My Summer Vacation (by Annie)

We got to do a lot of fun things this summer. My favorite thing was working at camp, even though I was just doing laundry. I never knew just how much laundry was generated by 50+ staff as well as 20-25 sets of linens a week. Never again will I think that the laundry here at home is a lot of laundry. And I am all the more glad for our front loading washer and dryer. I also had no idea just how much the laundry girl is liked up at camp. I just hope I don't have to do it again next year, doing 2 1/2 weeks of laundry wasn't that bad, but doing a whole summer of it doesn't sound that fun, especially when I could be up at horsemanship or in the ceramics room.

The best thing about the Summer-by Sarah

The best thing I got to do this summer was during one of my three week's at Camp MiVoden when I got to essentially be staff. I got to work in the craft room almost all day. 1st period I usually helped with a kids craft and 2nd I taught candle making, then it was lunch time, after lunch it was 3rd period and I didn't do much then because it was card making and I didn't know a lot about that. 4th it was braiding (which I as usually hyper for because I had ice cream during 3rd) and 5th was tie dye which was all most always busy. And I got paid for it all which I totally wasn't expecting.
The 2nd best thing this summer was probably when we went to see Toy Story 3 in theaters as a family in Denver on the Fourth of July. Those where probably the two best parts of my Summer.

Ok - so maybe posting on the blog has not been that high of a priority. It was fine when Lon was still with us, but now that it's just me and the kids, we are having a great time, and things are going (reasonably) well, but finding the time to blog isn't so much happening. Sorry bout that. The second day we left from the campground in St. Louis and headed for Topeka. We had a very nice visit with my aunt and uncle in Topeka and did make it several more hours down the road to an RV place in Abaline, KS. The next day we logged hours and got all the way into Denver, in hopes of finding a Fireworks show there. A rather large, menacing storm blew through (tornado warnings and all) right about sundown, so we decided in the end, to skip the fireworks (besides it was ccccccold!!!) and go see the movie Toy Story 3. It was a good movie. The next morning I took Lon to the airport and then got the kids and we headed up into Rocky Mountain national park. That was breathtaking!! We had left the trailer in Denver, so we were traveling light. We were glad we had left it when we discovered that there was a particular road that we wanted to go on that they do not allow RV's on (for good reason, there was already, even without the RV, several switch-backs, where I had to jocky in the truck, just to get around the corner. It was gravel and narrow, and one-way!) It was very neat, driving it though, reminded me of my old motorcycle days. We saw elk, and dear, and Sarah saw Mt. Goats, and we saw (almost ran over) a wood chuck. The continental divide was NOT AT ALL as I remember it from the trip through there with my grandparents when I was 10. We actually had to drive DOWN to get to it. Rather odd, I thought. We did stop at one spot where there was some snow beside the road, so the kids could play in the snow. :)
Back in Denver, we got to bed early, so we could log a bunch of miles, and also have time to stop at Glenwood Hotsprings the next day. We got up and got a good start on the day - no problems hooting up the trailer, etc, without Lon's help. Sarah is amazing!! We made it almost (within 400 feet) of the top of the pass and heard a LOUD PISHHHHHHHHHHH from the engine. Ugh. Fortunately there was somewhere I could get off the road. All the gauges were reading normal and the check engine light was not even on, so I almost thought it was some sort of a natural pressure release. I called Lon, he called our old mechanic in Portland, and he suggested that possibly there was an issue with the turbo. Ouch. I'm seeing four-digit repair bills about now, and not sure what to do. God lead me to an AWSOME mechanic in Silverthorne, CO, (he was in my GPS point of interest list) He told me that I should limp over the peak and coast into him, and he was betting it was a clamp or a hose or some such simple thing, and he would get me back on the road again ASAP. Which is pretty much exactly what he did. I sure wish he would move to Huntsville!!! Nice guy!!
We still made it to Glenwood in time to swim (no thanks to their LOUSY RV parking situation, it took us nearly an hour, just to park. First we paged a guy who was parked in the RV section in his little Mazda truck, then we decided he wasn't coming, and tried parking in several spots that were open in a block, but we would have to unhook the trailer. We were in the process of doing that, and the Mazda guy came. So we pulled around to get into that spot and discovered that we could not, there was not enough room to swing wide enough to get into the narrow spots they had. So we ended up going BACK over to the other spot, which had in the mean time opened up a bit more, making it easier to get in, but had to drop the trailer again. Crazy. They really need to improve their RV parking at that place!!!
After we swam and ate, I was not tired, so I figured, I would just drive until I was. We got almost all the way to Salt Lake City. We stopped at a roadside wide spot and climbed into the trailer and slept for a few hours and then pulled down into SL, and got a few groceries and ate out for breakfast (IHOP childrens menu is only $1.99 per kid!!! And Ricky actually got FULL!!!) Then we headed out to our campsite. We relaxed all day, the kids played in the water, I took several naps, and we built a campfire to roast our hotdog dinner, and had s'mores. All around, a pretty good two days, even WITH the three hour lay-over in Silverthorne.
Today we pretty much spent the day driving, though we did stop first thing, at the Golden Spike National Historical site. That was FUN and INTERESTING. Amazing to find out that all the iron that was used to lay the western rail line was shipped from the east coast, down around the horn of S. America, and up to California, as there was not a Iron foundary anywhere on the west coast yet. Even the Locomotive that came up the Western line was shipped there!!! And the tunnel that was cut through the Sierra Nevadas, OH MY GOODNESS - 8 INCHES a day they were able to progress!!!
We swung through Boise on our way to our campsite, here about an hour toward Lewiston, and we bought groceries at a WINCO!!!! I miss that store. I was even taking pictures inside, so I can show my friends in Alabama what a REAL grocery store looks like inside!!
Anyway, tomorrows drive is on windy roads, so I should get some sleep so that I can be a safe driver. We are spending two nights in Lewiston with friends, so I should be able to figure out how to post pictures here while we are there. We'll see.

