18 mile Sawtooth Mountain hiking/camping trip!

Well, you haven't been to Idaho until you have been to the Sawtooth Mountains. Collin and I, along with 2 single airmen, took a trip to the Sawtooths just above Sun Valley last weekend. We hiked a popular trail called the Petit-Toxaway loop which is 18 miles long. The highlight was the crossing of Snowyside Pass which sits at 9,500 feet and is a 1,000 foot verticle climb in only a mile and half. We took 3 days to make our trip and Collin carried his own pack for the entire trip save about 50 feet! The Sawtooths aren't the tallest peaks...around 11,000 - 12,000 feet, but they are some of the most spectacular that I have seen. God was good and we certainly enjoyed his creation!


We got to do some fishing..........

This was the campsite on our first night. GORGEOUS!!!!!!

Taking a MUCH needed break.
In front of one of the MANY lakes!
Waterfalls where EVERYWHERE!
One of my alltime FAVORITE pictures. The twin lakes are down below, the mountains...WOW!

Joe and Justin (who you might recognize from earlier FCA outings) joined us for this AWESOME 3 day adventure.
I was SO PROUD of Collin. 18 miles carrying all your stuff is a LOT for a 9 year old, but he was AMAZING!

We are learning to love the outdoors as we experience all these new things Idaho has to offer. It has brought us closer as a family and we are SO thankful to be here!

Missoula Children's Theater

Last Sunday night I received a call from a new friend and she asked if the kids were going to the tryouts on Monday. I didn't know what she was talking about, so she explained to me about the MISSOULA CHILDREN'S THEATER.

It is the LARGEST Children's Theater in the Country. They have 43 teams that travel the world EVERY YEAR going to all 50 states and 15 other countries. EVERY Air Force Base in the world gets a stop every year and countless other places as well.

They come in and do it ALL, and I mean ALL in ONE WEEK!

Tryouts were on Monday morning. All the kids (ages 5 -17) had to say lines, learn choreography, sing and perform! After the 2 hour tryouts, parts were given out and rehersals started that afternoon! They practiced every day this week, then this morning was the dress rehersal, and at 3:00 they gave a matinee performance and at 7 pm they gave an evening performance. They bring all the sets, all the costumes, all the lights and all the other stuff!

I was VERY impressed. I did not go to any of the rehersals so I didn't know what to expect, I mean, what can you accomplish from Monday to Saturday, right? WAS I IMPRESSED! Everyone knew their lines, the dances, the songs, the expressions. IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!! What a GREAT experience for all the kids!

Kaitlynn LOVED it! She got a part as one of the rats (The story was the Pied Piper) and she had about 6 times to be on the stage, one for a whole dance number and she was one of only 2 out of 10 rats that had a speaking part.

I think it was an AWESOME experience for her; learning about plays and following directions and performing in front of an audience.

Now that we know about it, no matter where we end up in the world, we will be on the look-out every summer for the Theater Camp!!!

Here is our sweet little rat in her make-up and T-shirt!

Here she is in her costume!!!!!!!

This was during the dance number on stage where they follow the Pied Piper. She is the last one in line on the end, as usual, she was the tallest, so she was first in the height line.

Here she is saying her line, "WHY!! BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!!" and she did it SO WELL!

A cast picture of the cutest rat group in town! She is standing up right under the letter "T".

A full cast picture. There were about 40 kids. They said the minimal amount is 15 kids and the max is 50. So when they have more then 50 kids try-out, some kids don't get parts. Thankfully everyone here got one, I mean how do you turn away such cute kids!?!?!?

I have the WHOLE performance on video. This will be a fun one to look back on years from now and for visiting family to watch when they come.

O, it didn't cost ANYTHING! Nothing to enroll them in the camp, and nothing for the audience members to watch. Again, I am just SO impressed with the ENTIRE thing. She is already asking about what play they will be doing next year! And, she wants to sleep in her rat make-up tonight. Sure hope it washes off for church tomorrow! GOOD NIGHT!

