Our Happy Camper is Home

Last week was a LONG one...

for Momma at least.

Several times a day I would ask T and H, "What do you think K is doing?"

Gosh, no one could give me an answer.

Now I know...she was having the time of her young life.

K and Kelly, the horse

S and her horse, Ruby

The alarm was set for 2:20 AM Saturday morning. Went to bed around 10:30 PM Friday night hoping to fall off to sleep right away.  THAT didn't happen.

So after getting what seemed a few minutes of sleep I jumped out of bed when the alarm went off. I was out the door at 3:00 AM traveling to R's house. You won't believe what was on the road at that hour of the morning.  Bicyclists!!  There must have been 75 cyclists spread out on the road on some type of tour or in a race.  They had aid stations set up every 10 miles or so.  The cyclists all wore the BLINDING BRIGHT lights on their helmets and several more on their bicycles. I never did find out what race they were in.

When I reached the general area of where R lives I could not find the turn off. It is dark at 4:00 AM out where she lives.  In the daytime I can see a a house by the road that I use as a landmark for where to turn.  At four in the morning that house disappears into the darkness of night. After going back and forth down the road a few times I called her. Her husband drove her to the road I was on and R and I continued on to the camp...

that was still 5 hours away. R and I don't get to see each other that often so we talked the whole 5 hours.

As we drove into the camp I saw K walking towards the stables.  "Is that K?"  I waved.  Nonchalantly K yells to me, "Hi Mom."  We parked and got out of the car.  Boy, did it feel good to stretch our legs. K came over.  Hug, hug.  Oh, how I missed my DD all week long. She looked like she grew a couple of inches in the week she was gone.  She face was sunburned and puffy. We all walked over to where S was.  She was talking to their new friend KT.

Happy faces.

KT told us we were the first parents here.

KT

Hmmm, the registration form said to pick the campers up BY 9:00 AM.

"Next year you'll know that means to be here by noon.," KT informs R and me.

Before departing the campers gathered in the chapel to get their horsemanship certificates and give recognition to the wranglers, counselors, kitchen crew and administrators who made the week possible.

Don't you love the cowboy way, the cowboy dress code?  For the most part their shirts are always tucked in neatly. Sure, their clothes may get dirty from all the dirty, sweaty work they do BUT they almost always LOOK NEAT! They almost always are polite and tip their hats to ladies. And, open doors for ladies. Etiquette that was common not that many years ago but a rarity in today's society.

Roping steer on Monday. I think the campers just watched them rope, I hope.

Two of the 4 steer escaped during the week. They had not been found by the time we left on Saturday.

What a great crew they were. Over a two day period they watched a green colt get broken in.  The wranglers were able to ride it on the second day.

We all viewed a slide show  of the past week.  Each camper got to take a copy of the slide show home on CD.

K and S gathered their things and we left camp.  We all talked about returning next year.  At the bottom of the hill we ate breakfast at the same family owed cafe that we ate at on the way to the camp. You remember the one where "ewe" seat yourself

and follow the country commandmentds.

The paintings/burnt etchings on wood boards were beautiful.

 

S and K talked almost nonstop through breakfast and for about half of the trip home. They talked about the horses

I think between the two of them they could name all the horses at the camp.

What a peaceful setting.

The big talk of the week was about getting "troughed" and avoiding getting "troughed." "Troughed" is a new word that is probably not yet in the Webster's dictionary although it probably is in the 'Camper's Guidebook.' Troughed: v. to get dunked in the horse water trough.

And they talked about the people they met.

KT

These gals were S & K's  roommates.

Wednesday and Friday night they had a bonfire.

  

Thursday they took an all day trial ride up the mountain.  There were some pictures of the ride on the CD each of the campers received.  Gorgeous views. Thursday night a storm rolled through.

They had a visitor to the cabin. Or under it.

They trekked down to the creek a lot.

K

S

When quiet came over the car I looked in the rear view mirror and saw two girls sleeping.

Dog tired.

I think it is safe to say they had an awesome week!

K and I got home about 7:00 PM with a pie from our favorite pie shop. H and I sang Happy Birthday to K and T.  Saturday was T's birthday.

P.S.  My favorite comment I heard from K was on Sunday morning as she was coming in from doing chores.  She didn't know I was in the next room when I heard her say, "I love to be home."