Back from Camp!

Just today picked up the girls from New Life Ranch! It was Elle Belle's first year to go! Fortunately, she has a built in best friend in her cousin Hallie. This is their counselor Lauren.
Their bunk mates were Allie and Hayley. So get this, in two bunk beds we had Ellie, Allie, Hallie and Hayley. There has got to be something about the naming trends in the year 2000. Anyway, they managed just fine!I guess all camps do this now, but you get to scour hundreds of pictures on the camp website each night to see if you can get a glimpse of your child. When I saw this one, I thought she looked pretty happy!Ellie loves nature and here she is in the background canoeing with Allie. In most of the other pictures she looked kinda hot and tired (see below), but when I picked her up, she squealed with joy, "I love camp!" Kami went to camp with 12 other 7th graders from her school (not all pictured)
Kami, Lizzie and their counselor Michelle!

Eating some camp food!
Kami and Katie!

Looks like they had a blast at camp this year!

So thankful for a week at camp where the kids were safe, developed friendships and grew closer to God! They sang praise songs, learned Bible verses and talked about a nearer walk with God.

In With The New

New Things can happen at New Life Ranch.

We went there for a Labor Day Retreat

with the new church we are attending.

Take a look at the New: New place for our family to enjoy... New friend that God has given me.... New look at the egg toss...
New game to play with an egg... New canoing partners...
New water activity for Luke...
New horse to Ellie (Hadi)...New buddy for Luke... A new day at the Ranch... And, most excitingly, a new life in Christ!!!!!

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, she is a new creation;

the old has gone, the new has come!!!

Congratulations Tiffani

and I count it as a privelege to not only have met you,

but to witness you beginning your new relationship

with God through Jesus Christ.

It is the single most important decision anyone could ever make...

to accept Jesus into their heart as the way, the truth and the life.

(John 14:6)

Kanakuk Family Kamp - Day 7

Day 7 consisted of a breakfast farewell, during which we watched our cool Term 2 video and after which we took about a thousand, cheesy pictures.

But this is the only photo I am going to post for the last day.

Because THIS is what changed Tom's mind.
Well, maybe it had something to do with the amazing-zipline-cool-ropes-course-good-food-airconditioned-rooms-amazing-beauty-sports-oriented place we were in.

But on the drive home... I asked him... what did it for you? What "converted" you, so to speak? Because though on day 2, I still saw shades of skepticism, by day 4, I could see that not only had that vanished, but it was a replaced by a genuine enjoyment and engagement in these places and these people.

His answer? I want my kids to be like those kids.

Even though he may not tell you this (he is the strong, silent type), I will tell you that Tom developed more connections and relationships than I did! As we were walking out, it was Tom giving hugs and high fives way more me. He saw in those Kanakuk counselors and staff qualities that he admired, and respected and their interest in serving the families at K-Kauai was fantastic and unique.

The picture only serves to drive home his point.

Would we do it again? Absolutely. Just wish you could go with us next time!

Kanakuk Family Kamp - Day 6

This was one of the highlights of the week. At breakfast, a congo line of kitchen staff comes out singing this crazy song about "Magic Orange Juice." The girl in front is holding a tray with a coconut in the middle. Then the counselors stand up one by one and say these hilarious things like "One time I drank magic orange juice, and you know what happened? I got into a staring contest with the statue of liberty and I WON!!!" Needless to say, Luke and other kids his age were WIDE EYED at the hilarious tales they were telling. Here comes the fun part. They announced that one person would be able to drink magic orange juice if he or she had a sticky note under their chair. Guess where it was? Under Luke's chair! So he got the coconut full of yummy magic orange juice, and got to stand up on stage while everyone sang and clapped. This picture is a recreation; I didn't take my camera to breakfast on Day 6. Darn! The funny part is that a big rain came through that morning. A hard pounding rain with lots of wind. Later, after the rain had cleared, one of the counselors asked Luke, "Hey Luke, what did magic orange juice help you do?" "STOP the RAIN!" he responded without missing a beat. Everyone got a good laugh out of that.

Ahhh.... just as we are getting comfortable and have found our groove, the week is winding down. This is our final full day at the K-Kauai, and it began with praise and worship at The Reef. Praise and Worship time is one of my very favorite parts of the week!Kami sat by her sweet friend Kristina.And Luke and Molly became great friends the last couple of days!
But the challenges were not over! It was free day, so we rushed over to Diamond Head for one last shot at the ropes.
Kami climbed the ladder to the platform and took a flying jump at the trapeze (see the tiny white matchstick looking thing?) She didn't catch it, but I was proud she tried!
The game room became big for the kids towards the end of the week. Whereas at the beginning of the week, we kind of accompanied the kids everywhere, by this time, they felt comfortable going by themselves. We may join them later or pick them up on the way to dinner.
Day 6 was school color day. Here you see a mix of the Blue and Gold and Maroon and Black.
They called Night 6 Maui-Kablowie; it was a full night of Olympic activities deejayed by some of the funniest guys there. We had a blast competing in all the activities.
This could be the worst picture I've ever taken, but I had to include it because you can see the grand finale activity that Tom participated in... down a P, B and J covered with whipped cream and chocolate sauce and then swim a lap around the lazy river. Tom is on the left. The guy he beat is on the right.
The crowd reacts as Tom beats his competitors!!!! (with a Christian spirit, of course...)

