Sneak Trip to Boise

One of my very best friends, Beth, flew me to Idaho for a visit in September.  After my whirlwind-record -breaking visit at Christmas (breakfast at 6am? sure!  come over at 11pm? of course!) Beth told me that if she was sending the ticket then I was staying at her house so she could actually see me!  It was a wonderfully relaxing trip and I loved spending time with her sons.  It's sad to me that I don't live next door and get to keep the boys!  We had a great week together!  Moral of the story :: You too can sneak me to your house and I will stay put to visit you! :-)

Brycen (almost 5), Megan, Beth, Jace (almost 3)

I also got to meet the Blakesters while I was home, my friend Dawn's baby boy.

Brycen and Jace have like a dozen stuffed puppies.  We piled all of them together to take these pics.  There's nothing more endearing than a well-loved, scruffy stuffed animal!

My princess Keyauna (3 yrs) came to the house to visit me while I was in Boise.  I am her barrette supplier from Chicago and I brought a suitcase full of balls and barrettes.  She was TOO EXCITED to see all her new accessories, lol.

My sister, Sarah, drove up to Boise to see me for the afternoon. :-)

I snuck out to see Jonas and Merari.  (Notice I have pictures of all my friend's kids but not necessarily my friends, lol.  It's just that I like kids so much!  And most grown ups don't want to be in pictures unless they know about it ahead of time, myself included.)

I saw my friend Britany for a quick minute also.  If you're reading this post that means you've been reading my blog for a good long minute since I am updating all at once... but Britany writes the BEST BLOG EVER: http://biggerthanshamu.blogspot.com/2010/11/tale-of-two-cities.html

We went shopping for the boys' Halloween costumes while I was in town.  Look at baby Blake's face! :-) There were a lot of distractions with the leaves and pumpkins, so looking at the camera was a real act of will for him!

For the Strong of Heart!

You know how they say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree?  For me and my mom that's true in a lot of ways:

* because of my mom I am very organized.  I could easily put my hands on my high school transcripts or my "lost wallet file" or that letter you sent me when I was 16 (I also got a little bit of the sentimental pack rat gene :-).  As a shout out to my mom's impressive pantry, both of my vegetable jars are facing label-side forward.
* because of my mom I love big open windows with cheery sunshine bathing the room in happiness.
* because of my mom I love, love, love pictures!
* because of my mom I believe in clean and uncluttered spaces.  Like inside my oven.  And I don't have a junk drawer because those items have a designated location. 

But when it comes to athletics I am more like a watermelon ... apparently I never made it into the tree in order to fall close by in the first place!  I don't like to sweat, I am scared of the ball, I'd rather be competitive by thinking than by moving around, and let's face it:  I am more than just a bit lazy.

My mom, Alice Schenk, is an IRON WOMAN!  She has now completed 3 Ironman triathlons!  This involves swimming 2.4 miles (often with ocean waves), biking 112 miles, and running 26.2 miles ... ALL IN A ROW!  My mom's record time for this event is 13 hours 34 minutes and 19 seconds!  Some days I have a hard time just staying awake for 13.5 hours.  Can you imagine swimming, biking, and running for that long!?!

One of mom's friends, Cindy Singleton, took these professional pictures.

When I was a kid my mom was the Awana game director.  She did this event for the "strong of heart and stout of stomach".  After recruiting 6 volunteers she opened a can of dog food and spread it onto crackers ... whoever ate their cracker first was the winner.  My dad walked by during the explanation and popped one into his mouth on this way through.  You've never seen kids nibble so carefully around the edge.  How could they have known that my mom had steamed the label off corned beef hash and replaced it with a dog food label?!!! lol

Well, the Ironman is an event especially designed for the stout of heart.  In the back of the picture is the 2500+  athletes preparing to enter the swim.  They just jump in there all at once.  Mom says its a lot of jostling and the lead athletes who are competing for the win just swim right over the top of you!  You might also notice that the crowd watching is dressed like it's winter.  So, as you can see ... the Ironman is definitely for the strong of heart and stout of spirit!!

Mom's other latest adventure was climbing Mt. Borah to a height of 12,662 feet!!  Imagine going up 12,662 stairs!  I'm not real impressed with the 3 flights to get into my apartment!  But I think you'll agree with me from this picture ... the number of steps wasn't really the main concern on this climb!

This part of Mt. Borah is called "Chicken Out Ridge".  I have to grab ahold of something solid just to LOOK at the picture! 

Mom at the top of Idaho!  Only those who are strong of heart would attempt such a frightful adventure!  Good job Mom!

Grand Opening of the Lakeview Lodge!!

After 8 years of prayer, giving, and labor ... the LAKEVIEW LODGE is complete!  This summer we officially opened for use and had a celebration on Oct 2.  With capacity to serve 300, this building is a much needed space to serve campers and retreat groups.  The building also offers additional meeting spaces, storage space, and programming areas.  We are exciting to be expanding ministry opportunities through the use of this building!

View from the lake.  The lodge has a wrap-around porch including 2 covered porch areas for rainy days.

Bob VanDyke (right) is our Director of Site Development.  He sold his contractors business to become a missionary with Camp Beechpoint and has now been on staff for 12 years.  "Uncle Bob" drew up the plans for the building and provided oversight for the teams of volunteer workers.  Bob Bakker (left) is one of the many volunteers - he has come to camp a couple days a week to serve ... for the past 7 years!  Since we have a Bob the Builder on staff I always call him Bob the Baker, but somehow it hasn't caught on yet, lol.

