Family Camp. . .

There is so much I could say about Family Camp up in McCall this weekend but if I do, I will never get this posted and I will once again fall hopelessly behind and never catch up!! I will have to say that I had a great time hanging out with my kids. It was good, relaxing, quality time that we all needed. Zach helped plan the retreat so he and Gloria rode up on Friday with Lana so they could be in on everything. I drove up on Saturday and enjoyed two days of hanging out at the lake, playing half-court basketball (you'll just have to believe me since there are no pictures!!), watching some hilarious improv skits, playing Speed Scrabble and Settlers of Catan, visiting with friends, zipping down the zip line and listening to words of wisdom from our weekend speaker, Gar Mikelson. This first set of pictures is from Joyce's camera since I didn't arrive until Saturday. . . Thanks, Joyce!

Saturday afternoon was sunny and beautiful in McCall. . .

The lake was clear and gorgeous. . .

I almost felt guilty for just laying around on the dock in the water when there is so much work to be done at home, but not guilty enough to not do it anyway. . .

This is the sand replica of Helm's Deep that Zach created:

It just wouldn't be camp without the zip line. . .
(Many of these pictures are from Joyce's camera, too):

. . . and good friends to share it all with. . .

This next set of pics need a little bit of explanation. Garrett was in charge of the Saturday evening entertainment and he brought us a little improv that we could all get involved in. Some of it was pretty straight-forward like this scene with Zach and Madison where they acted out a scene and Garrett provided the sound effects. Pretty funny. . .

In the next set of pics, two of the actors speak different foreign languages and the other two actors interpret for them. In this scene, Garrett is at an amusement park and Lilly is working at a concession stand. He is trying to communicate his need to locate the restroom. . .

Maybe you had to be there but it was hilarious!!

I volunteered for the "3-headed guest speaker" with Kristin and Marv. Each "head" is only allowed to say one word at a time as we answered questions put to us by the audience. It turned out pretty funny. . .

This 4 person act was my favorite. Four people stand in a square with each pair of actors working out a specific scene until someone in the audience calls out something like, "two to the left" or "one to the right". . .

For instance, Aaron was a patient and Dennis was a surgeon explaining a difficult procedure that Aaron would be needing. . .

When the group shifted to the next pair, Garrett was a boy in high school trying to ask a girl to the prom. . .

When the audience called out a direction to move, the next pair up would have to continue on where they left off. Unfortunately Dennis had to inform Aaron that his surgery would be taking place. . . ahem. . . down there. . .

. . . Back to the prom question. . .

When the scene shifted over to Carrie and Dennis, she became a math teacher trying to explain Algebra to the math-challenged Dennis. . .

. . . Garrett and Aaron had to squabble over a parking lot fender-bender. . .

. . . Aaron was none to pleased at what the "surgery" would entail. . .


. . . Carrie really couldn't answer the question that Garrett couldn't get around to asking. . .

. . . Aaron was sure the accident wasn't his fault. . .

. . . hmmmm. . .

I could have watched this improv for much longer. . . very, very funny. . .

The next act was called Freeze (I think). . . There are two people in a scene and they act out their storyline until someone in the audience with an idea yells "freeze!" The person who called out then replaces one of the actors and begins an entirely new scene that the first actor has to go along with. . . It all started out with Tammy interviewing Gloria as a potential nanny. . .

. . . It quickly turned into Gil, playing the part of a CPS agent, letting Tammy know that the red mark on her child's arm had been noticed and reported. . .

This led to Gar informing Gil that he was running out of time to make his next payment. . .

. . . this scene quickly turned into Andrew's magic act as he attempted to make Gil disappear. . .

. . . Instead of disappearing, however, he was offered some delicious cookies at his front door by Lilly. . .

It was a very entertaining evening. . .

After a good game of Capture the Flag (no pics because I played!!), everyone gathered around the campfire for S'mores. . .

. . . eventually heading inside for games.

Aaron taught the kids a few . . . interesting things. . .

On Sunday morning I got up a little early so I could say good-bye to the lake. . .

. . . Good-bye, Lake. . .

After our final morning session that included a really positive discussion, we packed our things and said our good-byes . . .

Good-bye, Swamp. . .

Good-bye, Bridge-That-Zach-Built. . .

. . . Good-bye, Camp. . .


. . . Good-bye, New and Old Friends. . .


. . . Good-bye, Quaker Hill. . .

. . . We'll be back. . .