Blaze Summer Camp - Day 1

 Back in April our Youth Pastor moved to California to work at another church. When the kids came home from youth group and said that he was leaving I turned and looked right at Michael and said..."I guess we're gonna be leading youth group!" There wasn't any hesitation at all. I was not going to leave all these student with no place to come during the week to fellowship and grow in their faith. Thankfully Pastor Tim wasn't going to leave them hanging either so he stepped up to be the fill in Youth Pastor so Michael and I have just been Youth Leaders. 

I knew pretty early on that I would be going to summer camp with the youth since I was the only option for a girl leader. I also knew that Ella would not be happy about that and I was correct. She was not happy us being youth leaders or me going to summer camp. I told her right off the bat I would try to ignore her at youth group and pretend that she wasn't my daughter in hopes that it wouldn't bug her so much that I was there on Wednesday nights. 

By the time camp rolled around at the end of July she didn't seem too upset about me going anymore and she also didn't seem to care that I was there at youth group on Wednesday nights. 

Our group met at church on Monday, July 28th. We were driving two vehicles. Pastor was driving the church van and I was driving my van. Pastor also rented a U-Haul trailer to store all the luggage since the 15 passenger van does not have any sort of storage area. In all we had 2 leaders and 19 youth going. 

We drove over to the peninsula and it took us just a little more than 2 hours. The drive was actually really nice. Daniel, who's in the brown coat, sat in the front seat of my van and we had some great talks on the way over. 

 

We actually got there a bit early so we couldn't check in yet. So we unloaded our luggage into piles and then just waited to be assigned to our cabin / dorm room. One of the reasons it took them a bit to give us our room information at least for us girls was because they had us down as having less girls so we weren't all going to fit into one room and since I was the only girl leader that wasn't going to work. They moved things around and instead of us being on the first floor of Town Square (that's what they call the girls dorm building) they moved us up to the 2nd floor. 

  

The guys were staying in either cabin 6 or 7...Jack and Zeke can't agree on the number. The boys cabins were just behind Town Square building. They had all sorts of fun things for campers to do while we waited for everyone to arrive. In all there were 5 churches coming together for camp. This inflatable was super fun and tricky...sadly, but not surprisingly it didn't last long and got popped pretty quickly. 

Us girls had fun playing Tetris Tumble. 

Our dorm room had a door that led directly outside to a deck area that also had stairs to get down from. It made is SO incredibly nice and quick for us to get outside instead of going through the building and down the stairs. We also had this great view overlooking the whole free time area. From this view you could see the basketball court, skate area, gaga ball pit, volleyball court, 9 square in the air and then all the lawn games. You could also see the flatten inflatable.

We found out later that our room was the only one that had nice flooring. The rest of the rooms had the same material the bunks were made out of as the flooring. We also had a private water closet and a sink outside the water closet. The funny thing is the sink didn't have a mirror over it. Thankfully Aidry brought a make up mirror about the size of a Bible. 

For lunch they had Costco pizza and salad. 

Our church's color was yellow. I took my kids to Walmart to see if we could find any yellow colored clothes to wear during the week. Yellow is hard color to find! Jack, Ella and I did end up getting construction yellow sweatshirts from the men's work section. Zeke found a yellow hoodie and a Pokémon shirt. I wasn't sure what the other kids would do so I went ahead and bought a 32 pack of yellow bandanas from Amazon. These we so fun and I was really surprised how much each of the kids wore them throughout the week. Even though yellow is not my favorite color at all it was a great color for camp. It was always easy to spot our group from far away and we were really easy to spot in all the video footage they showed each day. 

Our first team activity happened after lunch around the basketball court. 

I had given out the bandanas so the kids were busy figuring out how they wanted to wear them. They were quite creative in how they used them. 

It took a while for everyone to get organized so we were waiting for a bit.

One of my goals during camp was to take a bunch of pictures and also to get an individual selfie or as least a small group selfie with every one of our campers. 