Wow, we can't believe that tomorrow we are driving back home. We all stay out late and visit. We won't be sad until tomorrow.

Kanakuk Family Kamp - Day 5

Wow. Day 5 is here. And we are up early (6 AM!) for the Hillbilly Lobster Hunt. This was BY OUR CHOICE though!

Let me explain: K-Kauai schedules two excursions for each family. You get to pick what your family would like to do. We actually got three excursions. One was Diamond Head on Day 2. Two was the Hillbilly Lobster Hunt on Day 5. The third, also on Day 5, was skiing and tubing on the lake!

But first, see what we saw early that morning. Here are our "native" tourguides who took us over to hunt crawdads.
Kami caught a crawdad!And back on the campgrounds were the hillbillies who fixed us an amazing country breakfast. They were a lot of fun. The hillbilly on the left is actually the director of the camp, Will Cunningham!Going out on the lake as a family was glorious fun!Tom said he hadn't skied in years, but he looks pretty studly to me! Alex was our boat driver. We were in good hands!What a goober!!! :-) He takes after me.Later that night, we had the Gospel Walk. This was a more serious night, not as wild, but definitely one of my favorites. Ellie with yet another person who she's bonded with... getting ready to start our walk around the property with several other families.We had a "peek" into the life of 4 other families as presented by the Kanakuk staff. They represented common attitudes and actions that are accepted as "normal," but go against God's way. This was a young girl who had an attitude with her mom.And a family of four driving to church with squabbling and frustration. That one was pretty apropos!After each skit came the silent message in the form of a poster. Simple yet strong messages. Afterwards, Will gave a message. It was geared to audiences from 2 to 102, and he talked about how Jesus is your life jacket. When you jump into a river, if your lifejacket is in the boat, it will not help you. You must put it on and let it protect you.Nick sat with us as we enjoyed the message, the praise and worship and the army of lightning bugs that sparkled in our presence.The ending of the day was perfect for Luke as his final act was a late night miniature golf game with Dad!

Kanakuk Family Kamp - Day 4

Let me tell you a little about how our days went at K-Kauai.
Here is the schedule for Day 4 that was given to us when we checked in:

6:30 Muscle Beach open (for those who wanted to get up early and workout. I wasn't among them. It is also the location of the very few TVs on the island)

7:30 Bamboo Bean open (the Bamboo Bean was the oh so hip snack shop with coffees and smoothies and treats and board games. We never made it this early.)

8:30 Breakfast in Hale Olina (the dining hall) and by the way, this isn't your typical camp food. Oh no. Let's just say I didn't skip a meal! Yummy!

9:30 Drop kids off at Low Tide (morning activities)

9:40 Adults Only - Worship and Speaker (again, the Merrills spoke. They talked about parenting which was my favorite topic of the week. I need all the help I can get!)

11:00 Adults Only - Break

12:15 Pick up kids at Jungle Dome

12:30 Lunch

1:15 Pool, Bean and Jumping Pillow open
Naptime for kids 0-2 in the Ala Moana (child care)

2:15 High Tide - afternoon activities with family
Hana Bay - upper pool open
Sunset Cove - lower waterpark open (lazy river and water slides!)
Arts and Crafts
Archery
BB Guns
Canoes
Reservations only for Diamond Head (ropes course) and Pontoon Boats on Lake Taneycomo

5:00 High Tide Ends

6:00 Dinner

This particular day was Parent's Night Out. Kids had dinner with their friends/counselors and the parents all had a candlelight dinner with kabobs and shrimp and good company. Afterwards, they took parents to Branson Landing for a little night out. This was the only evening we spent away from the kids. I enjoyed it, but glad it was just one night. We always had so much fun with the kids and the crazy activities they planned for us.

9:30 Pick kids up

After that, we usually played a late night game of miniature golf, visited the Bean, or if you were Ellie, you caught frogs with your friends.

There was no official "lights out" time, but we usually hit the sack by about 10:30.

I fell off of my picture taking duty, at least as far as our daily activities were concerned. Apparently, however, I thought it was a good day to take pictures of the scenery. So enjoy the beauty of the "island."