MH2016

After a full week of friends, adventure, family time and worship, the Monday after Mount Hermon always feels like a little bit of a let down.  Think I'll try to cheer myself up today by right away writing about the TENTH great summer we've spent at camp.  We've been going since Delia was an infant, and neither girl knows a summer without this beloved tradition.  Mount Hermon somehow always meets our expectations and we've never left the week without feeling sad that our most-looked-forward-to-all-year vacation is over.  This year MH was extra special because my good friend Teri was up at camp with 2 of her kids and also Dave was able to stay for the whole week, making it really feel like a whole family vacation. 

Our week starts with a big carnival and picnic on the fieldhouse lawn.  We eat ribs and chicken and corn on the cob and watermelon and ice cream bars and watch a fun program introducing us to the week's theme and all our wacky counselors.

There is always dancing and Delia just can't resist leaping to her feet and joining in!

SO fun and different this year was a theme we really connected with: Settlers of Hermon, based on a favorite game, Settlers of Catan!  Funny jokes about resources, robbers and the desert were worked into the dramas.  And each childcare area was named after a resource.  The little ones in Child Care were Sheep.  The middle age kids (Ella and Delia) were Coal in the Day Camp "Mines".  The junior high and high school were "Lumberjacks" representing Wood.   We loved playing this game together in our cabin after hearing about it each day!

We were given a big version of Settlers to play as a family too!  Hidden all over the Mount Hermon campus, from the dining hall to the pool to the ropes courses to the boat docks, were resource cards!  We had to hunt them down and label them on a special map.  Chasing all over camp, and hiking miles up and down the hills, took an entire afternoon of free time and it was a super fun way to spend time together.  You know we love our games!  :)  When we turned in our completed map (first ones!!), we got a cool prize.

This year we tried a new cabin.  We loved how much space our new place gave us, compared to the tiny cabin over the creek we stayed in for 9 years.  We each had a bed and multiple rooms with closing doors.  We did not love its far distance from the hub of camp or the 60+ steps we had to climb to get to it!  We had to be strategic about bringing all our stuff with us everywhere each day so as to save trips back to the cabin.

But, all that hiking and stair climbing did have us feel just fine about taking an extra piece of bacon at breakfast...or signing up for a session with the Mount Hermon masseuse for the first time! :) The picture below shows another pro-- the path we had to take to get up to our cabin sure was pretty.  Even with the 60+ stairs, I think we will try to stay here again (especially if it means I get another massage!).

With all of our hiking, we found this HUUUUGE banana slug.  When stretched out, it was as big as a real banana!  We had to take a selfie with it.

Once again we hauled our tired selves up the hill for the totally-worth-it griddle fired pancake breakfast and pancake tossing contest.

 With our bellies full and hot drinks in hand, the walk down the hill is always much better-- especially when you get to do it with friends!

On Tuesday we took our traditional trip to the beach for the afternoon.  I was so freezing, I had a sweatshirt on, but these crazies spent most of the time time jumping around in the giant waves.

 They took breaks to bury each other in the sand.

We always look forward to Train Day on Wednesday-- an open air, hour long train ride down the mountain to Santa Cruz and a day we always share with Amy and her family.

Having just done all the rides at Disneyland, we opted to skip all Boardwalk rides this year and spent our time playing pirate mini-golf instead.  We had a pretty major cold front hit us at Mount Hermon this week, so we were actually happy to get out of the wind and stay indoors during this Boardwalk time.  With fake thunder storms, cannons going off, automated pirates popping out of barrels and even an "underwater" portion lit with black lights, this mini-golf course is our favorite.

On Thursday we were adventurous, tackling the ropes course, climbing wall and archery range.  Ella is just a few pounds shy of the BIG ropes course, so this little one is becoming a bit boring for her.  She flies right across.  But, Delia had some fear and we're proud of her for once again conquering it!

Thursday night is always the Adult Dinner night.  They feed our kids at Day Camp, and we dress up for a formal dinner and concert in the dining hall-- just adults!  I have always sat at this "Ladies Table" with all the friends we do MH with.  This year, Dave joined us and had 6 hot dates! :)

On Friday the girls each met their counselors and small groups in the ice cream shop to share a Mudslide-- a big trough of ice cream with something like 10 scoops in it.  When you finish it, you get your picture on the wall.  I think Ella's group tried to set a new record and slammed it down in about 3 minutes!

Then, we did what was probably my favorite thing all week-- took a long creek hike through the redwoods with our group.  We started down by the ropes course, and, with our water shoes/flip-flops, hiked through the creek all the way to the beach and waterfall.  We battled various challenges along the way, like deeper water, fallen trees, and no way across except to scale rocks.   Delia loves a hike that lets her climb and figure out the best way to go, so she really came alive!  I think we found a new Friday tradition, which is cool because there are very few things about MH that are "new" each year!

As always, we were challenged and encouraged with words of wisdom from amazing speakers who this year brought Psalm 71 and 90, Ecclesiastics, and the story of Josiah to life.  It is hard to walk away from Mount Hermon without reflecting on your life and making some new commitments to the Lord.  The worship times are just incredible too-- especially the energetic multi-generational time we share with the kids.

