the trip that wounded the Silver Bullet

I didn't even finish blogging about the end of our trip to the midwest... we came home and two days later we went to Jackson Hole, WY for two days and the next morning I took the boys to Young Life's Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista, Colorado for a weekend of family camp. I went with some friends of ours, one of which is the area director for Young Life in Park City.

Kenyon had a commitment with some deer and his bow and arrow, so he didn't join us this time.

We went to check it out for next year.

Although it was a somewhat lengthy drive (8-9 hours), our friends Todd and Kate Fischer decided to drive with me and the boys in the minivan Silver Bullet.

Sidenote: they don't have any kids.

Result: they don't want any kids.

They were helpful and tolerant to all the bickering, hair pulling, complaining, screaming (sweet, sweet Squirt) and "are we there yet's?" (about 8,463 times).

We had movies on Opal, my trusty laptop. We had bouts of hunger and thirst, Benedryl overdose exhaustion, peeing in a bottle (benefit to having all boys) and LOTS of 90's music on the blessed XM Radio.

Our first activity was riding horses, and I thought it was appropriate that I was assigned to Annie (get your gun), seeing that my beloved was out bow hunting.

What we DID NOT have was warm, summery weather. Unfortunately, I packed pretty inappropriately and the boys and I wore the one set of pants and long sleeves that I packed - ALL WEEKEND (clean undies though, in case you were wondering).

As you will see in my little montage, I donated another cuss word to Frontier Ranch thanks to THE SCREAMER.

I think they should call it "The Cusser." I'm just saying, there were no screams from me, that's all that came out.

Maybe they should interview me more thoroughly next time before they accept my registration form.

The crew from Park City traversed the high ropes course, which was really fun until I had to jump from a wooden platform about 50 feet in the air to "try" and grab a trapeze bar that was up and out about 10 feet away.

Yeah, I don't care that my harness was clipped to a rope with a super-experienced-oh-so-dependable college kid on the other end who would never let me fall.

I cried. I included photo evidence to prove it.

Our last big activity was racing the Ridge Runners - I say racing because I beat Kate on the track even though I had a three year-old on my lap.

Dirty, cold, loud - fun.

I also experienced Young Life "club" for the first time. We sang fun songs and fell in love with Captain Awesome and Sally the Magnificent. We played fun games, and one not so fun one where Hunter didn't know any of the trivia answers and I wound up with about 8 clothespins painfully clipped to my facial features.

Our family has supported this organization financially for several years because we love what it does, but we had never experienced it first hand.

Young Life introduces kids (in this case families) to God in a non-threatening, entertaining and fun way. They also boast that you'll have the time of your life at their camps. (Come on, you know you're curious... click on the link and check out YL in your area!)

Our experience was no different.

Oh, and the Silver Bullet??? Well, during our marathon race to get home to our own beds, a large rock jumped out of a construction zone and ripped through her air compressor resulting in a nice $650 vacation at the repair shop for her!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'll be back with a "rewind session" full of witty banter and boys antics.