The kids had fun just hanging out entertaining themselves. 

People gathered in color groups around the court. 

Listening to the instructions. 

The fun part about being a leader was having the inside scoop about what was happening since I had attended the Zoom meetings with the other church leaders. 

For this first team competition we had to pick one person from our team to run into the center of the basketball court and retrieve a wrapped package. Of course all the other teams would be sending their designated person at the same time as well. Inside the wrapped packages were inflatable mascot costumes that would become our team mascot for the week. I had told Pastor about it since he wasn't able to attend the meeting. I was so excited about this part because I knew it was going to be hilarious and I had hoped so badly that we would get a unicorn costume.  

 

I was so excited we actually got the unicorn costume. Josiah is in the costume so I ended up wearing his hat. 

The team competition included putting on the mascot costume, creating a team name, decorating a flag with that team name and then coming up with a team chant. 

Our team name was the The Amazing Blazing Unicorns. We chose that because the theme of the camp was Blaze. 

It was fun that the competition was multi-layered since it really taped into different creativity areas. 

Our chant was..."We Amaze, We Blaze...We're the Amazing Blazing Unicorns."

Josiah had such a fun time being the unicorn. Although it was VERY hot inside. 

After all the teams got into their costumes they had a race with all the mascots. Josiah ended getting way to hot so Jack took over the mascot duties for the race.

 

The race was hilarious! One of the mascot costumes wasn't able to inflate and then the chipmuck totally took out the chicken. 

During the week there were all sorts of ways to earn points for your team. One of them was memorizing Scripture. That was always my favorite thing to do at camp so I knew I was going to help get points that way. The girls all decided they wanted to do that as well so we had some downtime in our room memorizing Scripture. 

Jazzy & her cousin's Trina & Kiana 

Aidry

Lina 

Kylah 

Mikaela 

Ella Bean 

Sarina 

Caitlynn 

First night at chapel! I was not prepared for the kids to basically rush up to the front I did not know that was a thing, but it was awesome! They were all up there worshiping the Lord with abandon. 

Ella has enjoyed Pastor Tim being the Youth Pastor and he's always there for her when she needs him. 

Silverwood Road Trip 2025!

Last year on Black Friday, Jen told me about Silverwood having a really good sale on tickets. The boys have been dying to go since every year Ella and I go, but they have never been. I decided since Owen was graduating it would be a fun graduation gift of sorts for the whole family. At first I wanted us to stay at the Silverwood campground, but trying to get a reservation there is almost impossible. That's when I got to thinking it would be fun to stay at Logan's grandparents house since I knew they lived about 20 - 30 minutes from Silverwood. I asked Jen if she thought her parents would be okay with that and she was pretty sure they would love it. Back in 2017, when the kids and I went out for Logan's baptism, her grandparents had said that we should come back and stay with them again sometime. So I figured this could be that sometime. Jen asked them and they were totally on board for us to come over with our trailer and stay on their property. 

Heading out on our journey on Thursday, July 10th. 

After we got there we set the trailer up and then the kids jumped into the pool. 

That night we went and got pizza for dinner and ate on the patio. Penny and I were chatting when the moon came out and was so gorgeous! 

This is the patio / breezeway area at Ed & Penny's house. It's between their house and their garage. This is definitely the place we spent the most time when we were at their house. 

We ate our meals here, played games and just sat around and chatted. 

The walkway just outside the breezeway leads to their pool. They used to have a pool house so they could use their pool even in the winter, but one year there was an electrical fire and it burnt the pool house down. Thankfully it didn't catch anything else on fire. 

I just love Ed & Penny's house. They moved out onto this property years ago and lived in their trailer while they built the garage. Then they lived in the garage while they built the house. 

There property looks out from WA into ID. You can see Mount Hoodoo from their house. 

