Bible Camp 2009

This is always one of the highlights of our summer. We spend a week at Yellowstone Bible Camp in Pray, Montana--appropriate, huh?! For the second year, I was the assistant cook with Loree. It is always busy, but such a good time. The camp was full this year with over 140 families. We usually go to work camp over Memorial Day weekend to help clean everything up and open the camp up for the summer. We spend a week at Family Camp, and then end our summer at Labor Day Camp and work on shutting the camp down for winter. It is truly one of our favorite places to be--no tv, computers, cell phone service--just enjoying God's awesome creation and fellow Christians. It is one of the girls favorite places as well--they get to spend time with a lot of the friends they have made around the state. The kids have bible class in the morning and then have the afternoon to explore and use their imaginations.

One of the big things they decided to do this year was create a flower garden. As you can see, they did a great job--although the flowers didn't take "root", maybe because there were not roots attached! Here is Rylee, Kailen, Titus, and Haylee sitting on the bench they made by the flower garden they made--budding botanists, I think.

The kids had to stick close to the common areas this year because we had a mama black bear with a couple of cubs decide to visit. They were fun to see, but we were very respectful. There was also a mountain lion spotted around camp. All this kept the kids within eye-sight.

Since Loree and I are always busy in the kitchen, the men (Steve and Ed) usually end up taking the girls on hiking adventures. Here are some pictures of one such hike with a bunch of kids. They always have a good time being in the mountains and exploring.

Here is Rylee having a snack after a hike up the mountain to the waterfall.

Here is Kailen enjoying maneuvering over logs and rocks.



A Motley Crew-Kailen, Rylee, Sydney, Hannah, and Haylee

On another day, they guys took the little girls up to Little T-Shirt. At camp, there is a mountain with two trails--one up to Little T (which is about a 10-15 minute hike up a steep shale field). Once you get to the top, there is a t-shirt hanging on a tree that you get to sign with a sharpie. The other hike is up to Big T-Shirt--this is a much more strenuous long hike. The girls haven't attempted this one yet--maybe next year. So, below are some pictures of the girls hike up to Little T.

They made it to the top and got to sign the t-shirt. Great view!


This is on the way down. It is pretty steep, so the guys told them to go down on their bottoms.

Here is some video of fun on the way down!

So, they made it down--here are the smiles from the front!

And the dirt from the back!

Here is Loree and I on a rare occasion sitting down!

On the last night of camp, the campers put on a talent show. Kailen's class did a little skit to show off their Armor of God which they had been working on all week in their class. They did a great job.

We are always sad to leave when camp it over. It usually takes a couple of days to recover. This year the girls and I only have a couple of days and then we are taking a road trip to Texas. We should come back with some good stories from that trip.