Our Family

Youth Camp 2014

July 14, 2014 / 9 Comments

We are home after a 3,000 mile odyssey across the United States to Indiana where we attended a church youth camp. And lest you think it was us that were the campers, it was our children. We went as workers. It was a wonderful time. And since some of you might enjoy seeing pictures of our trip, I’m going to share just a few of the over 200 photos I took. 🙂

We didn’t drive the church van this year but took along 3 extra passengers in our Suburban which has almost 300,000 miles on it!

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We drove 24 hours and landed in St. Louis for an overnight stay.

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Then we took a tour of… do you know what?

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The St. Louis Arch

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St. Louis – the Gateway to the West. The place where the mountain men would leave from to explore the unchartered Louisiana Purchase, where the Lewis and Clark Expediction left from in 1804.

The arch was built as a monument to westward expansion.

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Camp is for ages 10 and up but younger kids often come with their parents if they are workers. One thing I love about this camp is if you want to introduce an activity or craft to the kids, you are welcome to do it. So our friend, Nathan, who just married this year, loves LEGOS and had oodles of them for the kids to play with at a designated time.

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There’s other crafts and activities as well.

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activities

Wesley thought it would be fun to have t-shirts made for some of the kids from Arizona who were playing on their “team”.

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I worked in the Snack Shack once again. Love my customers! 🙂 Audrey helped out a little taking orders.

snack shack

With 350 campers, there’s plenty of people to visit with.

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I got to hang out with some great ladies all week and even my sister was there!

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But after a week, we had to say goodbye. A week wasn’t near long enough to spend with these wonderful people.

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We swung by my parents house in Illinois for a day. And left Serenity there for 2 weeks. Then she’ll be going to PA for 2 weeks. We’re going to miss that girl but she’s going to have a great summer, I’m sure.

grandparents house

The whole trip was great fun…including the ride back. The Suburban did great until we got to New Mexico and then it started making a grinding noise whereupon it was determined we have a rear differential to replace in the immediate near future. But we did get safely home.

The kids were amazed to hear of someone’s engagement and wouldn’t believe me till I showed them a picture. (You know who you are. (wink) )

And then there were some fights that broke out. That’s boys for you. Whaling on each other all in fun. Really? That’s fun?

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We’re home, catching up on laundry still, missing Serenity and I’m getting myself geared up to do some planning for our homeschool and a few house projects. (you know… the ones that take me forever to finish) 🙂

How’s your summer going?

9 Comments

  • Courtney Horst

    July 14, 2014 at 5:16 pm Reply

    Wish we could’ve made it down for atleast an evening of camp but just couldn’t wrangle it-being tht we had vacation planned in WV n camp was a bit far this year to just go down for an evening. Missed y’all making your annual round at our church the Sunday after-however understand tht it would’ve made your trip MUCH longer. Our summer is going well. =]

    • Elisabeth

      July 15, 2014 at 6:14 am Reply

      Everything about the camp was so nice except for it being farther for all those in Ohio. We missed getting to see all of you. We missed our annual tradition of coming to Bluffton, too and not being able to go to the wedding. 🙁 Your mom might be interested to know that you will be able to rent cabins there next year at the campground (as far as Doug knows) for about $200 for the week.

  • Rebecca fisher

    July 14, 2014 at 10:04 pm Reply

    Good to catch up on your blog! Loved the pics from the Arch. I grew up in Missouri and have been there countless times, but I always enjoy the museum of westward expansion. I hope they haven’t changed it. It used to be free, I hope it still was. Glad you all are home safely!

    • Elisabeth

      July 15, 2014 at 6:12 am Reply

      You’re from Missouri? Neat. Yes, it’s a great museum and still free. Yea! But, it was such a busy day when we went that we waited in line for an hour to ride the car to the top of the arch. We’ve been there before so if we had known it would take that long, we would have skipped it this time. That was the only disappointment. It’s an amazing monument to me.

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