We set up the trailer on the side of their garage. We only used the trailer to sleep in and even then not all of us slept in the trailer. Owen slept in the Love Shack...it's a one room cabin on their property. Ella slept inside upstairs in her and Logan's bedroom and once Connor, Logan's brother, got there Zeke ended up sleeping on an air mattress in the loft with him. 

When I talked with Penny on the phone prior to us coming over I told her that I didn't expect Ed and her to feed us. They had just gotten done with having 31 people at their house for the 4th of July so I knew they'd need to take a break. I said that we'd bring our own food and if Michael had access to a Blackstone we'd be able to fend for ourselves. Well Ed and Penny are just about the sweetest people on planet earth and they totally have the gift of hospitality. Ed was always out there cooking on the Blackstone and Penny would make breakfast and cut up fruit. They were so sweet! They also had a bunch of leftovers that needed to be eaten after having so much people at their house so we were more than happy to help them out with that. It really ended up being nice in more ways that one because for some reason our little refrigerator in the trailer decided to not be able to keep up with the hot weather so I had to throw out a bunch of the food I brought. 

The weather was gorgeous while we were there. 

On Friday, July 11th, we got on the road to head to Silverwood! 

There driveway is long and steep...not as steep as it was originally, but still steep. I was little nervous about getting up it with the trailer, but since I knew that Ed could go up the driveway with his big RV I knew we would be just fine. I still can't imagine having to navigate it in the snow though. 

The first time Michael and I went to Silverwood was back in 2002...it was so rainy we got drenched! I've been with Ella more times than I can count, but this was Michael first time since 2002 and it was the first time for all the boys. We got there right at opening and we basically were able to walk onto Stunt Pilot. I hadn't even paid attention to the ride at all, I just walked in to the little covered area where you get on the ride so I had not idea what I was getting into. I should have known it was going to be bad when they wouldn't even let me wear my sunglasses. It was awful!!! I was shaking so bad after the ride I had to lean against a fence so I wouldn't fall over. No thank you! 

Michael and the older 3 went on Aftershock! 

Zeke and I had a snack break! 

We went on Timber Terror which is okay, but I don't really like that one either. Tremors though is my absolutely favorite ride. I think I rode it 3 or 4 times while we were there. 

After a bit it was time to go over to Boulder Beach. When Michael and I came in 2002 Boulder Beach wasn't even there yet. 

Lazy River here were come! 

We ended up renting a couple double tubes since it's always annoying having to wait for tubes. Michael bought me and him a couple drinks from the swim up bar....that was pretty fun! 

Whenever Jen and I come with the girls we always find a place to set up in this one area right outside from the main entrance into the lazy river. We were able to find a great spot there and it served as home base. 

 

 Jack, Ella, Zeke and I wanted to go over to the big tube slides....the line ended up being almost an hour long! We did a bunch of other things like the Eagle Hunt Water Coaster & the racing slides

We bought 2 day passes so it was nice to not feel like we needed to rush and do everything the first day. 

The moon came out again that night and it was so gorgeous. The grass looks so cool here at first I thought it looked like lily pads in the water. 

The night before Logan had just gotten back from Girl Scout camp. Her and Ella stayed up late so I ended up having to go wake the girls up. 

Saturday was our day to just hang out at the property, ride ATV's, swim and play games. Ed has this big shop and then a giant carport for the trailers. 

He has this super old car in this shop. It was really cool! 

The kids were all about the ATV's. Ed has a whole bunch of trails on their property that they can ride on. In all their property is 80 acres! 

We brought our Pegs & Jokers game so we could teach them how to play. 

They introduced us to Uno Golf, Karma and The Crew...I ended up liking all of them so much that I went ahead and bought them before we even left to go home. 

The kids got back from their ATV adventures. I had no idea they'd be so dirty! It was hilarious! 

Ella and Logan rode on them in their swimsuits. 

Then it was time for us adults to go on the ATV's. 

I didn't want to drive so I just rode on the back with Jen. She promised she wouldn't go crazy since I don't like going fast. At one point going down hill I had to pipe up so I said, "Jennifer" to which she just started laughing and then slowed down. :) 

Poor Michael was in our dust trail! 

