Review First Half of Week 1

It's pretty hard not to smile ALL the time when your kids are playing all day long, sleeping all night long and having the time of their lives. Matt and Ryan are the Angler's in Wranglers (Fisherman who wear very tight Wrangler jeans, cowboy hats and boots-yumola!) Plus there are about 6 other characters that have all laughing our heads off all day long. I don't really have to describe life here much except to say, it's as close to heaven as we get here on earth. Really.

I got my french braiding gene. Finally.

mmhmmm.

Asher atop the mechanical bull.

Cookies and dessert after every meal. Or before every meal. Or instead of every meal.

Blurgh.

I could eat her with a spoon. Her dimples are killing people.

Really. There are piles of people in ditches all over camp.

There is a good chance Asher could look like Tom when he grows up.

Hallmark, you need some models for your next Mother's Day card?

Next up: Tableau pictures. Careful, your teeth will fall out from how sweet they are.

See I told you.
Don't worry. We are here for like 17 more days. Plenty more to come!

Frontier Ranch Flash Mob

Last night was the big BIG night at camp (many pictures will be up later-once I finish working today).
And I promise, I will get a better quality video next week. Kids were totally taken by surprise at the finale when their leaders jumped up and started dancing...ahem-so was I! (I even knew it was going to happen!)


But I was trying to capture this picture:

So I was a little out of position for video times.
Try to have some grace for me :)

Rocky Mountain High

We arrived at Frontier Ranch in the middle of last week.
It was quite the trip, last somewhere around 16 hours with two cases of pink eye, a tornado, over 20 lost DVD's and pure exhaustion.

But we have recovered mostly. Not from the DVD thing. But everything else. Now we have arrived and are completely in love with Frontier. I mean, really. It is simply beautiful here. The weather has been amazing. The kids have been sleeping. The team is clicking and the buses start rolling in this afternoon.

We are so excited to be here.

Chief is the name of our cabin and it is perfectly set up in the middle of camp. There is a super fun little playground a few doors down that has a lookout fort on it and the kids have been playing non-stop in there.

Speaking of non-stop.

Yes please. The "alti-tooties" have been quite ahem potent in our neck of the woods. We could use a little reprieve.

Right next door to our cabin is the greatest prop room in all of Young Life. I know that will get several of our friends dander up. Sorry peeps. It's true. It's easy to get to. It's well organized. And everyone in camp want to hang out in there (That can be a positive or a negative. Depends on if you are trying to get work done or not). Just look at all that is in here!

Also, Lucy has found herself a little "Friend". Cade Acker has worked his way into our lives and they were spied holding hands across the infield this morning. It's a little fast for me, but he did pray for Blount Count, TN in front of the entire assigned team, work crew and summer staff...so he's working his way into our hearts.

This is the view that we have outside our windows of our cabin.

We love hearing the stream and starting today, we will hear the high school kids on the ropes course! Isn't the light amazing?

Camp and a cap gun.

Does life get any better for a nearly 5 year old boy?

These rocks are in a pile outside of our cabin.

Past visitors in camp have written their burdens on them and laid them down.

It is such a great visual and physical reminder to me every morning to drop my "rocks" and to see what God has for me today.

Know that verse about scattering seed among the rocky soil? I saw this plant this morning and it was a great reminder that there will be kids coming to camp today who take a receive the message but it doesn't sink deeply and the trouble of life will steal what gave them such great hope. Pray for deep roots!

These are the areas coming to camp today and it represents 420 kids and leaders:

• Northlake, GA
• Augusta, GA
• Shreveport, LA
• Blount County, TN
• Houston SW, TX
• Central Denver, CO
• Bello County, CO
• Metro Urban Denver, CO
• Colorado Spring, CO
• Metlakatla, Alaska

We are asking people to pray specifically during the hour of club. On the East Coast, that would be 10pm tonight. We really want to blow the roof of the Kachina (the club room) and give these high school kids the best week of their lives so they can know the hope that lives within us. Please join with us!

Heading West in the Morn

We depart for Frontier Ranch today.

I know you haven't heard a lot about it.

That's because life has been a bit hectic. Work has been busy. We have two very busy preschoolers (which sounds impossible on its face, but I promise is TRUE) and I just can't keep everything together. Getting ready for a trip of this magnitude means something have to fall by the wayside and this blog has been the wayside.

