Nash's First Climb

Today we took Nash rock climbing for the first time. We had bought him a harness about two weeks ago, but had not found the time to take him until today. He climbed up the bottom of a very easy climb with Lance showing him how to get his feet on the wall. We were nervous that he would not like it and would be scared hanging on the rope, but he loved it. After we lowered him down he asked if he could go again. We had a great time and it seemed like he did as well. Hopefully this is the start of a love of climbing.

Ice Castle

This picture is from way back during staff training. We were hiking the Hermosa Trail which is behind Purgatory Ski Resort. This is the trail that we used to take all our groups on way back in the day. About 5 - 9 years ago. It is a great trail to talk to people on because it is somewhat wide. Anyways - Lance and I knew the trail well enough to know that when there is a really wet winter that an "ice castle" appears underneath one of the overhangs on the side of the trail. We were not disappointed. Here are the pictures of what we found.

This angle does not do it justice


This shows it in all its glory - much better. That is our staff eating lunch over to the left of the frame.


As you can see it is HUGE. Hope you are enjoying our views as much as we are.

Compass Ministry Part 1

I haven't talked much about the actualy ministry we are getting to do up here in Durango so here goes. We have had two full weeks of groups so far.

Our first week we had only one church which was nice so that the whole staff could be together and that the newbies could learn some of the ropes from the returning staff. That week went really well. The feedback from the students was encouraging and from what they were saying God was doing some great stuff in their lives. One of the students even got saved while they were here. That is the ultimate for all of us doing camp.

Last week was our second week of camp and we had two groups. A camping group and a condo group. I was the lead on the condo group so I got to see what was going on there. Again the Lord was really moving among the students. Their Thursday night share night was really great. They kept sharing from about 7:00 until 10:30. They then went into small groups and kept sharing until about 11:45. There were several students struggling with areas in their lives that our leaders got to help them navigate. Again one of their students accepted Christ. This was a huge step for this student who was continually struggling with doubt and reason vs. faith. What a awesome thing for us to be involved with.

I did not get to see much of the camping group, but from what the youth minister said they had a great time. This was not a typical group. They had wanted to come on a 3 day Texas trip, but when we realized they were from El Paso we also figured out that it was actually closer to Durango than Mineral Wells. Who would not rather come to Durango than Mineral Wells, TX.

Today started two more trips. Again we have on in the condos and one camping. It would be great if anyone reading this blog would pray that the Lord would work through is this week to reach students. And any prayer for safety is also appreciated. The activities we do inherently contain risk and we are constantly praying for the Lord to keep us safe.

Thanks for keeping up with us while we are gone, we miss everyone so much.
Courtney

J. BO's

Friday nigh for my birthday (I know, I know, I just get to keep celebrating) the staff all went to town to see the boat parade for Animas River Days and to J. Bo's for dinner. Let's start with Animas River Days. The Animas River is the river that we raft with our groups every day. This weekend is a big town festival celebrating all things Animas. Friday night was the annual boat parade. Let's picture together a bunch of drunk people, in costume, in large rafts, going down the river together. It was hilarious. We watched from somewhat up the river and not at the main rapid, but next year we are so headed to the main rapid to just watch people flip. I will try to get some pictures up of the parade soon.

After that we went to J.BO Pizza & Rib Company. I just love to think about how someone comes up with that combo. I mean Pizza and BBQ in the same place is odd to me. Here are some pictures of the boys from there so that the family will lay off of me.

This is Blair with Beck - He is digging the attention


The is Alyssa, who is our amazing part-time nanny with Nash. I cannot tell you how awesome she is with our boys. Lance and I might not get anything done without her.


Me & Beck


The Giles family out to dinner together - the lighting is bad which is why it looks blurry.

The Staff

Here is our staff - who I have failed to introduce up until now. Starting on the back row from left to right is: Garrison, Lane, Jared, and Justin(Lunny). Next row down from left to right is: Alyssa, Marquette, Blair, Nash, Lance, Me, Beck, and Krista. And down in front from left to right is: Sam, Hannah, Seth, and Shayne. That is our wonderful staff. Now when I talk about them you can put a face to the name.

Grocery Shopping

I promised pictures and here they are. These are pictures from our shopping trip to Walmart on Monday. This is an average week for us. We had 61 kids in the condos for the week and 35 campers for a 3 night/3day trip.

