2 years ago!! And this time as we moved in...we weren't quite as shocked to the size (or lack thereof!) It is actually quite endearing to be in Cabin # 32 once more!

And as of now, we have the "first day" under our belts...whew! I am enjoying the high school crew girls...they are such hard workers! And we are blessed to have 5 returners from last year, who are taking initiative and helping to train the newer staff (myself, included!) I have much to learn, but I am willing and ready, which I figure is the best attitude to have. Joe has been leading the crew boys excellently, so far, and I can tell that they are looking up to him already. They were working hard all day, despite the rain and chilly temperatures. It has been quite the switch to come from Ohio with 80 degree weather, to here in the mountains with 39 and rain! But worth it, definitely. In fact, we took a walk this evening and saw a Momma Black bear with 2 cubs out in the meadow field across the river from camp! Talk about amazing...we just stood and watched them roam around. And then...(yup, it gets better!) we kept walking down the road to the "beaver ponds" where one can find moose frequenting the area. Lo and behold, we saw a moose standing not 200 feet from us, watching our every move :) We could hear something else off in the distance and looked up just in time to notice another moose actually running down the road towards us! A car slowly approaching behind it, causing it to run. We quickly ran off the road and hid up on the hill by some big rocks (kinda hilarious-looking, but moose can be dangerous!) He veered off into the pond and up into some willows...talk about exciting. Well, i guess thats life in the mountains, for ya.

We are really excited to see how God will move this summer...please pray that we would daily depend on Jesus for our strength, wisdom, and guidance as we try and not only lead the high schoolers, but also build relationships with the rest of our amazing staff members. This summer will be full of learning opportunities, adventures, failures and successes. It is just so amazing that God would bring us out here once more.

We are working on taking our pictures off our camera from the Teton camping trip and will post those soon. The trip was, well, amazing. One of our favorite places with some of our favorite people.

I will leave you with a verse, one that I am keeping close to my heart this summer!

Katie

The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

On the Road Again....

Well, our journey west has landed us in Rapid City, S.D. for the night. We traveled about 12 hours today (whew!) but kept entertained by praying, reading the Word, listening to “The Shack” on cd, and reading the book “Into the Wild”. We also enjoyed the changing scenery as we trekked westward...rolling hills and plains, cattle and the seemingly never ending road! Last night we stayed with good friends Sam and Derek in Iowa City. We met their new daughter, Maya Hope...she was just born last sunday. Talk about a beautiful baby! It was so much fun visiting with them and seeing them as mom & dad...God has blessed them with another amazing gift! We had a fun time catching up and the visit was all too short! We hope to see them on our way back to Ohio at the end of the summer!

We also made a stop at the iconic Wall Drugstore off of Interstate 90 this evening. Very interesting! You can actually start seeing signs for Wall Drug about 400 miles before arriving there! Fairly comical...but we stopped anyway. You can pretty much find anything “touristy” you can think of in the huge drugstore! After some crazy pics, we headed out to end up in Rapid City. Dinner was had at Bosco’s Gourmet Pizza (tradition we started 2 yrs ago!) and we are excited to head out to Big Timber, MT tomorrow! Liz and Michael will be waiting for us when we arrive, and we will prepare for our Teton adventure! Praise the Lord we have been safe and sound so far....we love traveling together into the west! Thank you to all our friends and family for all your prayers and love! We miss you and love you! Until later.... :)

Wild West!

Soon another Adventure out west will begin (about 10 days to be exact). We are so excited to be traveling out to Montana again to work at Clydehurst Christian Ranch! Before we leave, we have been packing up our house, as we will move out and have our things in a storage unit until we get back. This makes for an interesting few weeks until our departure! But slowly and surely we are perservering through and packing it all up. Sometime I wonder why we have so much stuff...and I am tempted to throw much of it out the window! :) But I will say the goodwill pile is growing by the day....a very good thing. Molly is going to spend the summer with each of our parents, which should be very fun for her and the family (we hope!) Al the cat is going to stay with some friends of ours in their barn (a bit of a change for him, but he loves being outside).

It is still hard to believe we are going out west again for a new adventure. Our fishing poles will be packed and ready to take us to the beautiful Bolder river, and cowboy boots for the meadow trail begging to be ridden. *Sigh* We both look forward to working with/discipling the high school students (crew kids) for the summer, as well. What an amazing chance to be Christs hands and feet as we work side by side to ensure a fun, successful, and life-changing summer for the many youth and adults making the trek into the mountains. God, you are so good to us! May we glorify You in all we do.

Looking forward to future posts as we walk with the Lord out to the mountains of Montana once more! Adios, mis amigos!

