Dayspring!

So, I am finally back from camp. I am glad to be back, I was so tired by the end of the week (sleep deprivation does that to you). My BASIC (Brothers And Sisters In Christ) group was really awesome! We all really got to know each other and in the middle of the week everyone was participating in the discussions. I learned so much from everyone in my group.

The camp is located in this really cool red canyon and on one side there is a cross at the top that lights up at night. You can hike up to the cross but you're not supposed to hike anywhere else. I did anyways. There was a place where the rock was at an angle and there were handholds and footholds so some friends and I climbed up that. It was more difficult then the trail but it was a lot more fun.

Of course, every year there are the usual free time activities, volleyball and basketball tournaments, swimming, hiking etc. and this year I was on a volleyball team. I think were were the worst team but I had fun playing. It was rally scoring and best 2 out of three games. Our first game we lost 15 to 3 and the second game we lost 15 to 5.

At the end of free time there were electives you could go to. Connecting to God through art, connecting to God through relationships, connecting to God through culture and connecting to God through conflict. I went to all except the conflict one. The art one was arts and crafts, you could draw, paint, make beaded things or make paper things. I decided to sketch. The relationships and culture ones were open questions and discussions.

The most annoying part of the week was the first night. One of the girls started shrieking because she saw a mouse and then all the other girls started shrieking. It was rather funny because they all started jumping on beds and suitcases. I personally didn't care but the other girls were scared out of their wits so at 12:30 we all had to pack up and move to a different cabin! I was not happy. It's not like the mouse was gonna eat them in their sleep! My friend and I named it Joany, and it was a very cute mouse. I voted to catch it and keep it as a pet. Somehow I was overruled.

So, now for the pictures. These are in no particular order:

This is the cross at the top of the canyon that a lot of us hiked up to; me for the scenery and others for the cell phone reception.


View from the top of the cross


Mountain Men!


This is the lovely foot circle at the cross.


Hiking buddies at the cross, notice the cell phone ;)


This looks like a cave but it is only a few feet deep.


Before we had free time we had total group and we would play games. If you lost, there was a punishment. This is the punishment for Jc, on the right.


Every night after worship we had "late night". This is at the disco dance.


This was the Spider that I found in a window, it is still alive.


During BASIC we had a butterfly land on Steve's hat. It sat there and licked his hat for about 15 minutes. We named it Steve Jr. because it seemed to like Steve.


There were lots of animals at camp (of course). This is the baby deer, I didn't get a good picture of the mother.


There were also goats, about 12 of them.


There were canvases and oil pastels in the Tabernacle and people could draw during worship, there were some pretty awesome drawings.






This is the cool climbing place that we found. It wasn't really that difficult, but it was a lot of fun!


This is our unofficial devotion group that met the first three mornings. I missed the last one because I was so exhausted that I woke up after it started.


This is the chapel that my BASIC group was supposed to meet in but it was so hot that we met right outside the chapel.


And this is my totally amazing BASIC group!


This post has taken forever to create and there are a bazillion pictures but I couldn't decide which I liked best. Well, that was camp.

~Ellentia

Camp

I'm off to camp, be back later!

~Ellentia

Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since I last posted. This week I have been home all week long except for Wednesday night; and tonight I am going to a party. I am so ready to be out of the house for a while. I bet though, that Jc wishes that she had more time at home (at least I wish it for her).

I was going to post parts from a funny e-mail that we got but I can't get to the e-mail right now. So, instead I will post a quizz:


Okay, that didn't work, I will try again later...

~Ellentia

Running in the Rain

This evening Philip was being very fussy, so Jc and I went outside for a walk with him and were joined by Mom and Libba. As we started out it began to rain lightly. We continued down the street and then turned back for home. After we dropped off the little ones and Mom, I suggested that Jc and I walk around the block once and then come inside. It wasn't raining too hard and Mom agreed. I would not have made the suggestion to walk more if I had thought that in a few minutes it was going to rain in earnest, but as it turned out, we were only halfway home when it began to rain much harder.

At first this was alright but then I realized that we were going to get very wet. We began to run as it rained harder. We passed a few cars and some people on their porch and they must have thought we were very odd indeed to go walking in the rain. I didn't really mind though, it was a nice outing in the rain. We finally got home, dripping wet. I felt like we ought to have snuck in through a window or something. But since we had asked, and received permission, to go for that walk in the rain, we had no real reason to sneak in the house. My hair has punished me for getting wet though, it has become most difficult. I will probably have to wash it to calm it down.

~Ellentia

Kings' Dreams and Schemes

Well, the music camp is finally over. I can't wait to see the video of the show! The performance was last night and to tell you the truth, those dear little campers did fantastic! The show was of course a huge success. The song with the black light worked really well. We practiced with the black light before the performance but there were lights on that we couldn't turn off so the effect in rehearsal was not nearly as neat. During the performance we had the room completely dark and we had a few extra black lights and all the kids started oohing and ahing on stage when everything started to glow. Us three stick girls had fluorescent pink dowels and they really popped in the black light.

For the Daniel in the lions den song we had five little kids dressed up as lions. We hadn't ever practiced with the costumes or even put them on the kids and one boy was way to big for his costume. However, they all looked really cute! There were lots of things in the musical that were really cute and funny, it was probably a good thing that I was running the words in the back because I was laughing too much to have been backstage.

I am glad it's over though. It was fun while it lasted but if it had been much longer, I probably would have collapsed!

~Ellentia

Kings Dreams and Schemes, the story of Daniel

Wow, it's only day two of the children's music camp and I'm already exhausted! I have been helping those dear little campers learn to play hand chimes correctly and many of them are resisting my well meant suggestions. If you tell them to set the chimes on the table they bang them on the table. If you tell them to quietly pick the chimes up they promptly try and ring them and seem surprised that it makes a sound! However, when they are supposed to be playing, half of the kids suddenly lose their desire to ring the chimes and the other half seem to feel it's their duty to ring twice as loud and often to make up for the kids who aren't playing!

After four such sessions with the campers, we take a lunch break and then get to watch the little dears run around outside. Yesterday they played kickball and one of the kids hit a homerun, passing by all of the fully loaded bases and managed to be the only one who came home that play.

I have also been running the words for the songs on the projector and attempting to learn hand motions that involve a long dowel. During one of the songs three of us "teen leaders" are going to add to the effect and kneel on stage and wave dowels around. It will be dark and everyone (including those darling kids) will have white gloves on and there will be a big black light to make the gloves and dowels glow. This is going to be fun...

~Ellentia

4th of July

Well, I hope you all had a happy 4th of July, we did. I will post pictures later, after I get them uploaded from my camera, right now I really don't want to undertake that adventure.

Nat was in a parade and afterwards we went swimming (I got a little sunburned, drat). Then we had a cookout with some friends for dinner and finished the day with the fireworks. Overall, it was a pleasant day. (I hate the word pleasant, but I can't come up with a better word to use.)

~Ellentia

13!

Wow, today we officially have 3 teenagers in our family. Nat turned 13 today, happy birthday Nat! He had a party last night that consisted of water, Bill Cosby and no sleep. Okay, maybe they got a few hours of sleep, but that's it. We also pulled out the chocolate fountain that we got for Jc's party in June. Since Nat was at camp when we got it we kept it a secret and surprised him with it last night. Overall, I think he and his friends had a good time.

Preparations...








Lighting the candles



~Ellentia