Estes, Pt. 2

Estes, Part 1

Invading Estes, or We're Baaaaaaack

Ah, Estes Park, how do we love thee? Let me count the ways...

Growing up in Colorado, summer day trips into Estes Park were not uncommon and never unrewarded, and as an adult I jumped at the chance (with Matt's buy-in) to take the whole brood for a few days last summer. Bliss. Heaven. Fondest of memories.

Luckily, Matt's parents felt the same after their first foray into the sweet town located at the gates to the Rocky Mountain National Forest, and thought it would be opportune to gather all of their sons, daughters-in-law and their children to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

And it was.

There's always a wealth of activity at your fingertips, and the extended Crawfords whitewater rafted down the Cache de Poudre river, hiked (above, Nymph Lake in the national park, below, Dream Lake), fished, shopped, swam, rode horses, golfed, had their photos taken, boated on Lake Estes, and enjoyed each other's company.

Glacier Lodge hosted the lot of us, and what a great location: huge cabin with huge kitchen, our own BBQ, our own set of picnic tables, nestled right next to the pool, mere steps from the stables. Happy happy joy joy.

Just prior to check out. 'Til next time, precious Estes.

Campamento de Muchachas

Oh, no, honey. I'm not showing these pix because this was a huge event in Eve's summer. I'm posting these pix because this was a huge event in Linda's sumer - the Stake leaders took complete leave of their senses and asked me to head up to Camp Joseph and handle the crafting duties for this year's edition of Girls' Camp...the irony is so dang thick you could do something with it that you would ordinarily do with thick substances.

This year's theme was Seekers XIII, after the 13th Article of Faith...having thoroughly disdained and/or suffered camp myself as an early teen, and any camping experience thereafter, it was just funny to experience such joy - I'm gonna lay it out there: there were showers and inside toilets and mirrors and electricity and I slept with an actual, not vinyl, but actual roof over my head, cooks on staff to keep us all straight-up spoiled (so fabulous!). I kept the make-up at home, thank you very much, keeping the spirit of the thing.

And who wouldn't, for these representative faces? I'm not a camper, but I've always had the wish to be wherever my kids were, and if I can do Cub day camp, I can do this. Kinda. I mean, the book 'What Not To Do at Girls' Camp' could practically write itself: don't buy new hiking shoes thinking you can 'break them in' on site, don't forget your pillow, don't overbuy, don't underbuy, don't forget your Diet Coke, and on and on.

So here's what I cobbled together: paper bag scrapbooks (I bit the bullet and accepted the inevitable: my days of actual paper-and-adhesive scrapping are ovah. Donate all 400+ sheets of paper to these girls and let them make some memories). Yup. I know. I've got that glow of sainthood. Note to self: next year, if they're brave enough to have me, more glue sticks.

Much fun was had with friendship bracelets, and these bad boys: flip flops and uninflated balloons. Next year, note to self: not so many flippin' balloons. Seriously. The stake currently has enough in surplus to last them at least one or two youth conferences wherein the sole activity could be water balloon-throwing, and nothing else. A two- or three-day conference, at that.

Camp songs are just a kick in the pants: here the Foothills seekers of Peace are bellowing 'Princess Pat', you know, the proud creator of the 'Ring of Bamboo.' A ring of bamboo? Now what is that? It's something made by the Princess Pat. Hello!

Belly was just thrilled to be hooked up with adults who knew how to French braid.

See that laminated card attached to her 'bear whistle'? (I kid you not, every girl had one. Real bears in the vicinity. Thanks to the Parker stake and their disastrous food policy one week prior. No incidents, however). A full-on detailed schedule of everywhere everyone had to be: they were so amazingly organized, with such impressive YCLs...oh, camp has come a long way, baby. Not one know-tying or fire-starting or tent-erecting rotation, it was all testimony and self-esteem and introspection trust-building, what's actually needed in their lives.

Being entertained. The best part of helping with crafts was that I could just be a floater the majority of the day, and watch my princess girl have one of the best weeks of her life, and get excited about the group of kids with which she gets to come of age. Reassuring.

