Before I Die I Want to Live...: July 2012

I have never been in a car for longer then eight hours before, so needless to say the drive to Canada was a very new exspirience. However, surprisingly it wasn't bad at all, usually at the end of the Day I was more then ready to get out and stretch, but overall it wasn't bad. There was only once that I was pretty sure that I felt like a dead person feels. :) I also learned that cartwheels, stretching and messing around in the grass is a great way to get your blood moving again and feeling great! :)

The first night we stayed at this amazing camp called the 777 Camp (three sevens camp). The scenery still looked a lot like northern Arizona but I think I have a new meaning of the word 'flat'. The campground was beutiful and we had so much fun playing around after 10 hours in a car. Here are some pics of the camp.

This was the building that we stayed in. It had a large arena and then beautiful bunk houses

Getting ready for a long car trip

Some of the horses and foals at the camp

Some of the girls haning out on the porch

The main building where we ate food

the bunk beds were three beds high and reminded me a lot of Newsies for some reason. I spent the next day singing songs from Newsies in my head.

Janey in the cute rocking chair

Can you read this????

We watch the sun set

A quaint little house

The next day we started off at 500 in the morning (which was actually 400 az time) and drove 13 hours and 722 miles! people start getting weird after like six hours in a 15 passenger van. But we watched movies, slept, played, slept, talked, slept and then slept some more. Somehow we were still tired enough to sleep at night too. The second place we stayed was at a lovely house on the river in Montana. It was only a few hours from the border so we were able to sleep in the next morning! We decided to jump in the river with life jackets on and the experiences redefined for me what cold what is. Who would have thought that Arizona 82 degree water wasn't a norm? :) We swam upstream as long as we could and then floated happily back down. Then I took the most heavenly shower and went to bed. Here are some pictures of that house.

Kyle throwing rocks

part of the river

sitting on the wall enjoying the view

The girls talking and looking at river

The last day was by far the most interesting that he had the whole time. It only took about an hour and a half to get to the border. Of course because we were in such a big van we had to pull over and talk to the border patrol. While we expected to be there for at least an hour or two, we ended up sitting on the border for seven hours! That was not a typo, we stat there for seven (7) hours. At first we tried to act very mature and just sit still but after four hours I think no one cared any more. We laid down on the sidewalk outside and tried to sleep, we jumped from side walk to side walk, made up the random-est games and did our best to entertain us. I don't think I've ever been so bored in my life. I memorized the powerpoint that they play and eventually just ended up laying there and staring at the sky. I'm so thankful that Canada, unlike Phoenix really, has clouds.

Janey and I laying on the ground

hanging around

getting ready to lose it and cry

giving up and sleeping

we all look like bums

Canada so far is breath-breathtakingly beautiful. It's so green I kept asking people if this is normal grass or if I'm just going crazy. Did you know that grass is green. Like green green! And the blades are really thick and they bend when you walk on them. It's like wearing slippers all the time because the grass is so soft and cool and lovely. Okay, time to stop obsessing over grass. However there are also fields and rolling hills. The weather is really nice, although I do have random bug bites, and I really am enjoying it.

We got to go shopping for the camps groceries and if I missed grocery shopping I no longer do. We went to a place that was similar to Costco or Sam's Clubs. Then we proceeded to overflow six or seven of those huge carts. Not the kind with side but the flat kinds that you usually only need one of and you could fit six tvs on. Janey and I carried 150 tortillas across the store and I ended up dropping them. Thankfully someone helped me re-pile them up and we did make it. They we went to a Tim Hortons which had really amazing donuts and good smelling coffee. It was a blast and so far Canada has been a lot of fun.

Canola Fields outside of the camp

Tress behind the bunk house

it's so green!

Sarah and Grace on the way to get laundry.

Hope everyone back home is doing well. I miss ya'll very much and I'm excited to see you soon. Still praying for you guys and hope that you enjoyed hearing about my adventures. Love you all!

I have so much I could say about last week but first I want to start with last weekend. Although I had been planning a trip to San Diego it was canceled due to sickness. Instead we went to the Grand Canyon and it was sooo much fun! Some people went down but of few of use decided to hike around the edge instead.

When we got there we had fun setting up the camp and racing to the rim to make it in time for sun set. The next day we woke up at 340 so that we could see the sun rise. It was beyond worth it! There was hardly anyone there are then we hiked around. By 830 we'd hiked almost five miles and were ready to go home. We hoped on the shuttle bus and made it to one of the only places on the south rim I hadn't made it to yet.

As I was looking at the Grand Canyon I was thinking about the theme of camp this summer. We've been talking about how God was all about life and how he takes death and choas and void and turns it into life and order. The Grand Canyon was formed by the most catastrophic event the world as ever experienced. Yet through it God created one of the wonders of the world and a scene so beautiful that people come from miles around to experiences it. That's the awesome power of God to take what is bad or horrible and make it, through his grace, beautiful.

Here are fun pictures!: