Sunny Weekend ...

It was awesome having no plans this weekend.  It's been awhile since we haven't been on the go or with big weekends here at camp.  We did a lot of sticking close to home. Reading, mowing, planting flowers, eating, swimming, watching movies and having bonfires. Last night, chris bought some steak and cooked kabob pieces over the bonfire for amazing bites of fire roasted beef!!

Can't remember which day this was but Jax took his first jump ever off the dock. This is big. It's big for Jax and Max to even get into the water as they are not water rats like our kids .... Maybe our kids are rubbing off on them?

I definatly got my fill of sunshine this weekend ....

But I am ready to get back to work tommorow... It's a big week ... And it's also going to be grey, so here is hoping for some rain as our local rivers are really low and we could use the rain.

A highlight of this weekend was a quick call from sister.  I hate hate hate not being able to check in with her daily ... So it was great to hear her voice ... I miss her and she sounds good!

Chris has actually had a record weekend as well. We couldn't remember the last time he had two straight days off in May.  And he has made the most of it! He left both days just after 5am to hit transfer beach in ladysmith for treasure!! 

He's had a great time .... Making almost $100 in change!!

Friday Family Night!!

It was a beautiful sunny day!!  Chris worked all day on the tractor on property while kids were at school.  Somehow the day passed quickly for me too on this day off. 

So tonight, after the boys all went swimming in the lake, chris and I took them for sushi and to watch Tommorowland. It was very cute, but long, but you couldn't beat the company!! 

I sure love my family ... They are just the best!

Thursday morning antics ...

Little perk of the day ...

It's been a long week of work (glad today is my Friday!  This job can really take it out of you mentally ... Thankful to only be part time.)

But this was a highlight of my evening; a text from Mary .... 

Friends just make it worthwhile ... Don't they?!

Highlights from WOA 2015 - Sunday!!

I've really been putting off doing this blog for a week because it's so overwhelming to try to squeeze everything that happened into just a short blog post.  There were a few glitches but overall it was an incredible weekend ....  The team that was put in place was perfect.  I love thinking that everyone who needed to be there was there.   I take great comfort that in Gods eyes, the weekend has already happened, that He knows everything that was going to happen and that I am merely a facilitator of many great things in this wonderful place.  It really decreases the stress level that I take on myself because I'm only one person and what's going to happen is going to happen!!!

 That being said, I am going to do things differently next year .... There was no real downtime other than the evenings.  My thoughts are to take that final activity on Sunday morning and condense them to only a handful of activities that women can participate in one of them being a chapel service.  To have all these amazing women from all these different backgrounds and not have church on Sunday was hard for me.  And by Sunday morning we all just wanted to have a cup of coffee and sit around!   But I needed to ring that bell and get women off to their activities really quickly .... It would have been really nice to let them enjoy breakfast a little bit longer and then fold into whatever activities they have chosen that will take place on property with no off transportation ... With chapel included as one of those options!! With so many women from non-faith backgrounds, I really didn't know how to maneuver around this so that everyone is comfortable but still able to intermingle with other women of faith ..... So that's what's been on my mind this last week as I process the weekend.  

Here are some pictures to highlight that final day on Sunday!

Search and rescue came and gave the women a wilderness survival class that made it onto a lot of the cards at the end of the weekend as one of the highlights!  I was happy to hear that.

Another highlight of this weekend that I had never been able to do before was actually take part in of course!  Not only was it of course that scared me a little but it was a course taught by one of my campers that I've known since she was 13!!  Meet Leanne!!  She was able to secure five $2000 bikes for the workshops!! It was amazing!!  As a sidenote, she's getting married in a few weeks and I was pretty flattered to hear that she called me hours after he proposed!!  I'm pretty excited for her and hope I can make it to the wedding!!

Susan ended up doing the training and warm up and then passed the bike along to me for the trail riding because her wrist was acting up.

Mountain biking is way harder than it looks!  Don't get me wrong it looks good right here as were all comfortably in the BMX track!

But, oh my goodness, as soon as we hit those trails,  I bit it pretty early on hitting a tree trunk because my wheel caught on some roots!! I was pretty nervous for the rest of the time.  All I kept thinking was I can't get hurt! I can't get hurt!  Stupid adulthood and responsibilities....

