oh, the places that shape us...

when i think back over my life up to this point, i can easily identify seasons and places that have shaped and formed me.  jobs i held, homes and communities i lived in, cities i explored, people i met who have challenged and supported me.  there are some that spring to mind quicker than others and for me, one of those places is Camp Tadmor in lebanon, OR.


 Tadmor is a place i consider to be sacred as it was fundamental in the formation of my faith and relationship with christ.  located two hours from my growing up home, i was lucky to spend a week there each summer as soon as i was old enough for sleep away camp.  i have a strong memory of sitting around the campfire at the end of the week when i was about 12 or 13, realizing that i wanted a relationship with christ that would be all my own, and be something more than just religion as it had been for me in the past.  as soon as i hit college age, i knew i wanted to spend my summers there on staff.  i served on the counseling team for two summers, working alongside about ten other staffers each summer to guide different groups of campers as they came up one week at a time.

my alter ego: kazam

the great folks i got to serve alongside my second summer

 during those summers, i got to do lots of things.  i'm not sure there has ever been a season where i've taken so many goofy pictures!  between the mud pit, 100 feet water slide, swimming in the lake, rock climbing, hikes, exploring in the creek, paint ball, camp fires, singing, team building, night games, canoeing during one on ones with campers, eating meals family style with campers, dressing up in ridiculous clothing either for wacky wednesday or "just because", sleeping under the stars, brushing my teeth with 100 other girls at an outdoor sink, forgoing showering for the summer since i decided that was better than a cold shower, writing encouragement notes, weekend adventures down the hill into town and doing lots of dishes and cleaning lots of toilets, it's no wonder that those two summers are a bit of a blur in my mind. 

wacky wednesday- five bucks if you can spot me

where else in life is it ok to wear a potato chip bag as a hat?

action shot in the mud pit.  quality bonding with campers!

  

yes, i seriously did wear those overalls all summer and they were not part of my dress up repertoire.  to mogli's family, before they met me, i was known as "overalls".

and that's not even mentioning all the things that i feel i walked away with: i learned to pray, in anticipation that my prayers would come true.  i learned the fundamentals of my faith, and they were cemented as i got to explain them each week to children who had the same questions i had.  i got my first taste of living in community by life with dozens of other young people for 8 weeks, spending 24/7 with each other (which as you can imagine had its ups and its downs).  i got to observe christian family and marriages through the full time staff that was serving at camp.  i had serious crushes that were distracting from my service at times.  i learned the art of encouragement.  i connected with people with whom i had nothing in common except christ.  i learned how to serve humbly.  i also got to make friendships that still stand to this day.

it was at camp that i met my soul mate- mogli, known by some as carly.  at first, we did not get along AT ALL, but then quickly forced a friendship based on the fact that we both have african sisters.  i'm so grateful that we took that walk on the beach... (p.s. it's a little embarassing the amount of pictures i had to scroll through that looked like variations of this one...)

 since then, camp has held a significant place in my heart.  on the day luke proposed to me, he said we could go anywhere to celebrate, and i chose camp!  the last few years, our church's men retreat has been hosted at camp and i have been able to go along to cook, which fills my heart so much to once again be in the place where me and my savior first met.  i am looking forward to the map of my life, to see which other places shape and grow me. 

apple party... this is how traditions are born

 it all started last year when we were invited to our roommate's family's apple cider pressing party.  we enjoyed ourselves so much that ever since then, we've been scheming how to host our own.  the time came this year, as we are more or less settled into our new home and we have luke's sister/brolaw/the adorable kids living with us.  luke headed out to Oregon Heritage Farms, where a crate of 800 lbs of jonagold apples was forklifted onto the trailer!   they sat at our house, as we invited our neighbors and made a plan.  we borrowed an apple press and chopper from the kitchen share SE and scoured our immediate neighborhood, handing out invites. 

we decided to do a trial run of the press (it was much smaller than we had anticipated) and in doing so, realized that would take FOREVER because it only pressed like 6 apples at one time.  john and luke then started talking, googling, and dreaming up their own homemade press that was completed by the time saturday morning rolled around. 

  they used a design they found online, which used a bottle jack and its hydraulic system to provide the pressure needed to squash the apples.  it worked like a dream.  they also used a garbage disposal (don't worry- it was cleaned and sanitized several times!) to mush up the apples before we pressed. 

by the end, we had quite the assembly line going and everyone found something to do. 

we maybe made it through 3/4 of the apples and ended up with about 36 gallons, not including the gallons drank that day by all present.  we also made tons of applesauce, froze apples for pie filling and both dehydrators are still working on apple fruit leather and dehydrated apple rings.  we had 20 families show up to help, and many of the people present spoke Spanish, so Spanish was heard as much as the work table as English.  we all have had way too much cider this weekend, as exhibited by our sore tummies, but are definitely already looking forward to next year!