Other Snapshots from Christmas

Mark making the Christmas meal

Opening presents

Reading time with Grandad

Learning a New Language

December 21, 2008

Last year, my niece Lois was not yet crawling. Oh how much changes in a year. Now she is walking and running and jumping and talking and screaming like any year and a half old girl. Let’s just say I had a quite the learning curve to conquer. The reason being, although she is talking, there are many occasions when I have no idea what she is saying. She just keeps “talking” with such serious or silly body language that I wish with all my might I could understand what she was saying. Gradually I began to catch on. The words I hear the most are again, cheese (which was for the food and for a camera), where’s it gone?, book, spin, pippin (a dog on a TV show) and daddy. Daddy I heard twice as often because not only does she call Mark daddy but she also calls Hilary daddy with slightly a different tone. Plus she also knows some sign language which I also have had to pick up on.

Although I couldn’t understand her a lot of the time, she had no problem understanding me. If I asked her to go and get my water bottle, she would know exactly what she was to look for and would work her hardest to carry it to me even though the load was sometimes 10% of her body weight. She is a strong little cookie.

She definitely has some of the Westbrook blood in her when it comes to being fearless and the need for action (and also wild hair but that is another story). I can toss her around so much that I think I will make her sick. But the second I stop, she says "again". She loves to dance and flip and climb furniture and people. We have practiced our circus act on more that one occasion causing me to be sore the next day.

I am sure I will see her again within the coming year, but she will be a different girl in a lot of ways getting closer and closer to the age of children that I love. But by the next time I see her, she will have another role in the family besides being the crazy little daughter. Come mid-May she will have to play the role of crazy big sister and share mummy and daddy's attention with a little brother. I will have to go through the learning curve all over again with them both I am sure. Fortunately, kids (especially family) are too much fun to mind.

Cookie Exchange

December 13, 2008

Well I am back in England for the holiday season. My visit this time around is a bit longer than last year; 4 weeks in total. I arrived only to hit the ground running as Hilary and I started a baking frenzy. Hilary decided to challenge some of her friend over here to go a little out of their comfort zones. Baking for the two of us has been something we have been doing for years. You see, Hilary decided to host a cookie exchange; an event where everyone that is invited bakes a certain amount of cookies. All the cookies are then brought to one centralized please where each person then takes some of all of the other people’s cookies. The result is a fabulous smorgasbord of tasty treats. Well, for many of Hilary’s friends, this was the first time they have ever attempted to bake let alone bake in this high quantity. My taste buds decided with a shadow of doubt that all passed the challenge with flying colors.

BIG News!

November 4, 2008

For Lynette that is…she is finally engaged! I say finally because she and her now fiancé have been talking about marriage for a while. When I say “while” I mean long enough for me to already have my bridesmaids dress before she had a ring on her finger. So life around here will be full of planning and preparation from now until Easter weekend, two fold.

What I mean by two fold is that because Matt is moving in come April, I will be moving out. Where to? Well, fortunately I have the answer to that question. My next destination will be North Carolina and Virginia. How is it possible that this is one destination? I will be employed at Cheerio Adventures, a company that has two locations both of which I will be serving in before the summer is over. In the Spring I will be doing adventure education and in the summer I will be a trip guide working at the camp. I will be exposed to teaching and leading activities beyond challenge course and backpacking which in turn will enhance my outdoor education/adventure resume and confidence in hopes for something more full time in the fall.

Dear Yeti,

When I arrived back in Indiana, I was a bit surprised to find that you were now living in the backyard. I will never forget the day that Lynette told me she was going to give you away. I, like everyone else, was completely shocked by the declaration. I never thought I would see the day. I knew there had to be a good reason for her to do something like that. And there was.

I know that I have been hard on you in a lot of ways. I have refused to throw you your gross, slobbery racket ball on more than one occasion; and I scolded you when I found you lying in my bed. But through it, I think we came to a healthy understanding. Believe me I felt sorry for you when you were tied up outside this past month, but there was nothing I could do.

In the end, I think this move has greatly benefited everyone involved, you especially. Now you will be able to run free, learn to hunt, swim everyday while living indoors and being the fun, loving social dog that you are. Lynette is already missing you, even greater than she sometimes will admit.

I hope that you find all the attention, affection, and love you need in your new home. I have no doubt that you will.

When Worlds Collide

October 17-19, 2008
Being back in Indiana, the home of my college years, has brought many faces of old back to the forefront. The encounters have been great but still have been from one aspect of my life. This past weekend, a few other ventures of my life intersected in one of the most unlikely places: Wisconsin.


