Mount Hermon PLUS

With our new youth pastor starting his service to our church as a counselor up at Hi Camp and Dave getting asked to do a Friday wedding, for the first time ever it worked out best for him to join me and the girls down at Family Camp for 4 days.   I've written 8 times now about how we loooove Mount Hermon, how it's our favorite place, how it feels like a second home, how it's like a little taste of heaven.  I did not think our week at Mount Hermon could be improved upon...until this year when we got to actually do Family Camp as a whole family.  Having Dave with us was like Mount Hermon PLUS!  It was such a blessing to share all the things we love about it with him and to just enjoy together, what my friend calls, the "annual reset" that MH provides.  Like Rehoboth, we don't know how Dave's new job will affect our Mount Hermon attendance each summer, but I'm already thinking it will be hard to go back without him.

   

We kick off the week with the carnival and picnic on the lawn.  Then we are entertained by a show introducing us to all our speakers and crazy counselors for the week.

At Pancake Ridge, we eat my favorite breakfast all year-- fire-grilled pancakes topped with fruit and whipped cream.  Then the kids line up to try tossing pancakes into the target.  Getting to Pancake Ridge means a gruelling early-morning hike, but we always find it's worth it!

With Delia's' arm not quite 100% she was relegated to the role of cheerleader on the ropes courses this year.  But, this was no problem, because we had TWO parents along and Ella could tackle this course with Dave!

Again, no climbing wall for Delia, but Ella zipped right up the hardest side without any hesitation and rang the bell at the top again this year.

My favorite night is s'mores and Zumba night!  Being the dance enthusiasts that we are, we picked a spot in the front and boogied all night until parts of our bodies were aching! :)  The girls, as you would expect, each ran at the chance to dance up on stage with the instructor.

We haven't seen any banana slugs for the past few years, so this year we were excited to come across this unique and elusive bug!  Delia, who was too young and timid the last time we found them, became a member of the "I Kissed a Banana Slug" Club!  I am not a member.  I don't plan on joining,

Each summer, Ella and I read aloud the next Harry Potter book in the series.  This tradition + a bench outside the snack shop + some ice cream = one of my favorite Mount Hermon memories from this year.

Hooray!  No cast meant Delia could finally get in the water!  We spent LOTS of time at the pool this year.

I love our worship times at Mount Hermon too.  We meet in both the morning and evening to sing and be challenged by world-class speakers.  For a part of the morning sessions, the kids join us for energetic, dance-in-the-aisles worship and silly skits, then they head off to their own time at Day Camp with their awesome counselors.  It's so fun to share this time with our girls...and watch them dance with their counselors!

    

We have to head down the archery range at least once in the week.

This is a panoramic shot of the girls having some down time in our perfect little cabin in the woods.  For the first time, with all four of  us squeezed into it, we felt the "little" more than the "perfect" in that description.  It was sure cozy, but we made it work!

At campfire night, Delia was picked from the audience to play the part of the queen in a skit on stage.  They acted out the book "King Bidgood's in the Bathtub" by the Woods and she had a ball pretending to eat turkey legs and ice cream cones in the bathtub with the king!

Then the following night, it was Ella's turn to make her 2015 Mount Hermon stage debut when she was chosen from the 5th-6th grade bunch to be interviewed.  She did a great job describing to the whole camp what her favorite part of the week was ("the night swim") and what she learned about God ("that He forgives us over and over and over again").

And finally, some group shots.  At the point these were taken, Dave had already gone home for the rehearsal and wedding.  While it was a great treat to do Mount Hermon with him and feel like this was good quality family time shared by the four of us, we thanked God that our church family was there, as they always are, to share the final 2 days with us! 

Interview with Ella at 10

So, I guess these are the answers of one who has entered double digits: a favorite song by Taylor Swift and a video game is the favorite thing to play!  No denying that our gal is definitely growing up (though apparently not as fast she would like, given her last answer!).

