Summer Camp!

I have so much to blog about. I wish I had my pictures here at camp, but unfortunately I don't. Or maybe it's not unfortunate. I'm sitting here in the quiet of the afternoon, while all 4 of our kids nap. It's awesome. Oh, and I should probably tell you where we are.

We're up North in Prescott for the week, at a camp called UCYC- United Christian Youth Camp. We were here two weeks ago for a week as well. It's pretty cool that Zach has summers off now because he has the chance to do things like this- he was asked to speak to the Jr. Highers at 2 of UCYC's camps. They run week long camps all summer, and it's an incredible place with incredible staff. People who all are here because of one thing- they love Jesus, and they want to serve Him and share His love with kids. And create a life experience that the kids will never forget. That's all it's about, and it's such a beautiful thing.

The first week was great, but Teda got sick on Wednesday- and we only had one car and had to stay until Friday. My amazing mom (thank you so much mom!) drove up here to pick her up, and she ended up taking Deklan as well. So from Wednesday afternoon until Friday we had just Dane and Jett. We did all kinds of things together- lots of hiking, climbing big rocks, finding sticks (to sword fight and poke each other with, of course...ahem), looking for bugs to kill, getting SO dirty, swimming, and Dane and Zach even climbed the 35 foot rock wall and did the zip line  down. It was CRAZY- Dane did awesome, and was so brave.

He also did what they call here "the leap of faith". It's a 30 foot pole (which Dane called a big stick), with big staples on it to climb up, and once you get up- you stand on top of the pole and jump to try and grab a trapeze bar a ways out from you. We'd watched many jr highers do it the day before, and that night before bed, Dane decided he wanted to climb the big stick. He was determined, and when he is determined, he can do anything. He got all the way to the top, touched the top, and decided he wanted down. So he swung down. It was awesome. And not to worry, they had him in a very safe and snug shoulder harness, and we weren't worried at all about him falling or anything. He had a helmet on too of course. :) I will post pictures when I get back so you can see. I even have a great video too. Zach did the leap of faith as well, and he even grabbed the trapeze bar- what a stud.
So now we're here for week 2, and I'm even enjoying this time more than I did last week. I'm glad we're a whole family too- we missed Teda and Deklan when they left, but they had an awesome time at grandma and papas. And it was pretty nice to only have 2 kids up here for a few days. (side note: weird how now that we have 4 kids, having 2 is SO easy- but when we had just 2, it felt SO hard! That's probably how people who have 6 kids feel about when they only have 4... crazy)

Anyways, after coming home for a week in between, I realized just how hectic, busy, and fast paced our lives are. I really hate that. This time here is not rushed, and I think the kids are really responding well to it. Of  course, both mommy and daddy are here, and that helps SO much too. Zach is working for part of each day, and he speaks at night, but he's here- and has been able to do many things with us so far- and has all meals with us too.

Chapel has been wonderful- the kids have so much fun worshiping with the big kids. Teda is blowing me away and melting my heart listening to her sing praises to Jesus. It's the definition of precious. She said she LOVES to sing loud. Then sometimes we can hang long enough to listen to Zach talk with the kids (the singing and Zach speaking doesn't start until like 8:45pm). He has a gift, and it's evident when he's on stage speaking to the kids with ease. He's funny and engaging too, and it very comes naturally to him. We're proud of him for sure! I'm thankful that God is using him to speak into these kids' lives this week, and last.


Oh, and how cool is this- NO dishes, NO cooking, NO cleaning, NO rushing around to get to this appointment and that place... it's so great. And we're staying in a beautiful cabin (or if you're Jett, "cavin"), and the kids are in one room, and we're in another- there's a family room type area in the middle, a kitchen, and one more bedroom that the band is staying in. So needless to say, this is incredible, and I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be at camp for 2 weeks this summer. Teda has already asked if we can do this again next year. :) I hope so too! Pictures to come soon!