Let me preface this blog....
I am so thankful to finally be able to be involved and welcomed into a church group. This is a VERY long time coming. I have been an outcast,even in church settings since middle school at the giant TRBC. I remember the details but I'll spare you on how I stopped attending youth group and just went to the adult class from 9th grade on due to poor leaders and not the best peers either. I did heavily volunteer in the nursery as my church for a few years until I started working during church hours. Even at 18 and pregnant I attended church with Marko--- until a perhaps well meaning lady lectured us on our pregnancy and marriage plans.... and Marko has never returned to church beyond 2 30 minute spurts for baby dedications after much begging from me. I tried to go back to church after resigning Burger King and went every single week, even bringing a good friend and her 3 kids and 4 grand kids. We attended together all but 1 week for an entire year. When she stopped, no one even noticed. No phone call or email, nothing. I stopped attending a few months later, and the same, Clearly we still didn't belong or fit into even our Sunday School class. I even volunteered in junior church and coached 3 seasons of sports, trying to fit,
But here I am now, trying to keep my kids involved in school activities so they won't have the same experiences I did ofbeing anti-social. Not even trying to get anything out of it for me, and yet I have. This is the most accepting and loving church group I have ever been a part of. I don't know if they have a mission statement as a church but I always envision every church's mission statement should be about the same, something to the effect of Acts 1:8
8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. Then you will tell people about me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria. And you will even tell other people about me from one end of the earth to the other.”
They truly succeed. They've wrapped their arms and prayers around not only my kids, but the non school/church kids I bring and the adults in their lives too, even though it's a kids program, and none of us are members of this church. This church is exactly what I'd envision a church family to be like and I am so blessed to get to be a part of it! This is our 2nd year w/ Adventurer club, but our first 100% real camping adventure, which means for me, my kids, and the extra kiddos I bring this was our first real camping experience (beyond camping at the church last year).
We left from the church/school about 4pm on Friday afternoon. We were jam packed into dad and mom's little red car, as my van was stillllllll in the shop (another blog at some point).
We were all ready and excited. It was about 80 minutes until we reached Camp Blue Ridge, we got caught in a brief storm first even.
We immediately set up camp. I got our tent set up and Isaiah's tent set up w/ some help. The kids wasted no time to go play and enjoy the nature at the camp site.
We had dorito salad for dinner followed by smores for dessert. As expected it was a hit! We also had a bible lesson around the fire.
Afterwards the kids had about an hour of free time until bed. Anthony and Will sptotted a friend, we of course had to get up close and personal and introduce him to our friends.
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| Meet "Bug", because he likes to eat bugs! |
At 10pm it was flashlights out--- and I was ready, as I had been up since 4:30am worked 8.5 hrs and then had to get everyone picked up and car loaded for camping!
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| our huge tent--- thanks Pathfinders for lending us it |
By 5:30am, I was too cold to get sleep, so just laid and listened. About 7am I got up. Most the campers were up and already playing in the woods. Sone were warming up w/ hot chocolate around the campfire.
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| I took these 3 on a hike.... at one point we got an aerial view of our camp site |
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| fishing fun |
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| the kids loved crossing this log |
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| like her shoes? |
Some rescue attempts were needed and many changes of colthes too
We had a late breakfast around 10am of pancakes, cantaloupe and veggie sausage.
Then we took a hike up to the "back cabin woods" I think it was called where Pastor Mike taught on creation and Mrs. Melanie, Katelynn and Asia lead the songs. Afterwards the kids were allowed to play in the cabins and woods in that area for a while.
We headed back to our camp. The kids had no problem entertaining their selves. We had a very casual lunch of pbj or cheese sandwiches, chips and a cookie.
After lunch and some playtime, we headed to meet some campground pets.
Then we walked to the lake to earn our canoe award!
Mrs. Melanie taught us how to canoe-- although few were successful at first.
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| Jayna and her good friend Natalie were partners |
Luckily our high school girls were trained professionals at helping the struggling canoers back to dock. They even had their very own rescue boat theme song!
The second part of the canoe award was much easier--- get in and out of a canoe w/o tipping it.
Anthony got offended at the end of his canoe ride so spent most of the rest of the time sulking on a bench. For the rest of the afternoon the kids were allowed to play in the shallow area of the lake, the sand or within view of the adults in the field area. The paddle boat was a pretty big hit and much easier for the kids to maneuver than the canoes.
Catching newts quickly became the next biggest hit. A lot of the kids got good at it and they were all happy to handle the slimy critters!
Then the best part of Ant's day occurred unexpectedly. Mr Billy showed up. And suddenly my offended boy was getting private soccer lessons from the best coach! (Mr. Billy is Ant's teacher and the soccer teacher at school)
About 6 we headed back to camp to cook supper. The Williams and Wright families joined us. It was wonderfully inclusive and loving family night. He had hotdogs/veggie dogs, grapes, potato salad and baked beans. The adults roasted the dogs to speed up the process.
After dinner the kids of course needed dessert-- and smores it was. By these faces I consider it a successful treat!
After we ate we had worship time.
As it was starting to get dark the kids were anxious to play one of their favorite ever games, best of all no electricity required. It's like hide and seek in the dark-- called Sardines. But first Mr. Billy to the resue. By this point J's hand was nicely swollen (again) and she'd lost the ace bandage we brought. So he did a splint all natural version....
The the games began. Most the adults just chatted around the fire while the kids played. Usually I hang with the kids but my back wasn't up to it thanks to the accident and still dealing with back issues. The fire was pretty and warm though so I was satisfied just the same!
About 10 we called it quits. All our day guests left and we got ready for bed. It didn't take this long to realize we'd gotten sunburn, although it took this long to get a selfie as proof. It hadn't been that hot but the sun was shining right on us and gave us chapped lips and a little burn.
We cozied into our sleep gear. I got Jayna and Will an extra blanket as they had been cold the previous night (so had I). Jayna was in a sleeping bag inside of a sleeping bag haha.
I barely slept--- i did get 2 straight hours initially and then I was awoke and only lightly dozing, checking my watch every 30-60 mins. I was soooooo cold and my sleeping back lied. I was sleeping in jeans and sweats, 2 tees, hoody and winter coat. My bag claims it keeps you warm to 20degrees.... i was NOT warm! Everyone was sooooo cold. You can't barely tell that there are kids in these sleeping bags they are so wrapped up.
after an extremely cold night everyone was a bit eager to have breakfast, pack up and tear down. We stayed until the very end helping Mrs. Melanie with everything.
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| TRYING to warm up after a freezing night |
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| breakfast of champions |
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| Sage's trophy from the stream |
Tabi requested we see the animals again, and with a smaller number of kids left, we got a much closer look at our furry friends.
After we played with our furry friends and possibly considered kidding them, it was time to hit the road.
It wasn't 5 minutes into our drive before this---
About 10 minutes until this---
About 15 until this---
They slept the whole way home. We were all hungry when we got home about 12:30 so our camping trip ended with lunch at Bob Evans!
We had the best weekend with the most wonderful people. We are fortunate to be a part of this church family!
