Adventurous

Dave has always made visiting our camp and hanging out with us for a few hours a priority on his Thursday time off.  During this time, we've showed him lots of glimpses of our life at Mount Hermon over the years, taking him to the boats, the pool, the game room, the craft room, on hikes, and finally this year...the ropes course!  I  was finally able to get all four of us signed up for some adventure together, 20 feet above the ground.

This Discovery Grove ropes course is not new to the girls.  Delia made it across last year and Ella has been doing it for a few years now.  Ella went as my partner and had a hard time slowing down and not leaving her shaky mom in the dust.

Delia went as Dave's partner and was sandwiched between he and I.  Once again she was nervous and even shed a few tears, but did us proud in persevering and completing the course.  

I'm telling you, this swinging log portion of the course is freaky!  I was joking that I actually have no memories of ever crossing the logs myself, as each year I've done this ropes course, I was 100% focused on getting a panicky child across. With Dave taking Delia and Ella flying across pretty much without me this year, I had to actually be cognizant of the fact that what I stood and walked upon was swinging beneath my feet high in the trees!

All that hard work and bravery is always rewarded with a fun zip line ride down to the bottom.  I think this is why Delia continues to tolerate and endure this challenge!

After the ropes course, we took Dave down to the archery range.  This year our arrows actually went somewhere besides on the ground in front of the shooting platform!  Many hit targets and some even hit the fake animals on the range!

(Ella snagged my camera and secretly took this picture of us hiking back up the hill.)

The next day we visited the rock wall.  Again, progress was made this year!  Delia went higher than she did last year and Ella chose to climb up the highest side.

She scrambled up so fast, I wasn't even ready with my camera to catch the moment she rang the cowbell at the top!  

I'm so proud of both girls for tackling things that are sort of scary and perhaps a bit out of their comfort zone, and having so much fun with them. We loved sharing these experiences with Dave this year!

All Aboard!

And then there is the tradition of Train Day...

We hike down to the train and board, all the while the kids' wacky counselors serenade us. Delia is excited in this picture to hear them belting out her favorite preschool tune, "The Waa Waa Song." 

Then it is an hour long ride, though the forest and down the hill, to the Boardwalk.  This time is so peaceful and remains of my favorites of the week!  Especially when we get to spend it laughing and catching up with good friends, Jeff, Amy, Jonathan, Grace and Benjamin!

We take a minute or two to ride through the deep, dark tunnel, where the girls pull out their flashlights and delight in the pitch blackness.

When we reach the Boardwalk, it is off the train ride and onto others!

  

This year the girls chose to ride the carousel and the dragon roller coaster again.

They also picked a new ride to try-- the Riptide (or tilt-o-whirl, as I grew up calling it).  They seemed to get an especially spinny car.  I thought this would be too much for them, but they screamed and laughed with joy the whole time it tossed them around!

After an ice cream treat, we end our short time at the Boardwalk with the now-traditional ride on the Sky Glider.

Watching blue ocean on one side and colorful Boardwalk rides on the other, we giggle and kick our dangling legs.  These unique experiences and memories with my girls are what Mount Hermon is all about! 

At the Beach

As always, we headed down to the beach early in the week, mostly because we just love that afternoon of surf, sand, sun and fun, but also because our trip the beach coordinates with when Dave is there with all the highschoolers.  

These beach bums are READY to go!

It was pelican-o-rama the afternoon we were there.  Hundreds of them were circling the skies above us!

Though the day was chilly and I sat on the beach wrapped in a blanket, these crazies were brave enough to hop waves in the 57 degree water!

Getting burried in the sand was her way of "warming up" from the frigid water.  This is also a good way to take as much sand home with you as possible.  And keep it hidden in your cracks for up to a week later.  Even after multiple showers.

Group shots!  Family above, this year's kid group below.

We Heart Mount Hermon

Here we are just returning from another moutaintop experience at Mount Hermon Family Camp.  This completes our 7th straight year of attending what we call "The Best Week of the Year."  Inspired by what Ella chose to have painted on her face at the first day's carnival, I will show you just a few of the things that make Mount Hermon a place "we heart".

 We heart "jumping" right into the week's fun-- in bouncy houses and inflatable bungy games.

 We heart finding school and church friends who we get to see all the time (above is Delia and a first grade classmate she was thrilled to bump into), and Mount Hermon friends who we only get to see once a year.  We heart making new friends too.  Ella's best buddy this week became a sweet gal named Hailey, whose dad serves as a Marine, just returning from a 7 month deployment.  We stayed up till 11:00 last night talking with this fascinating family!

 We heart wild whole-camp games in the fieldhouse at night.  Ella got especially into the dodge ball night.

We heart Pancake Ridge!  We heart fire-grilled pancakes topped with fresh fruit.  We heart watching the kiddos try to flip pancakes from a spatula into the target.

 We heart the game room.  The girls discovered air hockey this year.  When we went up to Dave's camp to visit on Monday, they had to show off some of their new skills.

 We heart all the worship times and speakers, but especially the integrated family times where Day Camp kids join us adults in the sanctuary for high-energy, full-of-motions, dance-in-the-aisles kind of praise songs.

 We heart the slip-n-slide!  Delia hearts it a little more than Ella did this year. :)

We heart sharing each meal with our church family in the dining hall.  I heart that all the kids are old enough to make their own "kid table" and we adults can eat and converse in relative peace!  We heart those crazy counselors who spend all morning with our kids and then ask them at lunch time to join their table (and then do it again at breakfast)!  Truly, what these amazing young adults pour into our kids is one of the best parts of investing in Mount Hermon and one of the things I heart most!

We heart s'mores night, glow stick necklaces, and whole-camp Zumba instruction on the lawn.

We heart closing out our busy days with a scoop of heaven ice cream in the snack shop.

We heart the creek-- hiking to the little beach by it and creek-walking with friends.

 We heart those incredible Coastal Redwoods we get to live among for the week.

 We heart our little cabin, built over the creek and deep in the woods, and once again just perfect for the three of us.  

 We heart this dear group of friends we get to share the week with, our Mount Hermon Family.

And that list is nowhere near complete!  We heart reading a good book in a patch of warm sun, and being reminded of the depth of God's love, and learning truths from His Word, and the pool, and singing goofy songs around the campfire, and hearing Delia picked to be interviewed on the last night's program, and the Santa Cruz beach, and train day, and the Boardwalk, and the rock-climbing wall, and ropes course, and more things I'll continue to post about in the next few days...