Even with all the laughter, all the ice cream, all the adventure in hiking and conquering ropes courses, all the time being fed The Word by world-class speakers, all the meals I did not have to plan, make or clean up, and all the excitement at the beach and Boardwalk, my favorite thing about Mount Hermon remains this beloved church family we get to share it with.  We were able to give them a little shout out when our family was picked to be interviewed for the video.  They have invited and included us and for an entire decade blessed us-- our whole family now!-- with this wonderful gift of Mount Hermon!  It's a legacy we see continuing in our family for, hopefully, multiple generations!

Vacation Iron Man

Dave keeps a pedometer app on his phone and it told us we walked approximately 28 miles over our two days in Disney!  So, naturally, when considering what to do on our non-Disney day we figured a 12 mile bike ride would be perfect for our aching legs and backs! ;)

While Mom, Dad and the girls spent one last day in the Disney parks, we headed over to the nearby Huntington Beach and rented some beach cruiser bikes for the day.  There is an awesome path that runs right along the beach for several miles.  It was a gorgeous ride with incredible scenery the entire time, which is probably why we were surprised to find we had ridden 6 miles pretty quickly!  We were smart to take the path north and ride against the strong winds on the first leg of the trip. With the wind at our backs, the trip back was much easier.

  

We even rode under the iconic pier at one point.

For dinner we walked to the end of that pier and ate at the famous Ruby's, where every seat has an ocean view.  After all those miles walked and biked, I felt totally justified in consuming an insane amount of calories in these BBQ, bacon, onion ring, cheeseburger sliders! :)

If only we could have gotten some swimming miles in, this vacation would have been triathlon!

Disney Day Two

Our second day was spent at Disneyland, and it was a wonderful, fun, magical, tiring day as well.  The last time we went to Disney was 5 years ago.  The girls were the perfect age to get really into all the characters.  This time, with them being a little older, we were excited to ride some of the bigger and darker rides they were too small to enjoy the last time.  Again, we met Mom and Dad at the gate in the morning and packed a lot into our before-lunch hours while the crowds were tiny.

The thing I was most excited to do was experience all the new Star Wars stuff with the girls.  Tomorrow Land has pretty much been turned into Star Wars Land and there were so many fun things to do with our little Star Wars lovers.  The best thing ended up being Hyperspace Mountain-- which was the old ride, just made better with Star Wars music and the feeling that you were in the middle of scenes from the movie.  So, so, so fun!

Then we watched a little show about training to be a Jedi, which Ella was signed up to be in.  Delia did not want to do it because there was a part where the "trainees" had to fight bad guys and she was nervous about that.  The show was cute and Ella is never one to shy away from a stage! :)

Delia sat in the audience with us and helped "use the force" to shove Darth Vader back in his hideout.

Because Ella was being prepped for her part in the show (and I was with her), we did not do the Star Wars Launch Bay, where you could see movie props and meet characters.  Dave, Delia, Mom and Dad stood in a short line to meet Chewbacca.

After our hour in Star Wars Land, it was time to hop on all those classic rides we were most looking forward to!  We shot at battery-stealing Zurg in Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.  Took a dive into the deep with Nemo and Dory on their submarine.  We made a cruise around the world in "It's a Small World".

We floated through the bayou and Tortuga in Pirates of the Caribbean and visited with some "grim, grinning ghosts" in the Haunted Mansion.  (We actually did these classics several times.)

We took a Jungle Cruise and sang along with the birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room.

We tried to un-stick the Sword in the Stone.

And we gave the Genie a big hug.

(As you can see in the pictures, we also did a little shopping.  Part of the girls' gifts from their grandparents was some gift cards to spend in the stores.  They both chose a couple new stuffed animals to bring home and remember the trip with.)

Again, in the afternoon Dave and I bid farewell to the worn out members of the family and used the rest of the day to check the bigger, scarier rides off our list.  A few new ones for us were the Indiana Jones ride (which was super fun) and Star Tours (which made me ill).

Dave and I stayed all the way until the park closed at 11:00, catching the light parade and evening fireworks show while we waited in line on the outside deck at the top of Space Mountain (cool, right?).  Around 10:00, the park started really emptying out again, so we just hopped on multiple rides without waiting much at all.

Dave and I only got the two day tickets, so our time at Disney was done after this day.  We feel we got to see everything we wanted, and the things we really loved, we even did 2 or 3 times.  Disneyland's new ad slogan features the song "Forever Young", which is perfect since this is a place to relish feeling like a kid.  How much fun did we have, realizing that even when we were without our kids, we could still capture this feeling!  Grandpa and Grandma intended this to be a gift for the girls, but it was really for all 4 of us.  And the memories we each made this week will last a lifetime!

A Disney-Sized Surprise!

