Summer Horse Camp

I am quite late in posting this set of pictures, but want to do it anyway as I am attempting to convert my blog to a hard copy, in the form of books, a little at a time, in order for it to serve as a family photo album and journal. I have completed and ordered my first attempt at this, which happens to be from 2007, the year we moved to China. I had the book sent to my sister, since I can't have it sent here, so I am hoping to soon receive word that it has arrived at her house and that it turned out well.

Madelyn had the great joy of attending a horse camp for a week in July. It was while we were staying at my parents' home, Daddy was already back in China, and the boys were away at camp in Michigan. There are stables on the roads that my parents' housing develpment is sandwiched between. I checked out both of them for opportunities, and the closer one had an opening beginning in two days. Not only was it an opening, it ended up being a situation with just Madelyn and one other girl! It was a wonderful time. Every afternoon for a week she had instruction in grooming the horse, learning about the tack and how to put it on the horse, an individual riding lesson, and then getting to bathe the horse, feed him, and do other odds and ends in the stable. Madelyn and her friend give Doc some loving!
The day I came to take pictures the two girls had their riding lessons outside, instead of in the arena. I was so pleased to have the blue sky and trees as background!
I was so proud of how confident Madelyn was leading this big horse around by herself! She really did well. So grateful she had this opportunity!


If you are a regular reader, you may remember that the girls and I visited my cousin in PA this summer and went to see her horse with her while we were there. This was just a couple of weeks after Madelyn had been at horse camp, so it was neat for her to get to use some of the skills she had learned at camp when she rode my cousin's horse.

Canoe Trip Photo Album

I'm warning you now, this post contains LOTS of pictures! Thus the title, Canoe Trip Photo Album. I had a really hard time narrowing down the 500+ pictures I had to work with. Both cameras that these pictures were taken with were point and shoot, and I think they took some amazing photos! Feel free to scroll quickly, but don't miss the amazing scenery of British Columbia that these six guys were surrounded by last month.

Evan, Caleb and Seth don their filled backpacks in Uncle Ken's living room the night before the trip.
In Bowron Lake Provincial Park, ready to start!
And they're off!This picture cracks me up! Uncle Ken is graciously doing all the paddling while Caleb takes his ease in the front of the canoe. I'm sure it was a momentary thing... right, Uncle Ken?!
Hey guys, let's hike up to that falls!

The crew skirts around the edge of this falls. Who will be the first to plunge in?
Uncle Justin and Seth face the freezing water. Seth said it was so cold it literally took their breath away!Their wet heads prove they all did it!
Justin and Caleb on the way to fill their drinking water containers from a mountain spring.

An overturned canoe served as a buffet table all week.
Fooling around in the canoe late one afternoon, after the campsite for the night was already reached.

Handy to have wheels to portage between lakes.
I love the reflection in this picture!
The canoes were emptied of all the gear every night when the guys set up camp. Aren't they picturesque waiting here by the edge of the lake for the next day's adventure?
Love the obvious "just woke up" look on Seth's face!

Again, the reflection is so beautiful!

Floating down the rapids!
Caleb and Uncle Justin are feeling like true adventurers about now!
Another portage... notice all the moss on the hillside.

There are ten lakes on the circuit... this one seems to have deep aqua water.
Breakfast with a mountain view!
Caleb, the lone fisherman...
A beach campsite
Another day, another lake, another mountain!
Coffee was a staple, both evening...
...and morning!
They made it!
Thanks, Uncle Ken, for taking my guys on a trip of a lifetime!

Canoe Trip

One month ago, the first week of August, Scott and Caleb and Seth, along with Scott's Uncle Ken, brother-in-law Justin, and Justin's brother Evan, were in the Canadian wilderness making their way through a 70+ mile canoeing adventure. It was an adventure that was long in the planning and much anticipated.

We had no contact with them for the week they were away. I could only imagine the experiences they were enjoying together. So good for them all to be free of iPods, cell phones, and laptops.

It was a trip that Scott's uncle had led various family members on half a dozen times before. One of the early trips Scott was a part of the summer he was fifteen years old, which happens to be the age Caleb turned just a couple of days after this summer's canoe adventure ended. I wondered if Scott would be somewhat disappointed on this second time on the trip, having built it up in his mind for the past twenty five years. But when we finally spoke on the phone after the trip had ended, he said that this experience had been ten times better than we had all hoped for, and that he had appreciated the beauty of their glorious mountian surroundings far more than he had as a young teen.

Caleb and Seth were definitely impressed with it all as well... and we are so grateful for these city boys to have had a week with no showers or bathrooms, sleeping in tents, eating from a pot on a little camp stove, and the hard physical labor of paddling a canoe on seventy miles of lakes. They also cavorted in freezing waterfalls, hiked through dense virgin forests, whittled and fished and put tents up and took tents down and were part of a team of guys that bonded in a way they couldn't have anywhere else.

It was all a gift, this experience. I hope my boys will remember it for the rest of their lives. I pray they will remember the mountains and lakes and forests and elk and time with men that love them... and those memories will shout to them of the glory of their Creator.

I've been meaning to post pictures of this trip... and I will, hopefully this weekend. There are lots of good ones!

Flying Through The Trees!

We had a very fun couple of hours with our friends the Bob and Beth and their children one weekend afternoon in July. Bob was in the process of building a treehouse/zipline platform in the woods on their property, and the kids took full advantage of the zipline. I'll admit to even trying it myself! I love how the background is blurred in the picture of Madelyn below... it shows how fast she was flying!

These pictures are compliments of Seth. Nice camera work, man!

Renee joined Beth and I that same afternoon for a bit of a visit. It was such a treat to be with these two friends. I'm sad that we didn't get in more friend visits this summer... it's amazing how the time flies. Those of you that I didn't get to spend any face-to-face time with, please know that I wish I could have!