Age: 10

Favorite colors: blue and green

Favorite food: Still mac and cheese

Favorite book: I like all books, but some favorites are El Deafo and The One and Only Ivan

Favorite movie: Big Hero 6

Favorite song: "Blank Space"

Favorite thing to play: Minecraft

Favorite part of school: Art and Reading

What I want to be when I grow up: A marine biologist

The perfect day is: First, go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with my friends, then do the ropes course at Mount Hermon, and then ice skate.

My best friends are: Chloe, Ruth, Emily, Briley

I hope when I'm 10, I'll..."Have a growth spurt."

Remembering Lily

For us, comfort comes in the form of distraction: getting Starbucks and pedicures, walking around the mall, playing family games together, reading Harry Potter aloud, giving my house a thorough scrubbing, and a fun summer dinner with friends.  

Comfort also comes in staying up late, all squished around the computer together, pouring over old pictures and videos... 

And Sad News

 

The picture above is one of the first ones I ever took of our brand new puppy Lily when we first brought her home.  And the picture below, taken yesterday, will be the last one I ever take of our loyal and beloved friend.  We have been watching Lily slow down more and more over the past weeks, and in the past few days, we've seen her unwilling to eat and unable to really walk anymore.  So, today we said goodbye when we made the very difficult decision to end Lily's obvious pain and have the vet put her to sleep.

In between these 2 pictures was 11 and a half years of life with this furry family member.  Over eleven years of a happy yelp and tail-wagging greeting each time we walked in the door.  A fierce bark of protection from the evil UPS man.  A move to sleep on the forbidden couch each night after we went to bed (which we, of course, knew nothing about).  Joyful splashing and eager exploring at Knight's Ferry.  Eleven years of being patient and gentle with girls who would try to ride her, dress her up, and turn her into their pretend veterinary office patient.  Eleven years of begging for delicious meat scraps, and keeping our yard free of cats, and wrestling toys from our grip, and stealing all the heat in the prime spot in front of the fireplace, and having her nose in every present we would open, and cuddling up close whenever we laid on the floor.  Though we know we made the right choice to end our pet's suffering, it is not easy.  This has been the hardest day of the girls' life. While stories, like the time Lily proudly brought a dead gopher into the house, or the time she nearly killed me when she took off in a panicked sprint while I held her leash rollerblading behind her, bring happy memories and laughter, this day has had a steady stream of tears.  The girls don't know life without Lily and we're already enduring feelings of emptiness in our home, which just doesn't feel right without her in it.  She was our perfect dog and we will miss her so much.  Thank you, Lord, for entrusting this wonderful animal to our care for the past 11 years.

Good News!

This week Delia got her cast off!  This second broken arm has been such a loooooong journey, we're definitely celebrating the end in sight!

  

 This wonderful lady in the orthopedic casting department has put on and taken off at least 8 different colored casts this past year.  She is lovely, but on Tuesday I told her, "Have a nice life!  We hope to NEVER see you again!"

With Delia's latest cast removed, we followed our familiar routine of heading to radiology.   Back in the doctor's office, we learned that Delia has "laid down some serious bone" and her break is looking the best it has in a long time!  What an answer to prayer!!! Previous x-rays showed a gap in the bones, but here you can see that, though there is slight angulation (like a knob on a tree trunk our doc said), the bones have found one another and started to finally regrow.  We were given permission to switch from a hard cast to a velcro brace and instruction to be gentle, while still working the arm as much as possible to loosen up the stiff muscles.  

With the cast off, I was finally able to see Delia's surgery marks too.  They are looking pretty good!  We excited to be "Arm Scar Buddies".

What I was most excited about, though, was getting that dried out, nasty arm into a bath!  This is something fun we learned the last time: when you put skin in water that has not been in water for months and months, it gets SUPER wrinkly super fast!  Don't recommend trying it, necessarily, just a fun fact for you to file away! :)  

Oh how I pray that this is the last Arm Update post I will ever write!  We know there are worse things in life to have to deal with and we are so thankful that God walked us through this ordeal, but I'd be happy to not step foot in our hospital now for a very long time.