As much as I hated making announcements at lunch, I took the opportunity to let the women know that I was happy to finally have joined the ranks of a league of extraordinary women who come to this retreat and do things that completely scare them!  Women are always coming to me expressing your fears over things like caving and repelling!  I have always been thrilled to be the facilitator that helps him to conquer their fears so I felt pretty glad to be part of that group now...because mountain biking is terrifying on some of those crazy trails!  Way more fun to map them off on the quad with Chris that's for sure!!!

Oh Gina .... 

Baristas worked hard this weekend and used 54L of milk .....

It was time to go .... But I thought I would join them as they soaked in their last few minutes!!

My buddy Rob thought he was being pretty funny here .....(thought this would be pretty funny to end the post with)

but it all seriousness ... to have family and friends and people who love adventure and this camp and being outside, it really was a great weekend to be part of.   I honestly went into the weekend wondering when my last year would be, because it's so much work, but I finished the weekend just feeling thankful that I get to be part of it.

I learned a lot from this year with the numbers being increased and all the different new activities!  As often as I try to get females to do the leading of the activities I really have to give a hats off to the men that were involved.  Chris and Jim and Paul lead the Mount Balduc hiking trip up to the plane crash, women said they were very respectful and informative.  Jim and Chris also took the women caving ! Another scary endeavor for many, but they felt very safe with these two men leading them.  The women couldn't speak highly enough about Jon helping them rappel down a big scary mountain and when they got to the bottom that there was Mel to give them a high-five and give a hug to say congratulations ... Those are only a few on my mind right now but there were so many moving parts and so many instructors and helpers and workers!! (Kelly alone took on 3 big classes over the weekend!) People just came alongside each other to make sure that everyone was having an amazing but safe adventure and it was thrilling to be part of it!!

Time to start planning 2016!!!!

Highlights from WOA 2015 - Saturday!

Lots of moving parts on this day!  Months and months of planning came down to this .... Ensuring that women got their choices and were in the right spots!!  We had some pretty incredible women! One group actually instigated a 6:30 AM Boot Camp out on the front field!! I heard that many showed up!  Here was their picture!

Bell rang at 8:20am.... Coffee bar was running full steam since 7:30am .... We all ate and were out at our workshops by 9:15 .... Here is a peek of many of Saturday's workshops!

Falconry came to us this year!! Hello baby barn owls!!!!

Mountain biking (kind of a cheat pic as this was Sunday's class too)....

I loved having my friends here this year .... Definite highlight!

Gina even did a great job teaching the knitting class!

Splatter Paint class ....

Canning and Preserving!  Kelly brought her mom!! Look at the campers faces ... They loved her!  Look at her!  She could care less that I'm trying to get her to smile for the camera!!

Tea party ... Not sure why this was so popular ... Totally not my gig, but neither was canning and it was a hugely popular one! (Again, this was a Sunday class that's getting squeezed into this post)

While classes were going on, Chris and Isaac were working hard getting the floating lanterns ready for that night's event .....

Pretty sure it was almost 200 lanterns that were created.....I was ready to turf the idea because I didn't think that it was worthwhile, but Chris definitely knocked it out of the park!!

here is a quick shot of the beautiful pilgrimage lantern path that he created for the women after Joyce talked about her trip to the San Diego El Camino trail.....

It was a lot of work for a very short amount of time but after the last lantern was sent off into the water, I turned around and looked up towards the camp and it was a ghost town!!  It was so windy and it was quite late as well but it appeared that most of the campers were tired and had all gone to bed!! I had to laugh.  But I was still pretty energized so I grabbed Marla and Elizabeth and we had a hot tub into quite late into the evening (at this point I was quite thankful I didn't have to sit in the hot tub with 10 other women .... Love having our own)

Couple shots from Saturday afternoon and the dessert buffet: 

One funny thing about this dessert buffet is the kitchen staff put out dinner plates for the women to put their desserts on, which I thought was totally crazy because I know women and desserts so I swapped them out for the tiny plates and we barely had enough everybody still!  Women can be quite skilled in piling food on a small space!!! It was all unbelievable food though I don't blame them .... However, the kitchen staff did watch with wide eyes as they watched the women go through, piling their food on the plates, as they had fed them a very large meal only an hour and a half earlier!!!