This week the girls had their socks knocked off with a perfectly-executed Disney Surprise!  It all started with Mom and Dad's desire to take each of their grandkids to Disney over an approximate 10 year time period for their birthdays.  For 3 years we've been trying to figure out exactly what this would look like.  Finding a way to get the girls to Mom and Dad, and a time that we were all available (summers and holidays) when the rest of the world would not be at Disney were the challenges.  We finally decided to just do the closer-to-us Disneyland instead of DisneyWorld and nailed down this first week of summer, hoping we'd be off school but not everyone else quite yet.  We told the girls we were going to take a vacation to the beach in Southern California.  We laughed about how they never suspected, even though I had not a single beach thing packed in our car!

  

Considering we were making a 6 hour drive through the mountains and LA, our timing could not have been any more perfect.  When we stopped for dinner in Anaheim, little did the girls know that Grandma and Grandpa would be waiting to greet them!  After the shock of seeing them and hugging them, Grandma then told the girls, "We're here because we're taking you to Disneyland!!!"  There was much joy and the huge beaming smiles stayed on the girls' faces the whole time we ate dinner.

Dave and I knew we'd be escorting the girls to their grandparents and then finding our own entertainment for the week.  But, as we started looking into the options in the area, we realized that nothing we could find to do would be as fun as being at Disneyland ourselves.  Dave and I bought two day tickets for ourselves and told Mom and Dad we'd hang out with them as much as or as little as they wanted.  We were excited to spend time together and experience Disney through the eyes of our kids, but we didn't want to crash Grandma and Grandpa's party, or intrude.  And we wanted to do some of the bigger rides the kids would not want to do.  Disneyland is the "Happiest Place on Earth" and Dave and I feel we stumbled onto the way to make Disney even HAPPIER, if that is possible: Do Disney with the grandparents!!  Spend the mornings with your kids, feel the magic with them...then when they start slowing down, let them go swimming in the fancy on-property hotel they are sharing with g-ma and g-pa and then spend the rest of the day running around riding roller coasters!  See how nice that works out?  I recommend it to anyone! ;)

Mom and Dad and the girls stayed at the Disney Paradise Pier hotel.  It had a huge pool with watersides and a view of the parks (and the night time fireworks) RIGHT outside their window.  It was also just a short walk from the parks' gate.  I know the girls really loved the hotel time with Grandpa and Grandma.

Our first day, which was also Ella's 11th birthday, was spent at California Adventure.  We met up in the morning and used the first few crowd-free hours to walk onto all the best rides and secure fast passes for the day.   Since we've been to this park before, I do think Mom and Dad appreciated our guidance in getting around and being strategic about avoiding lines.

A favorite ride was the Toy Story 4-D video game ride.  It's different, yet super fun each time you ride it-- which we did 3 times!

Another favorite part of this park was visiting Cars Land for the first time.  I must confess that of all the Pixar movies, Cars is not one of my favorites.  However, the way Disney has re-created Radiator Springs blew us away!  We totally felt like we were right in the movie!  Here are a few things you may recognize if you've seen the Cars movie...

The Cozy Cone Motel

The statue of Stanley in front of the Fire Station

And Flo's V-8 Cafe, where we ate lunch!  All of it was so authentic.  We also visited Tow-Maters shop/ride and Luigi's Casa Della Tires and Sarge's Army Surplus Store and Doc Hudson's Internal Combustion Medical Practice.  We have since re-watched the Cars movie at home and even noticed tons of new details the park did not miss in adding to Cars Land.  They even lit it up at night with the neon Lightning fixed.

Delia was excited to join a dance party in the middle of the street hosted by DJ.

The Cars Land rides were crazy fun too!  Our favorite was definitely the Radiator Springs Racers, where we got to truly experience the movie-- taking the same drive Sally and Lightning take, getting chased by Frank, having Guido give us a pit stop and Ramone give us a paint job and then racing another car side by side on a roller-coaster-like race track.  Dave said, "How many rides can you take with both your parents and your kids where everyone is thrilled and having a blast?!"  We revisited this ride several times too.  

For Ella's birthday, Grandma and Grandpa arranged to have lunch at Ariel's Grotto, where the food is fancy and the princess characters roam around to visit with you.  Dave and I went our own way at this point, so these are Ella's pictures.  The girls had a great time at this special lunch.

Here is what Dave and I did while the girls fine-dined with Grandma, Grandpa, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Tiana and Elsa...we rode roller coasters!  We've never been on the boardwalk section's main attraction, California Screamin'.  It was one of the best and longest roller coasters we've ever been on.  It starts with a voice telling you to "Get Ready!  In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...SCREEEEAM!!", then it launches you into the ride, accelerating 0-55 mph in 4 seconds.  There are 2 big drops and even an upside-down loop, all set to music pumping out of a speaker in your car.  It was soooo fun!

Dave and I also celebrated a late anniversary by having our own fine-dining experience at the Wine Country Trattoria.  

After a full day of rides and lots of walking, Mom and Dad were too tired to come back, so Dave and I ran back to their hotel to pick up the girls for the World of Color light and fountain show and a few last nighttime rides in the dark.  It was a great way to close out the first day at Disney!