Finished Project!

Finally, I finished a knitting project! Lately, I've started a lot of things without actually finishing any of them.  I have been meaning to knit this adorable little halter sweater called the Haltermelon for my friends Greg and Melissa's baby girl Samantha.  I started it yesterday, and finished it up this evening.  It is adorable! I can't wait to see it on little Samantha Jane.  I'll post pictures of her in it when Melissa sends them to me.  Here's a couple shots of the finished project:

Hayden Lake

Katie and I headed out to Hayden to visit Grandma Glo and Grandpa Pat last weekend.  We made a quick stop to see Grandma Gay and Grandpa Tony.  We found out last week that Gay has been sick for like 5 weeks with E. Coli.  We had a nice hour long visit with the Longinotti's before we headed to see the Lunds.

Pat and Glo were in a great mood when we arrived (the house was actually quite-just us and them) after celebrating Chuck's promotion to captain.  We chatted for awhile, then Grandpa went to nap, Grams worked on her church newsletter (quit Grandma, just quit), and Katie, Lucy and I headed down to the lake to swim.  The water was perfect, and Lucy learned a new trick:

Such a talented girl! Thanks for the nice visit Grams and Gramps!

Congratulations Chuck!

Last night, Katie and I joined our family and a bunch of Chuck's friends to celebrate my Uncle Chuck's promotion to Captain in the Navy.  It's quite an accomplishment (he's only one of 70 Naval officers who was permuted to captain this year).  We had a great night hanging out and catching up with everyone after Chuck's ceremony.  Thanks for including us in your big day Chuck!

100 Monkeys addendum

After further reflection with Katie, I amend previous conversation to read that the discussion was between me and my friend Michelle not me and Katie.  But it DID happen! Michelle, sadly, was unable to go with us at the last minute because her grandma fell ill the night before.

My apologies sister!

100 Monkeys

I love my sister for so many reasons, but one of my favorites is cause Katie is almost always up for an adventure, even if it has the potential to be incredibly ridiculous.  So a couple months ago, I was looking at an advert for The Knitting Factory and saw that 100 Monkeys was coming to town.

So I said, "Hey Katie,  want to go see 100 Monkeys with me in August?"

"Who are they? Are they any good?" asks Katie.

"I'm not sure if they're any good.  They are Jackson Rathbone's band (Jasper from Twilight)," I replied.

"OK, I'm in," she quickly replied.  "But we have to make 'I hate Twilight, but I love you' shirts."

And that's how Katie and I (and our friends Matt and Mal) ended up here last Saturday night.  And no, we didn't make the shirts...sadly!

Done, done and done

It'a official! My contract is done for the year.  We finished up our season with a lovely women's weekend, packed up our cabins, and headed to Coeur d'Alene to our friend Curtis' to have some joyful hang out time (well, 5 of us did).

The summer was the usual mixture of fun, joy, tears, children, and frustration.  For some reason, camp had quite a few more challenges then usual.  Perhaps because we only had 7 program staff (instead of the traditional 10).  My staff was fantastic though.  We had a great set of program weeks, and made some crazy stuff happen: the ultimate rave dance, a Mad Hatter tea party, sledding in the middle of July (with real snow), a Dr. Seuss carnival, a fantastic fancy dinner and dance for senior high, the most outrageous relay Camp Cross has ever seen (one camper from each group had to swim across the bay),just utter craziness...

And we had utter beauty at camp too.  I must admit that when it comes to nature, there are few places in this world that hold a candle to all the glorious spots that own my heart from camp.  From moonrises and campfire sites, to early morning fogs rolling off the lakes, Winston Rock to Gruber's ridge, our 110 acres pack a whole lot of nature's glory into its shores.  The views alone make camp worth the work we put in each season.  Plus, my cabin gets the best views: sunrise at one angle and sunset from the other!

Regardless of the frustrations, I'm leaving camp this year with a lot of joy stored in my heart, and a ton of memories with 7 of my favorite people on earth.  I am so thankful for each and every one of my program staff team.  They weathered some true adversity both personally and professionally, and yet they never let that keep them from creating awesome program for our campers.  They are truly some of the most selfless people with whom I've ever had the pleasure to work.    I am also very thankful to spend more time with my friend Krista.  I loved the times we got to hangout and enjoy camp together between our chaotic director jobs!