The Grand Canyon

As we made our way home from New Mexico last year, it killed me to drive right by the Grand Canyon and not stop and see it.  No, I have never been to this Wonder of the World, and yes, I use the term "right by" loosely as it's actually about a 4 hour round trip detour from the highway.  So, this year we worked it out to make a day at the Grand Canyon and a night in a hotel in Arizona a part of our trip.

As any travel blog will tell you, and I know because I've read quite a few of them trying to get the best ideas for how to fully experience the Grand Canyon in a matter of hours, no picture will do this thing justice.  No matter what your camera's color saturation or panoramic setting, you simply will not capture and be able to share its grandeur and beauty.  I did still try, but the best pictures of it are the ones in my head.

It worked perfectly for our group to use the 4 hours we had at the Grand Canyon to hike the 3 mile trail along the South Rim.  On this path we could stay together and enjoy the view the entire time we walked.  The major vista points had guardrails and large crowds.  But the entire Grand Canyon is not fenced in.  There were dozens of points to just climb out on the edge of a cliff and feel like you were going to die on top of the world.  Needless to say, a very tight grip was kept on Delia the Adventurer!

I had major heart palpitations watching our crazy youth group kids out on these ledges, but God was watching over us and we didn't lose a single student into the canyon. :)

Making this stop meant our next day of driving was a big one, but it was SO worth it!  What a majestic way to end a blessed week!!

Dancing, Weaving and Caving

This post is just some of the odds and ends that rounded out our week in Rehoboth.  Every day we'd work from 7:30 to 3:00 and then leave right away around 3:30 for some sort of outing or excursion.  As you can imagine, this thoroughly tired us out and, after dinner (which I cooked each night) and our nightly meeting, we pretty much had a quiet dorm by 10:00 pm!

As mentioned, Ella celebrated a birthday on our first full day in Rehoboth.  I had not yet gone grocery shopping when she woke up in the morning, so we dug around and found an incense stick to put in a muffin while we quickly sang to her!  Later that evening we did it right with a real cake and candles.

The June Camp kids, The Crevice hike, Cross Canyon...these were all things the team was excited to come back and see again.  At the top of that list was a trip to the Rehoboth-family-owned Shave Ice store.  We LOVED this so much, we built it into our schedule multiple days!

We were also honored that our friend Alton agreed to come back and do another Native dance demonstration for us.  He is a competitive pow-wow dancer, and also a Christian seeking to use his talents to educate people about and get them to appreciate the beauty of  Native American culture.  Once again, we heard those drums beating, his uncle chanting, and Alton stomping around, and we were blown away.

A trip back to the weaver's house was also on the agenda.  I was making dinner and Delia was feeling sad about saying goodbye to her friends, so we stayed back.  But, Ella was excited to see the weaver's sheep and take a turn adding to the one-of-a-kind pattern on her loom. 

Another time we stopped to visit a group of artisans selling things they handcrafted.  Ella picked out a set of hand carved cross earrings and a necklace for just $5!

Then there was the big fail of caving night.  This outing was actually the one that was different from last year and we were pumped about it!  We got a sack of hardhats and some heavy-duty flashlights.  We drove for over an hour to this park featuring a whole line up of pitch-black caves.  We were excited to take the hour long hike in and through them.  But, when we arrived we were told that since we were out of state residents, we could endanger the bat population living in the caves and we were denied a permit.  This was a new policy that our Rehoboth guide knew nothing about.  Total bummer!!  But, what can you do?  We made the drive, so we decided to just hike around the cave openings instead.  It was still cool (literally) to feel the drastic temperature change at the openings.

And we did get to see the famous El Morro rock on our long drive home!

We didn't get too much down time to hang out and play cards, but here is one game all the girls on our team played together.

And here is the whole team on our last day.  We had a wonderful trip and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to experience this all again!