Chapel Staff

The Chief of Chaplains is visiting the base in September and Sam was given the assignment by his boss to put together a multi-media presentation of the chapel staff and the base. One of his requirements was a staff picture. So, I happily agreed to be the photographer! Here are 2 of the pictures from this morning.

Introducing Chaplains Anderson, Barfield, Toney (the Wing Chaplain), Saucier (the Senior Protestant), Taylor and Smith.

This picture added in the Chaplain Assistants and is in front of the F-16 Fighter Jet.
 

Vacation Bible School

FIESTA!!!
Where Kids Are Fired Up About Jesus!

Our VBS week is now over and here are a FEW of the 300+ shots I took for the slideshow.
For some strange reason, I can NOT get this blog to act right. It won't let me upload any pictures in the order I want to, or type where I want to. So that is why the pictures are in 3 different segments and this typing is underlined! :-)

Anyway, the kids had a BLAST! (except for Tiffer, who smiled when he could sit with Collin, but cried the rest of the night). It was in the evening, from 5:30 - 8:30 every night, which is BRUTAL because the kids and parents are tired before it even starts, but everyone enjoyed themselves, learned a lot, and were glad they came. (I REALLY enjoyed myself because for the first time in years, I could just show up like a normal person, not in charge of it all! YEAH!!)

 

Vacation Bible School!

 

Fellowship of Christian Airmen Camping Trip!

A bit out of order, but not to bad. This was a BUSY weekend for Sam. White water rafting with the family on Friday, this camping / hiking trip Saturday and Sunday, then the concert Sunday night. WHEW!!

Anyway, this is the FCA group. (Fellowship of Christian Airmen). A GREAT group of... (am I old enough now to call 20 year olds kids????) .....young people. :-)

They meet here every Sunday night and they are starting to do some nice outdoor things together. Last month it was the day at Strike Dam on the water. This month, a hiking / camping trip to Trinity Lakes. Sam said it went GREAT. No complaints, even about hiking FOURTEEN MILES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everybody brought what they were supposed to, helped without being asked, and had a great time.

Sam gave several devotionals throughout the trip.

This is taken at the TOP of the mountain at the Look-Out. A man actually lives up there!
Here is Sam with his birthday present, a new hiking backpack STUFFED with all his supplies. That thing was HEAVY!!!!!!!!
See the small dot at the top of that mountain? That is the Look-out, where they had the previous picture taken. A LONG, but gorgeous and fun hike.
This group is just growing! We had 16 last Sunday night, and 4 of our regulars were out of town! Any more and we are going to bust out of this house! They are going through the book A PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE and they keep coming back and bringing friends!

Sam is thrilled. This is where his heart for ministry in the Air Force is, reaching these young airmen. Please pray that God continues to bless this ministry and use Sam to reach their hearts!

Anniversary!

Wow. Look at those young KIDS!! I can hardly believe 14 years have passed since that photo was taken. What an amazing 14 years they have been. College graduations, Seminary graduation, FOUR children, EIGHT moves, countless adventures and opportunities. Now here we are in the AIR FORCE!!! The LAST place I ever thought we would end up. But God is good, He knows what is best for us, and being here in Idaho as an Active Duty family has been wonderful.

Looking through the wedding photos this morning (which hasn't happened in a long time) brought back so many memories. I had 5 bridesmaids ; my sister, Sam's sister, and 3 great friends. What a great journey their lives have been as well. Between all of our wedding party , there are now 19 children here!! One all the way from CHINA! We are still grieving the loss of our dear friend Matt, who was killed in Haiti 3 months ago. Seeing all the pictures of him this morning just brought back SO many memories of the great times we shared with him and Shannon. It just makes me so thankful for my marriage, makes me mindful not to take anything for granted. Makes me thankful that God blessed me with such an amazing husband.

What an awesome thought to try to even PONDER what the next 14 years will bring!

