Week 6

Well after 6 weeks, 19 states and 7 camps we are home!  We had a great trip but we are so glad to be back home:). We spent week 6 traveling home with some sight seeing along they way!  The last camp we stayed at was called camp Liebenzell.  Here, we stayed in more of a guest house that was more like a bed and breakfast.  The house was beautiful and their staff were great!!

While we were there we traveled into NYC to do some sight seeing!  Ben was so excited to see the Statue of Liberty and Bailey wanted to see Times Square.  I am so glad that John and I had been there a couple of times before this trip so we knew what to expect:). I have decided that if John and I can take 3 kids through Boston and NYC, then we can do anything!!  Needless to say it was a bit stressful at times and we were worn out at the end of the day but we made some great memories with the kids and would do it over again:)

On our way home we stopped in Hersey, Pennsylvania and went to the Hersey factory.  The kids did not know about this part of the trip and it was fun to surprise them:). If you ever go through there I would recommend stopping...it was so fun!  The kids favorite part was getting to make there own chocolate bar!

Our last stop before making it home was in Nashville to see our good friend Chris Reid.  We spent all day Thursday with him and had lot of fun feeding the ducks, going to the park, science museum, splash pad and swimming!  It was a great day!

John and I are still trying to process all that we learned from our trip...we had some really great times but also some pretty challenging times.  It is fun to hear the kids tell people here what their favorite things where and hear them process our trip.  I know John learned some great things that he will be sharing with our staff here.  The thing I was most challenged on was stepping out of my comfort zone which is good for us all to do but I will admit I am glad I am back in my bubble but so thankful for The Lord taking me out of it for awhile!  Thank you all so much for following our journey by praying, texting and emailing.  It was great knowing we had people back home praying for us and it never failed when I was having a hard day or feeling a bit home sick I always got a sweet email or text from friends back home:). We feel so bless by our friends and family and our ministry at NLR!

Week 5

I can't believe we have been gone for five weeks! One week to go and I am so ready to be back at home and in a normal routine:). This week we spent time at Hume New England camp and had a great time there!  They were very welcoming and took lots of time to get to know us and what we do at NLR.  They invited us to do camp with them so we stayed there the whole time.  They had amazing chapel services, and their summer theme was over the Life of Paul. They introduced the first night with a live production with the whole staff and then each of the nights had a video about another part of Paul's story. The kiddos asked to go to chapel every night we were there.  We made some great connections there and were invited by several to come to Hume in California which we hope to do sometime soon.  We spent a lot of time in their dinning hall area where the kids liked playing GaGA ball with the staff and other campers.

We stayed there for 3 nights and then headed to Grotonwood Baptist Camp.  We did not get to visit with their staff much, as the director that we had set everything up with was able to take a small vacation with his family.  At Grotonwood they do a lot of camps for special needs adults which I love:). Here we were able to stay in a house and spread out some which was so nice!  We did a lot of sight seeing in Boston and the surrounding area when we were there.  We took the kids to see some key sights in our nations history. One day we were able to connect with one of John's friends from high school, Caliene. She lives near Boston and recommended we meet at the Minuteman National Park near Lexington, MA. We got to see a video about the battle of Lexington & Concord and then visit key places from that historic day. One of the places we visited had a character who explained how the men ages 16-60 prepared and led their daily lives as "Minute Men" and showed how they would have to load and fire their guns. The next day, we were able to visit downtown Boston and see Faneuil Hall, the site of the Boston Massacre, and the USS Constitution. We all had a great time exploring the past and learning hands on a little bit more about our nations history. 

While we there we also made a short drive up to York Beach, Maine.  It was pretty chilly but that did not stop the kids at all of wanting to get in!  It was beautiful there and we want to come spend more time there!

We are on our final week!  Next update will be from home!  Please pray for safe travel for us as we make the trip home!

Week 4

We had a great time our last week at Camp Berea!  John was able to lead staff devotions for the support staff & volunteers (which was about 25 people) on Tuesday through Thursday mornings. The rest of the week he was able to meet with several full time stuff to work along side them and ask questions about their responsibilities at Camp Berea. It has been interesting to see how all of the camps do things so different yet we all have the same ending goal of reaching campers for Christ!

With John's schedule being a little more relaxed in the last week at Camp Berea, we got to spend some time doing things together as a family. We still spent a lot of time at the lake swimming, got to go out on Newfound Lake to see the sites (plus Ben and Bailey got to go tubing), and on Tuesday we headed to Boston to watch a Red Sox game.  We were able to meet up with Jeremy & Meredith Fulda, who were in town visitng another friend, for dinner before the game.  We had a great time catching up with them and hearing about their ministry. We had a lot of fun at the game, but I think the kids favorite part was riding the subway:). It was a little more stressful  with kids, and I'm glad I don't have to do that everyday!

