Redcloud Trip

Hey everyone!  I hope you enjoy these pictures from our trip to Colorado.  It was a great blessing--even more than we expected.  As most of you know, we were at Camp Redcloud, where John served several summers while he was in college.  It was good to get out into nature, pray, and make ourselves available to God.  

Here's our crew.  The guy in the brown shirt was Todd and the girl in the red shirt was Audra.  They were our counselors and we loved them!  They became one of the group even as they modeled what it was to be a servant.

No drought here.  Look at these hanging baskets!

We stayed in a weatherport, which was basically like a cloth-covered hangar.  

The inside of the weatherport was none too fancy,  but the mattress was comfortable and I had my Pillow Pet to keep me company.  (John was in the boy's half of the weatherport.)

The view from the camp.  There's a horse barn in the distance and every night they would let the horses run out, which made a very nice scene. 

John below the chapel.  The first night we went up to the chapel at night and saw the stars from up there.  If you've never done a devotional in the dark, you should.  

Roy Rogers, our camp-provided transportation to all our activities.  Plenty of seats, but no shocks!

That's my husband on that rock face.

I was his 'belayer,' the person who manages the rope that keeps the climber safe.  Somehow I wasn't ready to delegate that to somebody else.  Todd's helping me out, though.

There's me up there.  Glad I did it, but don't need to do it again!

John and I at Lake City, the closest town to Redcloud.  We went there for milkshakes after our rock-climbing expedition.

Don't think you can read the sign, but this place calls itself is a "Husband Daycare."  

Look at the pavement and how it reflects the face of the church (there's a cross on the top that I couldn't get in the picture).

After milkshakes, we went to eat at 'Poker Alice's,' a pizza place.  John and his family have been there several times, because of his service at Redcloud, so I was glad to go there myself.

Inside Roy Rogers.  Watch the video in the following post to get a flavor of it!

The next day after rock-climbing, we went to Carson, a ghost town just beneath the Continental Divide.   I think gold miners lived there in the late nineteenth century.

My handsome guy.

Uh, this is our leader, Clover.  He is Rachel's 'handsome guy.'  Reportedly he doesn't always look this sleazy.

I like this little shot of John's Redcloud bottle.  I think I'll send it to the camp and see if they want to use it as an advertisement.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Jackson!  We love ya!

California Trip, part two

Hello all!  These are some pictures from the second leg of our California trip.  Actually, there aren't any pictures from California; these are all from our trip back and our time in Missouri.  But still, I hope you'll enjoy them.  I haven't come up with the witty commentary that's usually Mom's standard, but the pictures hopefully speak enough for themselves!

A beautiful pass along the Colorado River, at the corner of north-western Arizona.

We took a significant detour into Zion National Park.  We were exhausted at the end of the day, but saw some amazing views!

The rock formations looked like they'd just been poured out.

 

We even did a bit of hiking before getting back on the road.

Because of the detour through Zion, we took a different route through Utah than usual.  Who would of thought that Utah could look like Wales, or vice versa?

I had forgotten to take our camera to Disneyland, so here's our one Disney-themed picture.  

The windmills of eastern Colorado.  Or was it western Kansas?

While at home in Missouri, we had a good time celebrating Audrey's fourteenth birthday.

We also celebrated Father's Day.  Here's Dad with a present from Shane--a bottle of 'Wingman' wine.  If you don't know why that's significant, you haven't spent enough time with Dad.

It was crowded at the house, so seats were a little hard to come by.

Of course, some members of the family rarely ever touched the ground.

Noah at his baseball game with some chums.  It's almost hard to pick Noah out here. . .

Seth: action shot.

My cousin Chris, his wife Angie, and their two girls came by Mom and Dad's for a visit, to the delight of all cousins!

It was an active weekend - both Noah and Stitch were very tired.

One of the more unique pleasures we had this trip was the chance for me and Mel to have lunch with an old professor of ours, Mrs. Burt.  It was wonderful to sit and chat with her--HLG is blessed with great professors!

And, just in case we thought we'd come home and not do a project, we did help Ryan and Joy move some things.  Here are John and Caleb, discussing what's to be done next.

California Trip

Hi all!  I'm finally getting our California pictures posted.  These are the first installment.  Hopefully the next installment will come in the next month or so.  :-)

Windmill fields in southern California.  Hard to get a good picture when you're zooming by!

We stopped at the Patton Museum somewhere in the desert.  Alas, it was closed!  But we could still be patriotic on the grounds.

Tanks make me feel very patriotic.

Our first stop was at Shane and Christy's.  It was a lot of fun to stay there for a few days and Cammie seemed to enjoy our visit, as well.  She quickly appropriated the Pillow Pet I had bought for the trip.

True to form, we spent much of our time in LA in the car.  Shane took us on a driving tour, where we saw the USC Coliseum. . .

The Disney Concert Hall. . .

And Walmart!

After that, we went up to Santa Barbara and met up with John's family.  As you can see, they had it all together.

Together enough to enjoy wine and cupcakes, anyway.  When you're in the Santa Ynez Valley, you have to do at least one wine tasting.  And if you can get cupcakes thrown into the deal, why the heck not?

Look at these little beauties!

 

Tom is a very sophisticated guy, so one of his lunches was fancy cheese, fancy grapes, fancy crackers, and fancy bottled water.

Yes, Kay, it was a great time.

We also got to spend time with some kiddos.  Here's Natalie, stoically going down for her regular naptime imprisonment.

Jerilyn and the kids.  How sweet!

Jerilyn and the kids, unplugged.

Oh yeah, and we went to our graduation, where there was a great deal of deep conversation.

Posing.

Thought.

Fierce debate.

Reconciliation (just kidding; there was no debate).

More posing!

And posing one more time!  Pay no attention to the fellow on the left--we don't know who he is.

And to close this post, here are Ty and Mom showing off Tyler and Jerilyn's new apartment, into which they  have just moved and in which they reportedly have a new kitty.

Baby #9 !!!!

It's official: Joy and Ryan had a baby boy! His name is Samuel Patrick and we're so excited to meet him. But we have to wait a few weeks before we can make it up home. But soon, little Sam, soon. . .

A few spring break videos

Just groovin'. These two cuties are our youth/worship minister's kids. They were a lot of fun on our spring break out to West Texas. They obviously have rhythm, and if rhythm gives you a chance to hit your sister, well. . .

Here you can tell where they get their rhythm from. Here's their dad, high steppin' it to John's bagpipes. Yes, all in all, it was a spiritual time.