While this may not be the last time I'm at camp this year (we still have some post-season weekends to work), it was the end of our time together as an entire staff.  I know it won't fix all the frustration of the summer for you all, but I want you to know how deeply I appreciate your hard work this summer.  It was noticed, appreciated, and accepted with joy and love in my heart.  I would not have made it to the end without all of you supporting me and having my back.  The words are not truly enough, but I know that each of you knows the love behind them.  My final gift to you all required a facing of my fear of heights (my own personal high ropes course, if you will).  I hope you love our staff square as much as I love each of you.  Have a wonderful year, and keep coming back!
Pia

Our staff square: "Magunda, fire!"  So high, I could set the paints down on top of the lights while working.

The cinnamon roll saga

A quick note, this is one of the more exciting stories in my life of late, so be forewarned, my life isn't very exciting right now! :)

As many of you know, I'm in my last week at camp for the official summer! Woo hoo! Part of our summer closing includes spending some time together and having a nice dinner to end on a lovely note.  Yesterday was that day.  My friend, Michelle Klippert, invited the staff to use her cabin for dinner and a sleepover, which we were all excited about.  The caveat was that the staff really wanted me to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast this morning.

I was all for it.  I don't make them very often and they are delicious, but there was a slight hitch in our plan: Michelle doesn't have a stand mixer and I wasn't going to make break dough by hand.  Sorry! So we decided we would bring the Hobart from camp to Michelle's to make everyone's dream of cinnamon-y goodness come true.

Great plan, until you try to lift up the Hobart ( a two person process at least).  Here is a picture of a much newer version of what we were trying to carry.  The boys were all like, "yeah, no problem! We'll carry it so we can have cinnamon rolls!" And then they got it down to the dock (by vehicle) and Curtis and Dan were like "No f***ing way am I carrying that thing again!"

Needless to say, we did get it loaded and even unloaded at Michelle's with much gripping and back pain.  So finally last night, after I had finished making dinner for everyone (not the original plan mind you, but Colin had left all his stuff at the dock and had to drive back for it), it was time for me to make said rolls.  First, the boys had to carry the Hobart up the stairs to the kitchen for me, (which Curtis and Dan did-either they got a second wind, or were willing to do it since I did all the cooking so they didn't have to at dinner... maybe it was just that they had already had a beer or two, whatever).

So those two saints lugged it up the stairs and onto the counter for me.  I lifted the garbage bag they had covered it with for transport, ready to begin.  That was when we realized there was a small insurmountable problem (unlike the large heavy carrying problem); the boys had taken the mixing bowl off the Hobart when they moved it out of the kitchen, and forgotten to then bring it down to the boat.  We had the machine, the attachments, but no bowl in which to mix said rolls.

Needless to say, we had pancakes this morning.  Maybe, I'll try again tonight now that we're back at camp. :)

Movie overload

For some reason, all I've wanted to do when I've been on break the last few weeks is see movies.  Maybe it's because when I'm at camp, there's no chance that I can go to one.  I've had a great time seeing some fun shows with the ladies in my life (Mallory, Katie, mom, Blythe Jane...) Thanks for being so willing to jump up and go to a show girls! Here are my favorites that I've seen this summer:



I have to admit, this was my favorite X-Men movie of the whole series.  I loved seeing the origins of our favorite characters and getting some insight on how Prof. X and Magneto ended up on opposite sides.  It was definitely worth watching.


No surprise to anyone how much I loved Harry Potter 7.2.  I am still reeling over the fact that we've hit the end of the movies (much like I was when I turned the last page of the book).  I'm so glad that they decided to turn the book into 2 movies.  It just wouldn't have done justice to the book if they hadn't.

