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!

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!