Later in the week we went back to the mountains to see the Flume Gorge at Franconia Notch.  It was so beautiful!!  We spent most of the day hiking and exploring all the neat little waterfalls:). New Hampshire is a beautiful state, and would highly recommend anyone who loves the outdoors to make plans to visit the area. Here are some pictures from our hike.

One of the kids favorite things at camp was the Friday night carnival.  They loved running around winning tickets and spending them on fried dough (super yummy) and cotton candy.  The boys loved spending their tickets to shoot the counselors with paintball guns:). The boys had a small group of guy staff that they loved!  They were super great with them and helped bring Bradley out of his shell (picture below)!

As expected, Ben loved the photo booth:) Thank you Mr. Rhett and NLR summer staff on your influence!

One of Bradley's favorites at the carnival was a donut eating contest. After a few seconds of actually trying, he would usually just grab the donut to eat it! 

We made some good friends while we were there!  The kids had fun playing with Bella (resident staff kiddo).  They played and swam at the lake for hours everyday and were very sad to say goodbye to her.

We also got to know a ver neat couple who have been volunteering every summer for 18 years!  They made us feel very welcomed and always checked on us:). We will miss our friends Bill and Ruth!

So we said goodbye to Camp Berea on Sunday...please continue to pray for them and their staff.  They are doing great things there and 3 weeks of camp left including jr. high camp this week, a girls only week, and a jr high and sr. high week, before ending the summer with 2 weeks of family camp!! We do hope to come back someday to visit our new friends at Camp Berea!

We are now at Hume New England in Massachusetts and having a good time. We'll post again soon!  Thanks for all the prayer, text and emails...we sure miss home:)

Week 3

We had a lot of fun having Bailey back with us this week!  The kiddos are feeling more and more at home here:). I think the kids know more of the staff than we do and Bradley has his own little fan club!  It has been fun to watch Bradley come out if his shell some.  The camp only has one family with kids that lives on site. Bailey and Ben have had fun getting to know their kids.  Their favorite thing this week to do together was hunt for muscles in the lake in the afternoon.  They would spend hours doing this...one day they found 443 muscles!  This past week the band that led worship also brought their kids and our kiddos quickly bonded with them as well.  By the end of the week our kids would no longer sit with us in the dinning hall and had created a kids table like at the ranch:)

This week the weather has been a bit crazy!  We had temperatures in the 90's early in the week...which would not be a big deal if we had AC:). It was a few hot days and we spent ALOT of time at the lake.  Then later in the week we got tons of rain and wind from Hurricane Arthur.  We only had a few down trees and branches at the camp and they had to pull in the trampoline and the blob out of the lake but no major damage.

This week John continued to work with the maintenance team and helping with projects.  Outside the regular schedule of setting/cleaning up the Dining Hall, cleaning public restrooms, and stocking the vending machines around camp; John got to help out with several other projects on their maintenance list. There was a lot of variety in these projects which included fixing some broken drawers from different cabins, sorting and washing lost and found from the first week of camp, helping troubleshoot how to update their point of sale software that they use for their snack shoppe, and his favorite was using a chainsaw to help clean up a large pine tree that got knocked down when the winds and rains came in with the storm system associated with Hurricane Arthur. 

The kids and I went and visited a children's museum about an hour away one day to have something different to do.  The kids had a great time there!  Their favorite things were the bubbles and trying to make the biggest one, the castle slide and Bradley loved the train station.

On John's day off this week we headed up to the mountains to hike and explore Franconia Notch in New Hamsphire. The mountains were beautiful and we got to go to the top of Mt. Cannon!  We were able to ride a tram up to the top and along the way up the kids got to see a black bear in the wild, which was really cool!

Once we reached the top we had some fabulous views!  It was super windy that day due to the Hurricane which you will be able to tell in some of the pictures.

On the way out of the Franconia Notch State Park we were able to stop by the Old Man of the Mountain historic site. This was a rock structure that was discovered in 1805 and served as as symbol and popular spot for many to come and see this amazing formation. Unfortunately time and weather caused the formation to come tumbling down in 2003. The state has built a memorial at the popular viewing site where  you can see the location and then by standing in a certain spot there is a sculpture that you can look at to replicate what it used to look like. 

Today marks the halfway point of our adventure. We have one more week at Camp Berea, where John will spend the middle of the week leading morning devotions for the support summer staff (aquatics, rec team, office, maintenance, nurse, and volunteers). We appreciate your continued prayers for our family and the staff at Camp Berea as they continue to impact campers lives this week.