Time Does Fly...

It feels like yesturday I was looking at the calender thinking how long and wonderful summer was going to be. Let's just say I blinked before I could catch myself. I thought that I would have all the time in the world to get some reading done, sewing projects completed, craft room organized again (honestly, you can never organize things enough!), complete all the requirements on my NARHA certification... yeah, the workshop/training session is only a couple weeks away, and I don't even really know where to begin... I've read the horsemanship manual through level 3, but Level 4 is huge... I need to become a member, get 25 hours of teaching in (I probably won't even be able to get 5...), and so much more! What happened to my summer?! Oh, yeah... I've been camp counselor, gardening, traveling, quilting, etc... The camp counselor thing has taken up 4 weeks so far and I have another to go... But I wouldn't trade the time spent for anything else.

I've thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the camp counselor thing (and I have my share of stories, believe me! =D) Like in the camp from last week, one of the boys was commenting on how he's at a highschool reading level. So, being homeschooled, I had to ask him what he's read that places him in that level. He named some books off but all of them were contemorary/modern novels that I wouldn't really count as anything worth reading (like The Davinci Code, which was one of the books that he named off). I asked if he had read any Homer, Dickens, Austen, Emmerson, Steinbeck etc. (I've read these authors and more in a lit class that I took from an amazing teacher. Go read some classics and original works! You'll be amazed at some of the treasures that you can find in them!) The little boy said that he hadn't read any of those (My bad! He's in the public school system. Not to really dis on the public schools, but you lower your standards when it comes to whatever comes out of those prison cells)... So I said that he wasn't really in the "highschool level" (Publis schools... what legacy is America leaving her children? Not a good one). We started mildly arguing about it (leave it to me to make anything an arguement... bad habit...) and he finally said "Okay, I'll be the big person here and not argue with you." Ouch. He's going to be entering middle school very soon. Let's just say that I was dying from laughter from that!

Catching an even greater glimpse of God's creation!

*Sigh...* I just had one of the most amazing weeks ever! Some friends invited me to join them and another family on a trip to the Wallowas in Eastern Oregon! I created an album of most of the pictures I got on Facebook and there's so many I couldn't muster the patience to upload only a few select ones onto here, so here's a link! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30339&id=1127710451&l=5e1bc00e92

We brought some horses with us and went trailriding almost every day for a week! (the only day we didn't ride was when we went on a hike) The best trail riding spot (in my opinion) is the hunting reserve (but we didn't see any animals. Isn't that coincidental?). The worst was the trail (or should I say trial?) to Aneroid Lake. One of the horses decided that she didn't want to get her feet wet in a creek that went down the trail, so she jumped up onto a rocky burm that was on the side that dropped into a river/ravine. The rider jumped ship only to land in the rocky terrain on the ground and almost get stepped on as the horse turned around back into the creek. We only made about 2 miles up a 6 mile trail. The whole trail was narrow, two-way, dusty beyond breathing (think Oregon Trail on this one, k?), treacherously rocky, and the horses were beginning to get extremely sore legs and feet. Let's just say we were done with horses for the rest of the day when we got back to the cabin.

Another memorable highlight of the trip was conquering that same trail on foot. It's 12 miles round trip and the first two miles are very steep, and jagged rocky. I ditched the walking stick very early on... ;) Once you got past the first 2 miles then you walked across alpine meadows. *Sigh* It was well worth the excruciating pain. You come around a corner in the meadow, and there it is! Anaroid Lake! You walk quickly down to the dock and kick off your sweaty shoes and socks and stick your feet in the water. I must say, I was in absolute bliss. Then my stomach started complaining at me. I hadn't eaten breakfast since we had gotten up at 6 to get on the trail early. Out come the home dried strawberries and bananas! The nice thing about them is that they're light enough to pack up the trail and offer enough sustanance to get you back down the mountian!

The rest of the week was spent boating, fishing (I never did do that though ;D), more trail riding, shopping, socializing, watching the thunder showers etc. I will definately go back. <3

Busy...Tired...Content

Group Picture of the first group of kids!

You must be wondering what on earth I was talking about in a previous post... Well I'll keep you hanging no longer! I've been a camp counseler at a horse camp nearby! 6 AM counseler trail rides, 8 AM kids come - along with chaos. But what is camp without a skunk, broken finger, bloody nose, falling off the horse, and your horse kicking you off? Yes, I was dead tired by the end of the day, I was in bed by 9 almost every night!

Showing how to vaccinate horses using an orange as a replacement. Would you trust kids with a needle that huge?

All pictures here are from the first half of camp!