Family Camp!

Have you ever heard of Family Camp? Yep, the entire family went to camp this year. Before we even left, Kennedy said to me "Mom, when will Mia and I go without our parents?" Oh my, I"m thinking "we haven't even left yet and you want to know when you can offload your parents?!!". That's my independent child for ya! Thanks to some very dear and incredibly generous friends, we were able to go for free. We never would have been able to scrape it up this year. Family Camp in Forest Home, CA is an ingenious idea!! Kids went to VBS like classes in the morning while we went to a session. Then we met up for lunch and spent the next 6 hours swimming, kayaking, hiking, playing in the creek, fishing, traveling the ropes course, rock climbing, drinking coffee..........whatever we wanted to as a family!! Evening time was nice for us to go to another session or just hang while kids were cared for by a CCA (child care assistant). The camp provides one for each family.

I watched Kennedy come alive in the outdoors. The girls have been complaining for years, as we make them hike every year. But it is finally growing on them and all Kennedy wanted to do was hike and explore the woods. Mia made it clear that "she doesn't do fishing!" I had to laugh. But she sure did take the plunge and zoomed down the crazy high slide into the lake first! Kennedy soon followed with great hesitation and then Linc took the dare. Kennedy rock climbed for the 1st time and loved it. She enjoyed doing a ropes course. In fact, all 5 of us were up in the air walking on ropes and ladders. My stomach was all in knots due to my fear of heights but how could I tell a 7 year old how scared I was?!! She was so brave!

Getting away, turning off the phones, putting DVDs away, and just enjoying the outdoors was exactly what we needed. We are beginning to readdress our family goals and start updating them. I'm getting ready to read a book called Raising A Trailblazer. We we would like to become more intentional with rites of passages in our kids' lives. (ages 10, 13, 16, 18). Each year will allow us to teach our children some key character traits and leadership qualities that lie within them. We want to challenge them to use them for His glory!! Well, that's a whole other blog!!