Cousins Camp 2008

While I was in Colorado at Youth Camp Greg and I were blessed to have some great help watching the kids! Sunday-Tuesday my parents came down to watch the kids (thanks for that guys the kids had a wonderful time) and then Wed.-Sat. Debbie and Jerry had them and they decided it would be a great time for Cousin's camp! I asked Debbie to write a little something up to tell us about all the fun they had at the farm! Enjoy!
-of course I had a TON of pictures to pick from but I had to just pick a few...sorry Debbie;)

We recently enjoyed another Cousins Camp. By popular demand, we returned to the farm we stayed at last year--different farm house.

This year we had small goats as well as big ones to play with and feed. We were able to go in the pen with the small ones. Also, we had a mare & colt, pigs, chickens, ducks, turkeys (Mama Turkey was sitting on 9 eggs!), cats, a dog, pigeons, rabbits and a sheep. None of them had empty bellies while we were there! For that matter, none of US had empty bellies while we were there either!

We all cooperated by taking turns doing what each person wanted to do. We had a treasure hunt, played on the swings & see-saw, strung beads, & played a few baseball games (joined by none other than Josh "Landry" Hamilton & Hank "Reese" Blalock!)

We had a great time with the animals and all the cousins got to drive the car on the turn-row in the pasture sitting in Poppa's lap. MawMaw & Poppa picked sotol sticks on their recent Big Bend trip & made walking sticks for everyone. Abby, Reese, Charlie & Landry each learned leather tooling and made leather grips for their sticks. You can see the great results as we hiked with our walking sticks!

We also spent lots of time at the swimming hole. The water was so clear you could see the bottom. The rock bottom made a perfect slide into the perfect-depth of water! Then there was a deeper area Poppa took every to play in. They could slide down the bottom of the dam into the water there. Abby found pretty shells & we skipped lots of rocks across the river.

Poppa took us for nightly trips to the snow cone stand. One night Abby, Reese & Landry had eaten all they wanted. Charlie wasn't going to walk away from any of that good stuff. He pulled the left-overs over &, surrounded by 4 cups of snow cone said, "Things are turning out really well for me at Cousins Camp!"

Reese noticed immediately that our bathroom door looked a lot like the gate on a chute so each time someone went to the bathroom, when you'd hear the flush, someone would yell, "Let 'er out!" and the "bull" would come rushing out of the chute. All the cowboys & cowgirls would scatter!

Do you know what's the hardest thing in the world to tame? We learned from James 3:7-8 that every kind of animal has been tamed by man, but "no one can tame the tongue." We want to use our tongues to praise God & say only encouraging things to others. We asked God to help us do that.

All four cousins were so well behaved! MawMaw & Poppa are so thankful for the fun times we get to spend with our 4 grandchildren, & for grandchildren who obey so well, love each other & are so cooperative & trustworthy. When we got home Charlie told Grandma Reese that the rules at Cousins Camp were, "you CAN get in the pen with the animals; you CAN pet the animals; you CAN get in the water."

Why, we had so much fun we think we'll do it again next year! Thumbs up or thumbs down for Cousins Camp? That was the question in the picture below!

Bathroom door--aka the bull chute!

Walking stick-made leather strapes

Two thumbs up--I mean 10;)

Sitting on the rock with Poppa.

Charlie feeding the animals