Jen took us all over the property pointing out all sorts of things. It was loads of fun! 

Later on Ella was having a turn driving the ATV. She ended up almost driving off the hillside and she got the ATV stuck. Ed had to come out and get it unstuck! As you can imagine Logan gave her such a hard time about that. She did end up driving though and she did really well after that. 

Because of the sleeping situations Jack got the other trailer bed all to himself. 

On Sunday, July 13th, we headed back to Silverwood. 

Logan being Logan! 

Boulder Beach here we come! 

This day we were all over the place doing all the fun things! One thing that was not fun was losing my phone with my ID and my credit card in the lazy river. I had the case around my neck, but then my neck started to hurt. Since I was sitting in the tube I decided it would be okay to just set my phone on my lap. Michael decided to go get drinks for us from the bar and then he'd meet up with us. Zeke and I wanted to start going faster so we could meet up with Michael so I got down from my tube to start pushing myself along. That's when it fell off my lap, but I had completely forgotten about my phone by that point. Then when we went to get out of the lazy river that's when I noticed it. We all went around the lazy river walking it and looking at the bottom and the sides of the river to see if someone picked it up. We asked the lifeguards along the way, but no one had noticed it. That's when I got out to go sit down and Jen and Richard were telling me how they've lost things that they always end up getting turned in by someone. One of the lifeguards I talked to told me to talk to an employee in a white polo shirt and they would give me more information. I saw a lady walking by so I stopped her she told me the procedure for when things go missing and are found. She did say that she just got word that a phone was found and was being transported to the information station that was back at the front of the park. Michael decided to head over to the lost and found area in Boulder Beach, but that's only for small non-expensive things like sunglasses so they told him to go to Information. He got there and the phone had just arrived. He told them that that phone was his wife's. At first they didn't want to release the phone to him, but then he told them the passcode and the name on the credit card and then he opened the phone and showed them a picture of himself on the phone so they were comfortable releasing the phone to him. Oh my goodness I had felt so stupid when I realized it was missing and then so thankful when Michael came walking over with it. I will say people in ID are just awesome. If that had happened at Wild Waves in WA someone would have charged a bunch of food to my credit card about 5 minutes after finding it. 

Zeke hasn't really had a chance to hang out with Connor much in the past, but this trip they did and they had a blast together. Connor even gave Zeke that hat so they would match. 

Michael, Jack and I decided we wanted to go ride more rides on the dry side so we left Jen with Ella, Logan, Owen and Zeke...Connor had already gone home with Richard by this point. Later on we met up to go in search of the sweatshirts we wanted to buy. Every year it's tradition that we buy a new sweatshirt. I love the designs they have and $35 for a sweatshirt is a great deal. 

Once we found all the clothes and stuffed animals we wanted it was time to head to Cracker Barrell for dinner. 

We got seated at a nice big round table by the fireplace. 

Our waitress was really sweet and attentive. Every time I go to Cracker Barrell I always get the Lemon Pepper Trout and it's so yummy! This time around it was like they didn't even put Lemon Pepper Seasoning on it. The Deep Fried Pickles were amazing though! 

They always do the judgy judgerton faces! 

But this is how they really are! 

Love these girly girls! 

My how they've grown!!!

This picture was the first picture I took of all 5 of them. It was Sept 2012 and it was my first day watching Logan after having Zeke. Time is such a thief!!! 

Love anytime these girls get to spend together! 

We got home late that night and this is the part of the trip I didn't plan very well. The next day we were heading home and it was Michael's birthday. Oops! So Michael spent his birthday packing up the trailer driving across the state of WA and then we had to put the trailer back up and then unpack. Yeah....not the best birthday present! 

You know it was a good trip when you can fall asleep sitting up! 

Ed & Penny were the best hosts and who knows maybe we'll be back again next year since Jack is graduating!