Beach and Boardwalk

Here was another awesome thing about Mount Hermon this year: we didn't take our annual jaunt to the beach to see Dave this year, we did it with him!  And we got to spend the entire afternoon with him there!

Thank goodness too, because Ella decided this was the year she wanted to learn to boogie board and ain't no way I'm getting in that freezing cold ocean!  Cheering once again for having adventurous (and much more temperature tolerant) Daddy along!

Ella only stumbled out of the big waves sputtering and full of the salt water she gulped 2 times.  But, she was brave enough to get back on the board and enjoyed a few good and successful rides.

My favorite part of this day was watching Delia, with full freedom to finally get her arm wet, frolic in the waves!  

And, of course, we can't leave Beach Day without burrying our friend Caleb in the sand!

The next day we board the train for our morning at the Boardwalk.  It always makes the girls (and me!) laugh and smile to get serenaded by those crazy counselors as our train pulls away.

It's become tradition to share Train Day with our good friends Jeff, Amy and their kids.  This day is a time to both catch up with our friends and catch a breath as we just sit and relax on that peaceful train ride down the hill and through the forest.

Looking forward to an amusement park date with Auntie Heather very soon, we actually didn't go too nuts with the Boardwalk rides this year.  We did our one annual Sky Glider ride and that was it.  

It was funny to watch how the girls spent the Boardwalk Bucks MH gives us.  Delia's were burning a hole in her pocket and she had to spend them all (plus a little extra) buying this super duper waffle cone sundae-- which she did really enjoy.  Ella realized that she could buy THREE ice creams in the snack shop at Mount Hermon for the cost of one on the Boardwalk and chose to save her bucks for that.

So much of this day is about what we always do.  We always ride the train with certain friends, we always take a glide in the sky buckets, we always buy ice cream...and we always take naps on the train ride back up the hill!  This is not necessarily planned, we're just so tired from all the activity and the gentle rocking of the train and shifting shadows of the forest are just so soothing, falling asleep is inevitable!

  

Celebrating Our Anniversary in the Canopy

Our marriage turned 16 the day before we left for Rehoboth.  Though our marriage was old enough to get its drivers license, life's busy schedule provided no opportunity to celebrate this milestone on May 28.  So, we decided we'd do something special during the week we spent together at Mount Hermon this year.  We got some babysitters for the girls and went on the ultimate date: Two hours of zip-lining through the massive redwood trees on Mount Hermon's Redwood Canopy Tour. MH Campers can take this tour for a fraction of the price that everyone else pays.  It is 6 zip lines and 2 sky bridges over the forest about 150 feet up in the air.   

Each of the 6 zips took us zig-zagging across this valley.  The longest zip was 440 ft. and for many we couldn't even see the destination when we took off.  The entire time we were in the trees, we were fastened to a safety line with 2 giant caribeaners.  Our 2 guides not only handled all our equipment and safely loaded us one-at-a-time onto each line, they also gave us really interesting lessons about the redwoods and this ecosystem on each platform.

The view up (above) and the view down (below).

Our group was small-- just Dave and I and 2 others, plus our 2 guides.  It felt very intimate and we suspect our adventure guides were able to do some crazy stuff with us they may not normally do with bigger groups-- like challenging us to rely on our harnesses and hang off the platform, or do the "koala bear" by jumping off our platform and grabbing onto a nearby tree!  Keep in mind this platform is over 100 feet in the air!

Coastal Redwoods are the tallest trees in the world and we were halfway up in them, flying from one to the next.  What an amazing thing to share with my life partner!  I'm sure there is a great metaphor about the adventure of marriage somewhere in here! :)

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!