Originally, this weekend trip to Wisconsin was in order to make an exchange. It was time for Lynette’s dog, Yeti, to move to a new family that would give her all of the attention she deserves. Wisconsin was chosen because it was the halfway point between Minnesota and Indiana.
Lynette worked in WI for 4 summers and one full year so her connections in the area where we were going were significant, a place to stay was easy to come by. The Christian Adventure Association just happened to be having a conference there that weekend. One of the members of the CAA just happens to be a professor that I worked with while at JBU in Arkansas (a fact that I was not aware of until I walked through the door and saw him across the room). Too, the place where we were staying was just across the street from Devil’s Lake State Park where Lynette and I led a group rock climbing while in college. Furthermore, Devil’s Lake is not far from Madison, WI; a city in which a friend from college had moved to some months back. His wife (a good friend who I hadn’t seen in 3 years) is still in Georgia trying to sell their house, but she and their three children just happened to be coming up to WI that same weekend.














In two and a half days, all of these lines intersected some of which quite unexpectedly. All of which really makes me contemplate my past with a smile on my face. It is nice to know that whether it has been months or years since I have seen someone, things always just natural seem to pickup where they left off.

4 seasons

October 10, 2008
Sometimes I find it hard to imagine living in a place that doesn’t experience all four seasons. Each season brings such a unique pleasure, beauty, and those wonderful traditions that I look forward to every year. Being in the Midwest for the fall, I look outside and cannot help but appreciate all the change that is happening. I see the colors of the leaves, the height of the corn, the beautiful weather being not too hot or cold; everything in full transition in preparation for the winter. In many ways, I find this the hardest season to let go of. I have a feeling it will be the same again this year.

Time Warp

September 15, 2008
My days in California have come to a close. In some ways it feels like I am exiting one world and entering into a new one; closing a door that possibly will never be opened again. My final month at Camp Tawonga was almost surreal. The quietness during the week as I helped get ready for the next family camp weekend was definitely cherished. The reunion of familiar faces every weekend as staff would return for another program.
Soon that place will become a distant memory as I travel from one world to the next. Indiana, a world I once was in for four and half years I will now return to as if bending back time while still moving forward. Lynette, my roommate of old, will be my roommate again for the last time. She looks to have a male roommate of the more permanent fashion in the coming year and I look to other horizons in the job market. Knowing that this new, familiar place will be a place to recharge and refocus as I prepare myself to step through yet another time warp; still unsure of where it will take me.

Close to Nature*

September 14, 2008

As my time at Camp Tawonga was coming to an end, I started to think of all the new pieces of nature that I learned to identify over the summer. Some of the trees and plants were native to California and others I had seen before in other locations around the country. With my camera in hand, I walked around the property ready to capture the close details of the nature around me. Not only did this include the trees and wild flowers, but also the garden. Jacob and Palmer worked all summer planting and tending the garden along with the help of the kids. Their labor was definitely not in vain, as many of the vegetables eaten at meals were fresh from the garden. These photos can only be a testimony to their dedication and also the absolute beauty of nature.

The Plaque

September 10, 2008

In Camp Tawonga tradition, instead of kids and staff signing the walls of their cabins each group makes a plaque with all of their names and an illustration that represents their summer. Space to hang these plaques however is becoming limited especially for those trips and staff member that don't have a specific building. This caused some limits to be in place; so in respects to quests, a plaque can only be made if it is a first of some sort. Well, in the past there has been a Northwest Quest and a Canada Quest, but this summer was the first for the Northwest/Canada Quest Mash-up. Unfortunately, there was not enough time for the questers to make a plaque of their own. So, I took it upon myself to make one during the evening. Here is the final product.

Family Camp

September 2, 2008

Camp Tawonga is quiet now. No sounds of kids running around with the hustle and bustle of activity. All of that will change on Friday when another round of family camp begins. For the past two weekends I have seen more of the Camp Tawonga property than I did all summer.

Family camp at Tawonga has a completely different feel then camp during the summer. You aren't responsible for the kids the entire time. I imagine it is what it feels like to be a grandparent. Have the kids for a little while in the morning and then give them back to the parents in the afternoon.

For the past two weekends I have dipped my hands in a variety of different jobs which again has given the weekend a different feel. Take a group of adults on a 2 mile hike in the morning up to the ridge. Take a bigger group of a adults on another hike down to Lower falls for a swim in the river late morning. Reunite them with their kids. Have Lunch and then help with arts and crafts in the afternoon after rest hour. Shabbat Dinner, enjoy the evening activity scheduled for the families like a talent show and then enjoy the adult activities at night like a dance.

Most of the time I feel like I am just part of the big clan of people that is here enjoying the activities and having conversations with people from all walks of life.

The weekend comes to an end and the quietness of camp begins again as I stay on to work maintenance during the week; preparing the buildings to be used again in a few short days. A computer and a phone are my only outlet to the outside world. Two more weeks and this haven of solitude and peacefulness will disappear and become another life that I once lived. I will walk away from this place with a different world view then when I entered three and a half months ago and with a different view of myself.