Here is 4 of our 8 shopping carts


Here is Blair with the recipt for $1500.


Here is Hannah at the half-way point of loading the truck.


And finally - the truck fully loaded - the picture does not do it justice. Just think to yourself that this is a full size Toyota Tundra with a camper shell that is taller than me and it is full to the gill.


So now you know. Those of you who I call on my "Walmart trips" now you can visualize what I am doing.

Best Birthday Ever!!!

Ok- so tomorrow is my birthday - I will be 29. Can you believe it?? I seriously don't feel my age. Maybe that has to do with our summer staff who is all 18 - 22. Anyways for my birthday my wonderful sister Autumn decided to surprise me and FLY out to Durango to come see me for like 48 hours this weekend. She got here late late Saturday night and left Monday around three. We had such a fun time. We went to a few new restaurants, went to Trimble hot springs with the family, and went white water rafting. It amazing how much we squeezed in. All that to say my sister ROCKS, and I had an amazing birthday present.

Monday was sad though because I had to say goodbye to Autumn and Marilyn. Marilyn had been here 10 days hanging out, cooking for the staff, and taking care of the boys. I will miss her lots and so will Nash and Beck.

Sorry no pictures for this post - we were too busy to take any.

Thomas the Train

Sorry it has been so long - this has been a crazy fun weekend which I will get into in the coming week. To start off our weekend we (Lance, myself, and Marilyn) took Nash to see and ride on Thomas the Train. I swore I would not let our sons love Thomas, but there was no avoidance. He absolutley loves it. He can name all the engines and asks to watch it everyday. So all that to say - he really loved it. Here is a picture of Thomas pulling the Durango/Silverton train.



Here is the family riding Thomas


Lastly - here is Nash riding Thomas and loving every second.


So needless to say Nash had a blast and Mimi bought him anything he wanted. He is still sleeping every night with the Thomas blanket.

Mesa Verde

Today Marilyn and I spent the day exploring the Indian ruins at Mesa Verde (meaning green table). We had a great time, but were not expecting it to be quite so cold. It was 51 when we got there at 10:30. We were ill prepared for that temperature. It was still loads of fun. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

The View

Today our first group got here. With this comes the first big shopping trip of the summer. Lets just say that we had to shop for 58 campers for 4 to 5 days. More about this when I can get a good picture that showns the magnitude of what that entails.

For now lets just focus on the view. Here is the view from the bedroom, dining room, and kitchen..

For us it really is all about the ministry to the staff and then kids, but this view definitely helps things along. I mean really - this is the view we wake up to every day and go to sleep to every night. It can really spoil someone.

Staff Training Day 1

So we are here in beautiful Durango and today is the first day of staff training. We hiked the Cascade trail this morning, and went to practice setting up rappells this afternoon. This is the staff (minus Lance who is playing photographer). The mountain in the background is called Engineer and when a little bit of the massive snow melts we will be on our way up.

We are having a little bit of a rough time with Beck who has not adjusted to something. We are not sure if it is the mountain air, the new place, or sleeping in the same room as Nash, but he started waking up at 2:00 am and did not sleep for more than 45 minutes at a time until morning. It was the worst night of sleep we have had since the night he came home from the hospital.

We are hoping that the sleeping gets better, but thankfully he did not wake up any of the staff and they are totally sweet to play with and hold both the boys whenever needed. Tomorrow looks like it will be very similar to today. Hike in the morning - rappell in the afternoon.

Getting Ready

So tomorrow lance leaves for Durango and I follow on Thursday. While the thought of getting there, doing camp, and hanging out with the staff is awesome, the packing leaves something to be desired. With two boys I feel as though I am packing the whole house. In the beginning of Compass we could take all four staff (yes - we only had four), all the Compass gear, and all our personal belongings and fit it into the Tacoma. We would just drive up in one day and start training the next. Now you would think that we were on a Secret Service mission. We have to arrange the meeting of all 13 staff riding in different cars, caravanning, and flying into different airports. We also now take the huge Tundra which pulls the U-Haul trailer. I think the U-Haul is just for the boys stuff alone. All that to say I will just be happy when we get there. My plan is to blog our summer at least twice a week so that you guys can actually see what I am actually talking about. But please don't hold me to it - we sometimes lose track of weeks up there.