Scenes From Morning Star Camp

It's getting late and we are leaving early in the morning for Lassen, but I wanted to get the pictures from Morning Star off the camera before leaving...so I may as well do a quick post, right? One last thing to catch up on when I get home exhausted and buried under a pile of laundry next week!
It has been 8 years since I've been to Morning Star Camp. I was also minus one husband and two kids back then. It felt like a totally different camp, of course, going as a married mother of two. It was a lot of fun in a much different way. I miss not being afraid of cold water. I miss having no worries of going rafting on a high river and not coming back to the most beautiful children in the world. I miss pre-baby body that didn't hurt after two weeks of sleeping in a tent on the ground. However, I wouldn't go back to all that for the world!
We were only at Morning Star for a day and a half. That's two nights in a tent with both kids. Ouch. The first night Ezra was crying out of sheer exhaustion when we went to bed at midnight. I made a terrible error in parenting and told him the bears would come if they heard him crying. The rest of the night if Caroline made a peep he yelled at her "No! No! The bears will come!" There is NO SUCH THING as a little white lie : ) I had to tell him the truth and apologize for what I said the next day. The second night he slept in between Grandpa and Grandma Tractor in their tent and we had a night of blissful sleep. Oh by the way, the first night it was quite evident that all four of us were not going to fit in a four man tent. Thankfully my parents had brought two extra little pup tents and Tadd was able to use one to sleep in.
In the mornings Jonathan LaBenne walks around strumming his guitar and singing "It's time to get up, It's time to Wake up! The sun is over the horizon. It's time to get up! It's time to get up, We know our Lord is coming soon!" There are many other verses, some about breakfast being served soon and also some yodeling thrown in for good measure. It's a rather peaceful way to wake up. Then you open your tent and the peace ends. Mosquitoes the size of humming birds are waiting at the tent door. They are not scared off by DEET. My kids look like teenagers with bad skin. So do Tadd and I. Small price to pay to enjoy so much of God's creation, I suppose.
After waking and pulling on a pair of dirty jeans and a fleece, we wander down to the food tent to stuff ourselves with some of Tony and Becky's most amazing-I-can't-even-cook-that-well-in-my-own-kitchen breakfast. Then begins delightful singing a meeting. We enjoyed learning about relationships the two mornings we were there. After the meetings the folks without kids and without fears jump on the big bus that used to reside in our yard here at our rental house and take a ride to the river where they go white water rafting. You guessed it, we didn't go : ) We just hung around camp and enjoyed some friendly fellowship. Much warmer and dryer!
And now I really must stop typing and put my kids in bed. Twelve hours in the car tomorrow is going to be an adventure any way you look at it!
Ahhhh, the Tetons. Drink them in! Such beauty is only found in Wyoming.

Thursday night a crew of folks went to the Bar-J for dinner. We were just there last year and decided to skip it. So my parents took Tadd and I and the kids into Jackson. We wandered, played and had a nice dinner with some of the most amazing pie any of us had ever tasted at "The Bunnery". I highly recommend eating there if you are in Jackson. It's pretty reasonable and the service is great.

Pictures of two kids both smiling are non-existent.

Mom and Dad were going to take the kids on a stage coach ride, but the driver informed them he was done for the night. Bummer.

This was our camping spot. Imagine a tent about 1/8 the size of that one and that's what we were in : )

With the record rainfall this year comes record wildflowers. I could not get over their beauty!

I found wild strawberry vines tangled amongst the wildflowers near our tent. I didn't try any because this happened to be quite near where everyone was spitting their toothpaste and spraying bug spray.

A peek at Jonathan and his guitar.

Laurel and one of the many instruments she has mastered.