trout lake camp

We're back! True to Crust form, we left camp a little early. Instead of leaving this morning after breakfast, we packed up and came home late last night. It was so good to sleep in my own bed. We had an incredible trip, one that we plan on repeating many summers in the future.

Trout Lake Camps is in Pine River, MN, which is about 30 minutes outside of Brainerd, for you MN folks. It's about 2.5 hours from door to cabin. They have about 300 acres of forested land that is dotted with fields, cabins, huge buildings, barns, and more. I feel really inadequate describing it so I'll just stop and post some pics.

Here are some highlights...

Caught this gem on the way up. It's definitely a midwestern thing to not be too self-promoting so they settled for "Pretty Good Shopping" to describe this quaint strip mall. (See the sign in the middle of the pic). Sure wouldn't want to disappoint in case you were looking for "Really Good Shopping."

We spent way less time at the beach than I expected. Skip and I tossed around the football while the kids played with the kick boards. They collected snail shells. Mmm. That was a nice smell when we unpacked the beach bag.

Had a BLAST fishing in a little rowboat. Kids caught over 10 each between the 2 trips out. Mostly sunnies and perch. Fish are so stupid. Ella caught half of them on a bare hook.

Give me pouty, Simon, pouty. Perfect. Great shot.

Skip, Simon and Ella all did the 35-ft indoor climbing wall. Skip reached the top, Ella got up about half way before she looked down and freaked. Simon got up about 6 ft.

They have a horse corral with about 15 horses. They also have a little petting zoo. There were rabbits, a few little lambs, ducks and chickens. I like rabbits about as much as I like horses. It's the big teeth. I literally became overwhelmed from anxiety when I approached the horses. Both kids were dying to ride them. I could never be a farmer.

This is one of few pictures where Simon isn't impersonating the lead singer from Kiss.
We walked these roads from where we stayed (in one campground) to where we spent most of our time ( a different camp about a 15 min walk away). The grounds were thick forests that were absolutely breathtaking. Wild raspberry bushes lined the roads so anytime we were out walking we ate handfuls of the sweet little berries. YUM. We saw lots of wildlife, including several baby deer and their mamas.
I don't have a lot of patience for mini-golf. So when Skip and I were dating I invented "Jungle Ball." Basically you act like an animal whacking your ball all around the green, trying to get it in the hole as quickly as possible. The kids loved it!


My absolute favorite thing we did was canoeing. The camp is set on a huge lake, lined with thick forests, with lots of little "rivers" leading to different lakes. One of those rivers (not really a river but a narrow part of the lake) they call Hidden River. You can't see it from the shore. It's thick with lily pads and can get quite shallow. But it's a narrow, absolutely gorgeous, peaceful place. I have never felt more peaceful. And I had 2 bickering kids in the canoe, so you can only imagine what this place was like! Here are a few pics of that adventure. We even saw a bald eagle fly over us! Skip and I decided that we are going to buy a canoe this year. There are so many places to canoe in our area. And I just loved being on the water.
We had to go through the little tunnel in the middle of the picture below. Of course we had to yell as floated through, like we always do in tunnels.

There were so many lily pads and these gorgeous flowers all over!

My little Peanut!

Skip spent 2-3 weeks preparing for his nightly chapel sessions. And after the first night it became very clear to him that God wanted him to put it aside and He would give him the topic for the night. That was a little stressful for Skip as he had to spend a few hours a day preparing for that evening. But it was such a cool thing. Those kids really encountered God this week. I spent a LOT of time reading (no surprise there). I read 2.5 books and wished I had brought another 2. I only brought the first vampire book (Twilight by Stephenie Meyer), thinking I wouldn't even come close to finishing the 500 pages. I read it in a little over 24 hours. Sheesh. It was reeeeeally good. And I polished off another book and a half. Did lots of laying around and resting, naps, crossword puzzles, and walking. It was really nice. Kids spent some time in the craft shack making tie-dye shirts and necklaces. The weather was probably the most perfect weather I have experienced in all my life. Mid 70s all week, sunny, no rain, not too humid. It was amazing. They fed us well (I think I gained a few pounds) and we had a great place to stay. It was like a hotel with 2 adjoined rooms and our own bathroom. Very comfortable except for the sulfur-smelling water. Whew. That was nasty. The kids almost couldn't stand it.

Totally awesome summer vacation. Ella will be old enough to be a camper next summer so Skip will probably go up and speak at the same time she's there. I'm sure Simon and I will join them.

Yesterday was our 10th anniversary. It was a really great day. All day the campers were yelling, "Happy Anniversary!" There were 120 kids at our camp (at least that many at the other camp) so that's a lot of well wishers. Skip stood up at dinner and made a wonderful tribute to me in front of the kids. Of course we had to stand and kiss in front of everyone. It was a great way to celebrate a decade of being married. Last night on the drive home (at midnight) Skip asked me what my favorite part of the last 10 years has been. I told him it was the fun we have together. We are always laughing, joking, ribbing each other, trying to get the other person to laugh, etc. We have a lot of fun as a couple and as a family. It hasn't been an easy 10 years, but it has been good. Very very good. I'm so glad I married you, Skippy!