Sharon

On the road again...

So, early yesterday morning (wow - was it really just YESTERDAY?) we rolled out of our home in Alabama, bound for Idaho/Oregon/Washington/Montana and many points along the way. We had left a tad later than we had originally planned (surprise surprise!) due to Lon's boss asking him to work five hours of overtime on the day we had intended to leave. Then, in the evening, as we were hooking up, intending to pull out in the morning at about 4:00, we discovered that a part for the hitch was missing! We were able to jury rig something that helped us limp to Nashville where there was a service center with the missing part, but we knew they would not open until 8, so we did not pull out at 4. We still made reasonably good time to St. Louis, MO. We stopped there to play in the fun fountain that we had played in last year, and to go up in the arch, which we had not been able to do last year. It was alot of fun, and interesting to learn about how the arch was planned and conceived as a monument to the westward expansion and the energy that Thomas Jefferson put into that. We were at the top of the arch for Sabbath Sundown, which was probably the most memorable Sabbath Sundown we have had in quite some time. While we were playing in the fountains in downtown in the afternoon, we were noticing that ALOT of people with red shirts were walking by, headed to the stadium. St. Louis KNOWS how to show up for a baseball game!! When we were at the top of the arch we were able to look down on the stadium and see the veritable sea of red that the fans were wearing. Also, while we were 'swimming' we stumbled upon a ceremony being held in honor of a local Marine who had recently attained the rank of officer. We witnessed him receiving his honorary first salute and also learned many interesting things about various traditions surrounding the ceremony. It was interesting!! By the time we were done at the arch it was well past bed time for many of us, especially those of us that had not gotten much sleep the night before. We headed over to where the trailer was parked and settled in for the night. We slept well, and LONG. We didnt' get on the road this morning till after 10:30. We dont' have as much to cover today, we plan to stop in Topeka to visit my aunt and uncle who live there, and then get another hour or two down the road toward Denver. Yesterday was a really nice start to the trip though, relaxing and enjoyable. I'm starting to look forward to it, rather than dreading it, as I had been for a while. We covered five states in one day, so that is nothing to sneeze at either!! Please continue to pray for our safe travel. Last night, on facebook, I read about an accident in Oregon where an older gentleman was killed, and the rig they were driving was exactly what we are driving, a Ford Excursion pulling a travel trailer. It just reminded me of the near miss we had last summer, on that same highway, a little further west (near The Dalles) and made me realize again, that we need God's protection on this trip. We also need Him to help us manage Ricky and Mayahna, who seem to save their most testing behavior for trips such as this. We are in the process of laying the 'ground rules for the trip' and it isn't as much fun as it could be, and we covet your prayers for patience and wisdom, and that we can get through it quickly and put it behind us soon!! You can also view pictures from the day yesterday, at my profile on facebook - if you're not on there yet (ahem!!) maybe now would be a good time to take a look at joining in the fun!! I'll try to learn how to post pictures here, too, but don't hold your breath.

Sabbath the 17th there was a Pathfinder Bible Achievement event in Michigan. We left on Thursday and got back on Sunday and the whole trip was a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun at the Indianapolis Zoo, especially at the dolphin show. The water park was fun especially the slide that went really fast. For those of you that don't know, we stayed at the Whiteheads. That was a lot of fun and the food was very good. There was also this really cool cider barn that we stopped at, they had really good chocolate(that I found out that the Whiteheads love) and some very good preserves (which the Whiteheads also liked). There was a vespers Friday night that we went to and church and Sabbath School the next day. Almost everyone was in their pathfinder uniforms. After church was over we went to lunch (we thought it would be hay stacks but it wasn't!). When we were done eating we got to visit for a little bit until we had to go and get the club picture taken, when we were done with that we went in to the sanctuary and (after everyone was seated and quiet) we had the competition. We got 3rd. After every one knew what they got there was a big group picture and then there was dinner (which turned out to be hay stacks) then every one went home (after a few more pictures).