Also, I took my laptop in for a general once over before my AppleCare expired and they told me my hard drive was bad. So they gave me a new one. But that took a few days. So here we are!

And boy, are we anxious to just get the heck out of town and get to camp. I swear...
Just look at this place. It's like heaven on earth. And I can't wait to breathe it in. And feel the presence of God in every corner. For four straight years I got to bring high schoolers here and I will never be the same for it. I am so blessed that we get to be a part of someone else's story this summer.
This is NOT my picture. But I have about a million pictures like it. I just don't have the energy to go find the source disks for my scanner and deal with all that crap tonight. So, this is someone else's memory but it might as well be mine. This is where you stand after you get off the horses and before you walk back into camp. Every cabin takes this picture. Our family will take this picture-don't you worry. It's impossible not to be here and make memories or be a part of the history of this camp.

We can't wait. Every day this month Asher woke up and asked if it was "summer yet" because that meant we were going to Frontier. Well dude, it's Summer.

Oh yeah...in case you wanted to you know....grace us with a little package or something like that:

Frontier Ranch

22150 County Rd 322

Buena Vista, CO 81211

Makes Your Heart Go Pitter Patter

This picture was taken on the Saturday night before Mother's Day.
Matt had taken on quite a task to get himself and the fellow men in his family to treat all of the women to a "Special Day" at his parent's lake house.
He was so worn out and so were our kids from playing all day that they fell asleep together. With the lights on. The light was directly over his face. I have no idea how he managed that.

As soon as I started snapping pictures, Matt woke up.
About two hours later, Asher woke up crying and complaining that his ear hurt.
Great.
We thought he just had water lodged in there from the lake, so we tried to get it out to no avail.
He spent the better part of the night uncomfortable and crying.

Finally in the morning, the water came out. Or so we thought.
He started running a fever and we got antibiotics. At a check-up later this week, we found out that Asher had actually perforated his eardrum.

Happy Mother's Day! Blurgh.
But the picture is real cute.

For Those Mother's Like Me

Who have Mother's and love them dearly, but Mother's Day was a bit chaotic and I'm just now catching up:



Mom, I promise to always do this for you. Seriously. Even though you should have probably held out and bought an iPad.
Sadness.

Oh Emm Gee

Please watch this.
It almost is enough to make want a mini-van. I mean, a Swagger Wagon.
You need to click on the video to see the full-screen. I know, I'm working on it.

Mother's Day

Who's looking forward to it and who's day will look like this? (click on the little "play triangle" in the bottom right hand corner)

I'm giving it 50/50.

May Tea Party

Our Amy Noll finished her Sophomore year in college this week! Amy is a big fan of tea. Lucy loves being a princess. What better way to celebrate than to go to a fancy Tea Room and have High Tea together, just the girls?

I mentioned it to Lucy in the car and Asher fell apart at the idea that he was not going to get to go to drink tea and have cakes and be fancy. He really doesn't want to do any of that. He just wants cake.

So, I came up with the quick idea that we would have an impromptu tea party to get Lucy ready for the next day AND let Asher have a little cake. Voila!

Yes Shellie, your son time-traveled here and was sitting at the table with Lucy.

Yes, those are Backyardigan Cupcakes. Perfect for a Tea Party.

Check out the Half-Windsor that I tied on Asher's little tie. I felt very accomplished.

A lady must wear pearls at tea.

Daddy came home early from work to participate in the tea party.

I am so glad he did not miss this.

Check out the little miss with her pinky out, ring on the finger and all her jewelry. She was very "fancy".

We picked flowers from the yard.

We used a little hand-blown glass pitcher that my grandmother gave to me.

IKEA tea-party sets are amazing. AMAZING.

They have the best colors, come with little spoons, forks and knives and are adorable.

We've broken about half the set so we have to buy another one.

Good thing they're about $15.

Then came the real deal. Chelseas's Tea Room in Biltmore Village.

We got really dressed up. Not pretend dressed up.

Yay for Amy finishing the semester!

Typical.

Lucy didn't really want to drink tea. Lemonade was more her style.

But the teacup was as big as her face. We had to keep telling her TWO HANDS!

I swear, she was going to drop that china teacup and it was going to be tears and snot.

But she never did.

Thank GOODNESS.

Look at the joy on her face!

I can fully recommend the food. Yum-ola.