Eve and Delaney, 'Singin' in the Rain'. Knees together, bottoms out, thumbs up, tongues out.

Eve, Desi, and disturbing inflated gloves, following a particularly rigorous bathroom cleansing.

The Seekers of Peace, leaders, YCLs and all. You get all teary-eyed for the love of them...

Isn't She Lovely?

I'm always partial to the '50s and '60s music my sweet daddy-o provided as the soundtrack to my childhood; this Stevie Wonder classic always ran through my head when she was just an infant: Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful?

Matt's mini-me has turned 12. Sigh.

It's nevertheless true for being trite: it hardly seems possible, and yet, as I've mentioned many a time before, I've been there for nearly every second of those 12 years, so, yeah, that feels about right.

What more to say about Evie that hasn't already been said? Responsible, kind, nurturing, outgoing, polite, hard-working, obedient, eager-to-please, accepting, funny, smart, loving, tolerant, reliable in every way. She's babysitting, for children who don't even share her last name. And how lucky are those little tykes?

What an amazing year she's had: 6th grade represented the steepest learning curve she's experienced to date...the craziness of hormones and their resultant mean girls and all that term encompasses: cliques, tattlers, criticizers, bullies, the ugliest of huan nature. What a baffling time for her - she's the queen of 'Can't we all get along? Everyone plays here!'- but the best part was watching her wade through the morass only to find her inner compass intact. Eve's still the fabulous girl she always was, only more so, because she didn't abandon herself on the way to being someone she probably wouldn't have liked all that much.

She's such a delight. In addition to her five-star personality, she pulled down outstanding grades, swam like a mad demon, entered the Young Women program, attended Girls' Camp, received a bedroom make-over, visited the Clinique counter and came away with some non-hooker, age-appropriate make-up, started her year at Castle Rock Middle School and is now blissfully participaing in the teacher-recommendation-required BIONIC (Believe It or Not I Care) program; she'll begin tutoring and other student government responsibilities within the month.

Always a joy, that girl. And always will be - how fun to watch her enter this next phase, how fun to know we're so much a part of it.

Later Summer 2011

Early Summer 2011

More Water Jocks

The homies who earned the right to participate in the Mountain High Swim League Championships.

Grace's first season as a Castle Rock Cruiser - after a winter and spring of lessons, she felt ready, then attempted to swim in the first 'Fun Meet' and had a nervous breakdown. "Why don't you want to swim?" " 'Cause I suck!"

We spent an entire season of practices and meets trying to dispel the notion, and succeeded: once she had her confidence and ability, she was able to drop 16 seconds off of her freestyle, just by swimming straight through without stopping to hold the lane line. For each event in each meet she swam, she earned a "Super Swimmer" ribbon, which is a nice benchmark of progress: if you've taken off any time at all, even hundredths of a second, you're acknowledged. I love this league.

Following his first year of year-round club swimming, Shane was back on Cruisers in fine form: he's now the team record holder for the Boys' 8 and Under Backstroke. He spent the season collecting blue ribbons for every event he swam, qualified for the league championships in five events and chose to swim Back, Fly and 200 IM in that meet. His favorite event was the Boys' 8 and Under Relay, whom he helped propel to the League Championship.

He also earned five All-Star Times: Freestyle, Backstroke, Butterfly, Breast and IM...what a huge sense of accomplishment for him, and well-deserved, after a full year of swimming at least 4 nights a week. That's many hours of Wii-free time, my friends. Big sacrifice.

Crawford tats. All summer long my kiddos sport these Sharpie'd codes on the backs of their wrists. It makes for a stunning presentation in your Sunday Best, I'll tell ya what.

Swimming is a LOT of down time, but if it's one thing the Crawfords are blessed with, it's each other. They've got friends and acquaintances, but as long as they've got each other, they want for little. Their little universe of fun is always amazing to behold, and, if I was at all justified in taking credit, I would.
Can't. But I would.