After HP7.2, Katie, Mal, and I felt like we hadn't gotten enough movie time, so we went to see perhaps the funniest movie I've seen this summer: Horrible Bosses.  We all fell in love with Charlie Day (again), and Jason Bateman stole my heart as he always does.  Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston and Colin Ferrel did some fantastic works as the horrible bosses our boys had to deal with.  If you haven't seen this one, catch it while it's still in theaters.  Truly funny my friends.

Our most recent movie adventures were during my time off this week.  Last night, Katie, mom and I ventured out to see The Help.  Mom and I had listened to the book on tape during a trip to Seattle last Spring, so we were both a little nervous for the movie adaption.  The book was read by four different narrators, who were simply fantastic.  I just wasn't sure if Hollywood could live up to the book's heart-wrenching, courageous characters and the down-right funny scenes that put this book in my top 10.  Thank goodness, they did.  I laughed so hard (and was overjoyed that they kept most of my favorite scenes -left out the naked guy, but I didn't mind that), and just made you love these women as they went through some truly awful experiences.  Overall, a fantastic adaptation.

Finally, Katie and I went to see Crazy, Stupid, Love tonight.  Can I just say, I may be in love with Ryan Gosling.  That man is all sorts of fantastic.  And Emma Stone (also stars in The Help) can't do wrong.  She is so good in every role she plays.  Steve Carrel was as lovable as always as the dad dealing with his wife cheating on him and asking for a divorce.  It was funny and sweet and just so freaking adorable.  Catch this one, maybe take a date.  It's a sweet love story with some serious laughs.  Oh, and Marisa Tomei has a cameo as a crazy teacher (loved her)!

Senior pics

It's that time of year again, school is about to begin, and the seniors are getting their pictures done.  One of my favorite campers, Caden, asked me in June if I would be willing to take his pictures while he was at Senior High.  He loves camp, and wanted some of his pictures to be at his favorite place.  How could I possibly say no to that? I took advantage of my director privileges and took the Gator for an hour so we could get to some of my favorite sites without Caden getting all sweaty.  It also allowed me to make my first ever visit to Pioneer Camp (22 years and I'd never been up there).  The shoot was a success, and Caden's pics were great.  Here are a couple of my favorite.

Pictures up at Pioneer camp, using the teepee for a background

We also took a few at Winston Rock.  I love
that these overlook the whole lake

AGY retreat

I just signed up with mom to go on the October knitting retreat with A Grand Yarn (our local yarn store).  Mom and I will be heading to Whitefish, MT for three days of knitting and relaxing at this delightful B&B: Good Medicine Lodge

Our room will be the Montana room.  I immediately called the queen size bed (and then paid both of our registration fees).  We went with the two bed option cause anyone who knows my mom knows she gets incredible restless leg.  We are also going to try taking the train to get there, since it is an incredibly long drive.  The down-side: the train leaves Spokane for Montana at 1:30 in the AM.  Guess I won't be having my White Christmas train dream!
Here's a view of our room and our adorable shower:

 

Camp, camp and more camp

Moonrise.  Ah Camp, so full of beauty!

Not too much going on in my world right now other then tons of camp fun! As expected, the summer has been full of tons of laughter and smiles, the pain of growing as a leader, a few tears and too many frustrations, and I've loved every second of it.  I can't believe I only have a week and a half left of youth camps, and then just one more contracted week.  Where did the summer go?

We just finished up hosting Camp No-Limits last week.  This may be my favorite session (although I do think that at the end of every week).  The campers at this session are all children who have missing/deformed limbs (arms and/or legs), as well as their families.  They truly amaze me every year! They don't let anything hold them back, and Camp is probably one of the few places where they can just let loose and be a kid... play, laugh, be themselves... without others judging them or putting them down.  They just have such joy (like any other camper who comes through).  It was fun to see how much they have grown in a year, and meet new campers.  I even got to be a "judge" at their talent show.  I was dressed as Sirabi from the Lion King, too much fun.  No pictures from this week yet

We also had a Camp Cross first this summer: sledding! We brought in snow from one of the local mountains for our Christmas in July day at Junior High camp, and set the kids free to sled.  It was FANTASTIC! They were so shocked, and it was sooooo fun.  I love that we created a memory for those campers that they will never forget.  Here are a couple pics from the day.