The Smokies

What a wonderful time we had with our friends visiting the Smokey mountains.  The leaves were still on the trees in all their splendor, splashing red, orange and yellow across the sloping landscape as far as our eyes could see.  The cabin/house we stayed in was amazing, with plenty of room for all 10 of us, three decks, a hot tub, large kitchen and 3 living rooms.  Whew!  We were able to take many walks (props to Katie who pushed Selah in the stroller!!!) and did a bit of hiking in the National Park.  Talk about beautiful.  Joe and Glendon climbed Chimney Tops, quite a feat as the trail was ice half way up!  A driving/hiking trip through Cades Coves proved rewarding, as we saw black bears, many deer, along with a 10-point buck, old homesteads with cabins still intact, chapels and grave yards....such a great experience.  Joe and I and our friend Brandon actually got to venture up to the highest point in the smokies, Clingman's Dome.  There was about a foot of snow up on that peak, and we could see for miles!  God has made some beautiful places for our eyes to look upon.  Praise Him!  The Appalachian Trail runs right through that area, and we got to hike 1/10th of a mile on it!!  It was quite a daunting thought, thinking about hiking all 2,000 some miles.  But what a feeling.  The A.T.  Hmmm....maybe someday?   

It was such a blessing to get away to the mountains and enjoy the company of good friends.  We miss the mountains of the west, now! :)  But, Lord willing, we will see those again someday.  For now, we look forward to the whirlwind of the holiday season here in snowy Ohio!

Here kitty kitty

What a day to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and read a book....unfortunately, we didn't get much time  to do that :)  But thats ok.  Joe and I worked with a youth group outside on our low ropes course.  It was frrrriiiigggiiiiddddd cold out (well, compared to 73 deg. just 2 days ago).  The theme of the retreat was RELENTLESS, focusing on God's never ending love for us, and how we should never stop pursuing Christ, either.  Very cool theme...and a great learning tool as we worked as teams to accomplish the challenges.  Despite the good time...I must admit we were both excited to be inside again!  

Life has been rolling along fairly normal.  We had the opportunity to join in a small group meeting from the Vineyard church this last wednesday.  It was hosted by a young couple with 3 young children and several other families were there.  What a fun time of fellowship...it is great to meet other young couples here in the area.  We hope to go again this week.  Oh yes!  We have a new (yet perhaps temporary) addition to the family...a cat!  We found him last weekend at camp, and he was the nicest kitty!  So we thought we would bring him home and maybe mom and dad would take him back with them.  However, they weren't too sure about having yet another cat at home...so he is here with us for the time being!  He is black and white and so loving!  Joe tends to get a bit sneezy if he is around him too much...hence why we may not keep him.  But for now, I am enjoying have a feline friend who sleeps on my lap and purrs like no other!   I hope to post a few pictures here soon.  Molly has not taken so well to the cat...hehe.  She is quite jealous, actually (if a dog can feel that) and really doesn't like it when we give the cat attention!  Oh you should see her!  She will try and climb up onto our lap, as if to say "see, i can cuddle too!  just let me up on the couch and i will curl up with you!"  Oh my, give  me a break, dog ;)  Molly loves to sniff the cat, and then chase it around the house relentlessly, all the while the cat is hissing and running away.  Joe seems to think this is a bit amusing.  I, on the other hand, am yelling "Molly, no no! stop chasing the kitty!  come back here!"  Hmmm...perhaps someday they will be friends (if he stays, that is!).  Despite the reluctancy to keep the cat, Joe has thrown out a few potential names:  Alfred, Oscar, Harley (b/c he sounds like a motorcycle when purring).  Oh my....we shall see whether or not this furry friend finds his home here at the Hughes household, or in another very nice home.  Anyone out there looking for a nice cat??  

Finally...

Our apologies to family and friends who have missed our updates recently!  Life has been passing by at an incredible rate...however, that is a poor excuse to not keep everyone current!  We are enjoying the crisp days of fall, harvesting the last bit of produce out of our garden, taking hikes in the woods, collecting colorful leaves, baking bread (well, at least trying) and picking apples!  Camp has kept us busy as well.  We have one more school to come at the end of October, and that will be the last for the '08 season.  Spring is looking to be fairly busy with schools, though, praise the Lord!  We have enjoyed Living History this year..dressing up to depict characters from 1783 in the Ohio Territory.  Joe has picked up blacksmithing as a hobby and enjoys making small projects while the students look on.  I have been cooking over the fire, making johnny cakes, popcorn, stew and sausage with apples...yum!  Candle making with the kids has taken up some time, too!  So yes, it has been a joy to see the fruit of our labor over the past 10 months, as school kids are now able to come to Heartland and experience a quality outdoor ed. program with God as our head director!!! 

We continue to enjoy life with Molly.  She is a wonderful companion and often has us laughing in fits over the silliest things.  She is learning to listen and obey different commands...our most recent accomplishments being "stay" and "drop it" when playing with toys.  We sure lucked out on her personality and character...what a great dog for us!  Now if I can only convince joseph of getting a kitty! :)

We look forward to the rest of this beautiful fall season, anticipating more leaves, perhaps a camping trip or two, and definitely some home-made pies!  We will be traveling to the Smokey Mountains come November 16th to spend a week in an amazing cabin with friends from work.  This should be much fun as well as refreshing mentally, spiritually, and physically!  We especially look forward to seeing our dear friends Katie and Glendon Carper (and daughter Selah) who are currently down in Florida.  Katie is my marathon partner :)  We enjoy their friendship and company always, and miss being able to do that more often!  

Well, Joseph has just built a fire in the back yard and we will wait a bit until some coals come on.   I think we will bake some potatoes out there and have some spaghetti squash too!  Wonderful thing is....everything will be from the garden!!!  Better go help my mountain man with the grub.  Until next time....

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!