So that was the end of our first full day ..... Not a ton of pictures of my husband - he is always so busy running around and making sure things are happening, but I really wanted to make sure that he had down time this weekend and wasn't running frantically teaching all the classes in every single block.  So he led the Mt. Bolduc hike on Friday afternoon and caving on Saturday afternoon .... the other classes were open blocks for him but he continued to still do things for the women's weekend adding nice touches here and there!  He is such a great partner for me ...

Jazzercise comes to me!!!

I used to dream of having jazzercise here at camp. So imagine my delight when half the retreat showed up for a class last night!!

Made even better by my sweet friend Gina wearing her dancing socks!!!!

After dripping with sweat, I figured others would want to jump in the lake, so I found a lifeguard. It was pretty funny that only my friends and I ran and canon balled in: Marla, Nicole, Gina and Lydia!!  The rest stayed sweaty and in tact.  Fully clothes, we hottubbed after.  Even Nicole found a hottub at the retreat center where they are staying. 

They said there was an extra bed and to join them but I barely made it to my own bed!  Thrilled they are all getting a break though....many tired women here. 

Highlights from WOA 2015 - Friday!!

My girl Kirsten snapped this shot just as we are heading into lunch ... My anxiety was at a high-level as I was just trying to get everything together for the start!  

My lovely boys had their own little bistro corner for meals ....

Highlight of the weekend for me was seeing a Jazzercise class in my own backyard!!! I love to dance!

And the highlight was dancing with a lot of my friends !! Here is Gina taking a run to the lake after class to jump in the water because we were so hot!! Isn't she rocking the socks and the short yellow shorts?!  I actually told her this was how we were going to be dressed for jazzercise!! Funny that she was the only one to believe me!! 

Friday evening was great .... really low-key: Jazzercise class, first swim in the lake of the season, bonfires, hot tubs with friends .... it was a great start to the weekend!

WOA Eve.....

Water bottles are done, decorating was still going on as I left to go to bed, mountain bikes have been found, the property looks amazing. The staff have worked so hard. 

Chris hasn't had a break yet. He's amazing.  I am feeling apprehensive about tommorow. What is being forgotten?  I have juggled some things around because my friend who was teaching triathlon had an awful altercation with her husband tonight and, as always, the kids pay. She sent me the audio afterwards. Asking what she should do?  Her little boys, are my little boys. Same age. I hear them screaming and crying as they try to get to mom to get away from dad. I'm bawling as I listen. I've known these two for 20 years ... Qwanoes days. I'm stricken and sad and sick. She still wanted to come and do the course tommorow (which she hadn't even mapped out yet, she was going to wing it like she did last year. And the women loved it)....but she wanted to bring her boys. Oh my goodness. I don't have anyone watching my boys.... I can't have her boys here too. So I'm sick tonight in my heart and my eyes are burning and I'm sad. 

Joy comes in the morning?

Prepping for WOA!!

This was not the most encouraging weather report to start the weekend...look there was even supposed to be lightning?

Water anyone?

This is what shopping with boys looks like...

And this is what it looks like when I try to gorilla glue the sole of my shoe before I head to town ... It dries and expands and attaches to the soul of my foot!!!!  I almost couldn't get my shoe off!!!

After dropping kids off at school it was back to the camp for last-minute preps!  I finished wrapping the water bottles and Sharyn Sowell was sweet enough to provide personally wrapped chocolates as well as beautiful prints for all the women!

so on those notes ...here we go to the best weekend!! WOA 2015

Mountain Bike Trail

This class has been the biggest pain for the lowest class size.  It doesn't help that I have a very busy instructor who lives on the mainland and is hard to get a hold of. I don't think I'll be running it again given the headaches. But tonight was fun.  The boys weren't happy to miss self defense as I had to take them home with me after school to do this. The timing of that class kills me!!!  But anyways, they dealt with it ... They will go next week with their grandma.  So when we got home, Chris and I took the quad out and mapped out two trails for the workshop. 

We even found a toilet on one of the routes!!

The pictures don't do justice to how beautiful it was. 

It was good for us to get out in our own too. He's been up and out to work so early these days .... I really miss him.

.