Summer Camp

A few weeks back we sent all 3 kids to Camp Barakel for a week of summer camp. Yes, you heard me correctly ALL 3 KIDS GONE FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK! Pictured here is Grant's friend, Danny. The girls also brought a friend - so everyone had someone to hang out with.

Camp Barakel is the camp where Sandi and I first got to know each other way back in the winter 0f 1982 (gulp - that would be 26 years ago). It is also the place where I learned what it was to serve God and work hard - I spent several weeks up there working as an "engineer" during the summers. During the summer of 1985 I spent the entire summer at Barakel as a counselor - by far the most exhausting and rewarding thing I have ever done in my life.

You may be wondering how Sandi and I partied while the kids were gone? Well, we cleaned the basement, got ready for a garage sale, and went to a few open houses. It was not exactly a second honeymoon, but we did enjoy going out for dinner a few times and catching a movie. To be honest, I think we both really missed the kids and were glad to have them back home - strange, isn't it?

Colorado Highlights

Here are the highlights from our Colorado vacation we took in early June. It was a great trip! We stayed in a really nice timeshare in Breckenridge and the weather was very nice for the most part (about 70 degrees during the day with sun - the last two days were windy and cooler).

The first picture is of a hike we took to "Hanging Lake". This was the toughest hike we took on this trip, but it was well worth it. The biggest problem was that we hadn't adjusted to the altitude yet, and we couldn't seem to get enough O2. Sandi and the girls struggled the most with this, but bounced back after a couple of days. Once we climbed up to the lake there were beautiful waterfalls and amazing views of the mountains.

The second picture was our horseback riding. This was on our final day and by far, this was the coldest day. Thankfully the wranglers were able to loan us coats, hats, and gloves. This was a lot of fun - we actually galloped the horses! The best part of the day was when they "helped" Emily's horse to gallop. She ended up almost getting bucked off as the horse reared up and took off at full speed. Emily hung on for dear life and now has a story to tell.

The last two pictures are from the white water rafting. The water was liquid ice, and we were the ice cubes floating on top! Thankfully we were all in wet suits - this kept the shivering to a minimum... We had a great guide who made the trip a lot of fun for us, and we all stayed in the boat (although the girls just about got ejected when we hit our first real white water). We really enjoyed doing this and would probably do it again if we get the chance.

Overall it was a great vacation. Another cool thing we did was read the book of 1 John together and memorize 1 John 4:4. All the kids got this verse down and we had some great discussions about what the message of 1 John means for our lives.