frychik: July 2013

Monday, July 15, 2013

Big Lake

We headed to Big Lake this weekend to camp with some friends who also have kiddos working at Big Lake Youth Camp...

Our camp was located on the opposite side of the lake from the youth camp - which was perfect! 10 min drive and we could see our kiddos and have a flushing toilet! I'm not telling which I was more excited about... :)

I had never been to this side of the lake and the campground had amazing views...

It was I think quite possibly the prettiest campground I have ever stayed at...

Mountain views, lake with crystal clear water, it was gorgeous!

One of the funnest parts of the weekend was being able to watch Josh at work :)

He had 14, 10-12 year olds all to himself for the week... :) and he's good at it!

Being "female" I was forbidden to see his cabin in the Boy's Village (grrrrr) but Jeff and Ty were able to and they witnessed him organizing all 14 of them into some form of cabin cleaning for inspection...

He seemed very organized and sure of himself...

He had 14 little ducks following him everywhere he went...

The down side of that is when you visit him you don't have his attention :)

Apparently the counselors are not to tell the campers their age...
When they found out I was his mom that was their first question "how old is he?"
I asked how old they thought he was - answers ranged from 23 - 35 !!!!
Which made me laugh! My baby seems so old to them :)

Here they are lined up before dinner...

They eat family style - Josh serves his cabin at every meal....

Lined up after dinner to head back to cabin to get ready for campfire...

Josh helping out during songs at campfire....

Sabbath afternoon we went with Josh's cabin on their excursion to some caves about 30 min away on unmarked dirt roads that ended near a hole in the ground...How do people find these places?
I'm not a big fan of caves....but the part where they ate lunch had cool sky lights which gave me peace of mind...

Big Lake is a beautiful place to spend your summer.

Josh is working his tail off which makes me happy :)

He also has some sweet benefits to the job if he is willing to get up at 6 am and take advantage of the very impressive wake board instructor who has come in for the week....

We didn't get to spend much time with him and when we did see him he was busy but it was really cool to see him at work...
To see him happy and content in a safe/fun/Christian environment did my heart good.:)

Frychik

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Banana Slugs

It was an amazing weekend. Unexpectedly we were childless...so we had to fill our time doing things that our little darling boy just doesn't appreciate at the same level we do - like hiking :)
We decided to explore Mirror Lake on Mt. Hood. When we got to the lake it was pretty much a white out because of the low clouds....

So we hiked higher to a peak called Tom, Dick and Harry and then we sat there for 30 min before the clouds parted to reveal an impressive view. But the clouds would blow right back in so we could only catch glimpses of the mountain which was kinda cool.

When we came down from Tom, Dick and Harry Mirror Lake looked like this! Amazing what a difference some clouds can make!

Then we ventured over to Timberline Lodge. Mt. Hood really is a beautiful mountain any time of the year...
I tried to climb this mountain once...lets just say it was a VERY humbling experience which did not end with me summiting...I still hold a bit of a grudge about that...

Mt. Jefferson and then the Sisters way back there. Our oldest boy is somewhere between those mountains.

My husband threw a snowball at me!

While we were hiking up to Tom, Dick and Harry we met some people on the narrow trail. I noticed as one passed me that he almost stepped on a banana slug...he also noticed that he had almost stepped on "something" and was peering down trying to figure out what it was...
I said "did that slug almost get you?" (cause I'm funny that way) and he said "oh, is that what that is?" I said yep its a banana slug, which got his entire group interested - which of course led me to the conclusion that they just weren't from around here...when I asked they said they were from Chicago. I then felt the need to let them know that you do not have to be in the middle of the Mt. Hood national forest to spot a banana slug...I didn't want them bragging to their Chicago neighbors that they had spotted the rare and decidedly ugly banana slug...I informed them the banana slug can also be found on my front porch at home...to which they seemed mildly impressed...