The building was built with the help of 900+ volunteers, many of whom dedicated years of service to this project.  Many volunteered professional skills such as plumbing, electric, carpentry, roofing, and contractor skills.  There is an estimated 1.5 million dollars in estimated savings because of those who gave their time and talent to this project!

The Lodge will allow us to host multiple and larger retreat groups, which is one of the ways we fund camper scholarships.  We also gain more flexibility in our winter programming with the added indoor space.

The view of the dining room.  It has already been utilized for meals, banquets, weddings, retreats, seminars, trainings, and (of course) the grand opening celebration program.

The commercial kitchen on move-in day.  Our old kitchen was the size of the kitchen in my parent's home.  Great for a family, but super tricky for 3 meals a day for 200 people!

The dish room might not typically be a highlight.  But for anyone who's done dishes at Camp Beechpoint this room is a mecca of air conditioning, solid flooring, bright lighting, and space!

One Giant Wrestling Match

The summer is the best time for blogging because of the limitless photos and stories.  It's also the most challenging time to blog because of the nonstop schedule.  I am consoling myself with the promise that I will share many summer camp pictures in the fall.  Here are a few quick shots from the past couple of weeks - in no particular order or relevance. :-)

This summer Phillip Turner has been working as a cabin leader at camp.  He's my best friend's brother and from my hometown in Rupert, Idaho.  He's doing a great job engaging his campers and making an impact in their lives.  Every week we have theme chapel.  Cabins win points for the most creative theme.  One week Phillip's cabin only had 3 boys in it.  So he had them be the 3 Blind Mice.  The kids were really hamming it up, wish you were there. :-)

I love, love, love that camp is multicultural!  It's such a healthy experience for our campers.  Here is Jenessa, Christina, and Love.

The 2 boys in the front are friends from my church in Kalamazoo, Preston and Jordan.  With this job I inherited a lot of relationships and community connections and I love the many places I have friends.  I also love all the older kids that I know at camp from previous summers.

Boys Swim Time = Giant Wrestling Match, LOL

Diamond, me, and Tamia.  Haircut Wednesday is always a good time for pictures. :-)  We have one more week of summer camp, can you believe it?!  Pray for our summer staff to finish strong and for great spiritual impact in our last set of campers.

Mustache Tuesday

Every week we have mustache Tuesday where one cabin wins for the most creative mustaches. Phillip Turner creating a mustache for Julian.

Me with Diamond.

A mustache made out of AirHeads.

Each camper gets their picture taken for the end of the week thank you letters.  Last week I didn't get the pictures taken before mustache Tuesday.  We print the letters in black and white so you can't tell that this mustache is purple marker.  So Cameron's sponsor is going to wonder why this 8 year old boy has a grown man's mustache. :-)

Here are a couple of quotes from this week's thank you letters:

"My cabin is called Fiery Furnace and my cabin leaders are Philip, Zack, and Dan.  These guys are the nicest guys I ever met in my life." - Mark, age 13

"I had a wonderful time doing everything.  And finally I have something to say, drum roll please ... Ba bababa ba ba ba boom, I GOT SAVED!" - Kiyah, age 10

"Zip line was FF: fast and fun.  And the petting farm was fluffy.  And cookout was yummy." - Emilio, age 10

4th of July 2010

I took a quick weekend trip to Chicago for the 4th.  This summer I kept my same apartment for the first time in 8 years!  I'm believing God that my season of such transient living is over and that I will be at home in my new home on the South Side of Chicago for a long time!  I had some concerns with leaving my apartment for the summer but all is well!

I got to see a handful of my kids and go to my Chicago church while I was there for the weekend.  This is Tavaris at the park.  He doesn't get to come to camp this summer because of summer school - pray that he hates it so he'll work hard this next school year.

My friend Jessica came along and we went to visit on of her previous campers, Ella.  We only got to see her for a quick minute, but we found out that Ella just graduated from high school and plans to go to college in the fall!

I went to the JAYs for the family bbq.  This is Jireh, Demans, and Jabri.  Poor Jireh doesn't really understand "I'll be back from camp in August."  Her mom told me the other day that they were all sitting around and Jireh said "What did you guys do to Miss Megan that she doesn't come to the house everyday anymore?!"  lol

So, speaking of the family BBQ ... I'm not very good at eating meat with bones in it.  The thing is, I REALLY cannot put a bone in my mouth.  And you can't really eat ribs with a knife and fork.  I have some friends who won't even allow me to eat ribs and their house because I make such a pitiful attempt at it.  My people are always tryna talk about me for this (you know who you are).....  This made me laugh because apparently lamb ribs are tough to get apart - hence the hammer hitting the knife!!  Funny to me.

Me an Lil Courtney, who doesn't let just everybody pick her up :[)

Fun in the Sun

Camp is rolling right along - we now at the official half way point!  Enjoy these snapshots of our summer fun!

Quite possibly the cutest sisters ever!  Elanah, Emily, and Elise

Me and my little buddy DeQuan.  Why the yellow ribbon?  Well, what had happened was I was giving instructions during table games and just when I was trying to get everyone's attention my chair totally broke and I fell under the table.  At camp we have a Boo Boo can and during chapel the kids vote for which staff member had the best boo boo.  The "winner" has to wear a yellow ribbon for the next day and the kids spend the next day asking them "why the yellow ribbon?"

Cabin leader Justin with Rodney, DeQuan and Sam

This was the pose Michael picked for his camper picture. :-)

Make your own balloon animal lessons with Anty'Shae and Imari.