So, what did we do for this anniversary? Well, 5 months ago, at 9:59am, I was at the computer, ready and waiting for the tickets to go on sale, and at exactly 10am I plugged in the information and bought FOURTH ROW seats for the Faith Hill and Tim McGraw Soul to Soul Concert tour.

WOW!!!!!!!!! IT WAS AMAZING!!! Almost 3 hours of non-stop, NO opening act, no intermission, back and forth between solos and duets, music. What a FABULOUS concert! Of course, things had to happen to make it memorable. We started out the night trying out a new restaurant, an authentic Greek place that was delicious!!!! Wow. I ate lamb and hummus and squid, and other things that I don't even remember and ENJOYED it! Then we stopped for ice cream and sat downtown and laughed with our friends, Fred and Tabitha, who were with us for the evening. Then it was off to the concert! Now, it did start about 40 minutes late, but it was WORTH IT! Also, the sold-out concert with at least 40,000 SCREAMING people, didn' t have air conditioning till 10:30!!!!! Talk about HOT HOT HOT. But the nice group of people behind me kept splashing me with their cold beer on my head and on my back and that really helped keep me cool! One of them even fell over our seat and hit her head on the floor next to Sam's feet. I think she was so friendly, checking on us like that, making sure we were OK in the heat. It was after mid-night when we got back, but the kids had done great with our sitter, the big 2 even went to opening night of Vacation Bible School with a neighbor. A great night for EVERYONE!!

WHITE WATER RAFTING!

I think yesterdays adventure ranks right up there with skiing! WHAT A BLAST!!!!!!!!! We signed up through the OAP (Outdoor Adventure Program) here on base for their Family Rafting Day trip. We met at 7:45, hopped on their vans and drove 44 miles south to Bliss, Idaho to launch our rafts into the famous Snake River. There was a SHORT safety lesson and rules talk, then we got into our rafts and off we went!

These first 2 pictures are of Collin and Kaitlynn within minutes of launching. They were both a TINY bit nervous!

Each raft came supplied with 2 plastic buckets. For bailing??? NO!!! FOR WATER WARS!!!! One of the other rafts had a family on it we know from the base. The mom challanged her two teenagers with , " I will pay the first one of you who throws a bucket of water at Chaplain Smith five dollars." They wouldn't do it, and NOT knowing of that challange, Sam was the first one to throw a bucketful in the WHOLE group of 28 people, and he threw it at the teenagers who wouldn't take the challange. :-)
They were QUICK to retaliate!!!!!!!! Kaitlynn and I are in the back of the raft, with NO buckets, yet we were getting doused with FREEZING COLD water anyway!! NO FAIR! There were NUMEROUS water wars through out the morning!
Kaitlynn wanted her picture taken with the pretty waterfall surrounded by the purple flowers. There were hundreds of white butterflies all over the flowers. (Now, realize I am using a Kodak disposable water proof one time use camera, so the pictures are NOT of the normal great quality, and the fuzzy spots you see ARE water droplets and NOT my fault!! ) :-)
Our guide was Cecil. He was GREAT! He is here for the summer from Michigan for an internship on base with the OAP. They gave him a room in the dorms for the summer. I think he stood out among the other airman with the shoulder length hair! He said he always gets stares in the hallways.
Now, I couldn't take pictures of the BEST part of the rapids because I needed my hands to paddle and HANG ON, so this was the best of the pictures, but not the best of the actual rafting.
Our guide said at one point, we did reach a 60 degree angle on one of the Class 3 rapids. To bad there isn't a picture of that!!!!!
There were several slower parts where we just floated with the current and the kids could get out and float down by the raft. Here, Collin is in the BRONCO position, where experienced rafters sit going THROUGH the rapids.
This was a game called RAFT CIRCLING. Cecil challanged Daddy to circle the entire raft with out falling in. He made it all the way around, but fell at the last second, INTO the boat!

A family picture during one of the slower periods.
What a LOT of fun!!! THe OAP took some pictures too and I can get those from them next week. So check back then as I will add those on as well.

This is one trip we will sign up for again!!!!!!!!!!!!