Trail West Family Camp Day 1

For a year now we've been hearing about how awesome Trail West family camp is.  Thus, we decided to check out just how awesome it is for ourselves.  We set out on an adventure excited to arrive at camp, to spend some quality uninterrupted family time together, to discover some new things about us and to see how revolutionary He can be.

On our way

We stayed in Salida, CO before heading to camp on Sunday.   There was a fun little play area by a river with walking path, climbing wall and playground area for the kiddos.

Sunday we headed to camp, and it immediately lived up to what everyone had been saying about it.  Driving down the path to the lodge, you can feel the excitement and welcome.  Our kids couldn't stop waving at everyone they saw, and Finley gave a high five to each person she passed.

After settling into our room, we got ready for what the week had in store for us.  Monday was rodeo day.  We headed to the rodeo arena, split up into groups and played a couple of games against the other groups.  For the first game, people carried a bucket of water on their head, raced down to another bucket where they dumped the water in the bucket on their head into the bucket on the ground.  I took my eyes off of Fin for one second, and she somehow got in the line of fire, or water, and got it dumped on her head.  It, of course, didn't phase her at all!

I volunteered for the egg race.  For every race, you had to ride a "horse".  Ha ha!

Sean did the race where you had to spin around the horse 10 times then run back to the next person.  He fell several times.  Thankfully, he wasn't one of the guys who took out another person or a baby stroller!

The rest of the day we spent exploring the camp.  I definitely learned a couple of things about Sean Edward during our trip.  He is one who likes to know his surroundings.  It was kind of tough to get him to go places by himself at first; he really wanted Sean or I to go with him.  But then after he would go there once, he could get back to it and didn't mind going it alone.  Sean and I were so proud of SE and his accomplishments throughout the week; I'll share more of them in the following posts!

Easter Events

As SE and Fin grow (stop!) and get older (no seriously stop!), holidays get more and more fun.  Easter was no exception.  Sean Edward was delighted when he was told that he not only got 1 Easter egg hunt but 4!  The first one was the Norman egg hunt at Andrews Park.  The Grigors were going so we thought we would join them!

Someone didn't like the bunny

Someone else was a grumpy pants

The slide made him a little happier

BFFs

On the lookout for that scary bunny (seriously stage 1 clinger when she saw it)

Kind of getting the egg hunt

Happy (maybe?) with his winnings

Finally a smile!

Next party was SE's music school party on Wednesday.  We had dyed our eggs Monday with the Grigors and Bentons (no pictures of that process of course).

Grace on a mission for eggs

SE wanted to find 20; they could only get 4

I love watching him in his element...such a mighty leader he is!

This one made herself at home!

Saturday it was time for our 3 year tradition of going to the Liddell Easter egg hunt.  It is one of my favorite events of the year.  There are sooo many kids there and so many eggs.  It is so fun to watch the little ones run all over the place finding eggs.  They put out some golden eggs this year so that was angry birds obsessed SE's mission (he succeeded!).  And sweet Fin finally caught onto the egg hunting and came home with several eggs in her basket too!

Sweet Sophie got a little excited and helped herself to her own start!

Ready to hunt!

And then Sunday held the most fun!  Our Easter tradition that Sean's parents did for him...a trail of eggs to SE's Easter basket (and Fin's when she is older), family coming in for lunch, another egg hunt for the cousins and church celebration that included an awesome baptism service.

Following the trail

Dad led dying eggs

I wonder how many people would refer to Fin as "he" even though she is wearing a pink shirt

For serious does it get much better than this?

Dressed up and ready for Easter Celebration

I didn't know how much of the true reason for Easter SE would get.  We haven't talked much about dying so the concept is fairly foreign to him, but we told him the reason we observe Easter...because Jesus died on the cross for us and was resurrected on the 3rd day (in 3 year old terms).  He definitely got the "Jesus died on the cross for us" part!

"But He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption."  Hebrew 9:12

On a particular sunny day...

We headed outside to play and enjoy all the day and sun had to offer.  

 

Someone immediately got hot and wanted to take off their shirt.  The other one didn't want to practice her walking skills; thus, she crawled everywhere and into everything!

We headed next door to our neighbor's basketball goal so a little boy could perfect his shooting and passing and dribbling and so a little girl could perfect her playing in and eating dirt and muddy water.

After the dirt and water, someone else needed their shirt taken off.  It might have been a little trashy, but really, who can resist a shirtless baby?

I love the way Fin is looking at SE!

Then it was time for a couple rounds of shirtless golf. 

SE even attempted to climb a tree albeit a small tree but a tree nonetheless. 

And once everyone had gotten their fill of soaking and basking in the warm golden sunlight, a couple of still shirtless, rosy cheeked babes headed inside.

 "For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless."  Psalm 84:11