The Adventure, Part 2

Means Family, Beaver Creek, CO 2009

I know it may seem as if we have been on one huge vacation this year and we have been able to see some really neat things along the way, but the truth is we have very few "down days". The "down days" we do have we spend catching up on administrative things and cramming in as much home school as possible. I have lost count of our miles. I think it is somewhere around 30,000 and we have meetings and mission conferences straight through Feb 2010.
Then we were in Colorado and the mountains were calling. I had completely forgotten the amazing calm, peaceful quiet of a landscape blanketed in snow. Then a few people sent money they wished us to put towards some special family time. We were able to get a hotel in Beaver Creek for a great price and rent our equipment from the MWR (Morale Welfare and Recreation) at Fort Carson. We rented equipment for the entire family for next to nothing. Vail/Beaver Creek Associates gives amazing lift ticket discounts for the military. I intend to write them a thank you letter, because not a lot of people do that anymore and it really made the difference in being able to ski or not for us. So with the money provided and some deal hunting we were going to be able to take our kids skiing at Beaver Creek! I was in complete disbelief. It is something Sam and I never thought we would be able to do for our kids and God provided this opportunity at the end of a rather long year.

Powder!!  We almost didn't make it over the pass.

Enjoying the view the first morning.

The View!  Can't you imagine "swishing" as Hannah calls it.

We had planned on taking Haden up with us in the Kelty baby backpack as we have done in the past, but Colorado law has changed and prohibits that now. So, we decide to try some skis on him. While Sam got skis for Haden, I went ahead and took the older four up the small beginner lift, which is still pretty high. I wasn't sure if I remembered how to ski and I was going to have to get four beginners done the hill. We had worked on ski familiarity the day before and Sam had taught them how to stop (which is important), so I thought we should be ok. We got on and off the gondola ok and our skis back on. Then the kids looked down the mountain and panicked a bit. They started falling all over the place. As soon as I got one up and going, another would forget how to stand up. Where is my ski instructor? How did I end up on the mountain with four first time skiers? I was trying really hard to remain calm, but was pretty sure I was going to have to scoot them down on their rear ends. Sam got Haden’s skis and then up the hill he came. By the time he caught up with us we were about 1/3 of the way down and three were doing much better, but Lena was really starting to lose hope.

Please stay in a wedge and follow me!

Sam to the rescue, with Haden in tow!  This is Haden's only run this trip. :)

Haden didn't mind skiing as long as Dad was securely holding him, so Sam coached Adelina down while holding Haden and I took the other three down. After that all four of them just took off! Sam and I took turns staying at the bottom with Haden trying to get him used to his skis, while the other went up with the kids. After a bit we decided Haden would be better off at childcare. It broke all our hearts that he couldn't be with us, but he had a great day playing inside. At the end of the day the kids had smores on an open fire, mountain side, while Sam and I went for one more run that was a bit more challenging. We had skied from the time the lifts opened, until they closed. What an adventure!

The first day we just used the gondola and the beginner slope, but the second day we used the chair lifts.  I was really concerned about getting four children on the chair lift, but it went really smoothly.

Ski bunnies and lil' bro.

Now Sam and I enjoy skiing, as you read in the last post, but we didn't know what the kids would think of it. We were just excited to be able to have them on the slops with us. THEY LOVED IT!!! They are not your average children. They have been able to hike, rappel, camp, travel, hunt, and much more. In short they have a lot of experience under their little belts. We thought they would enjoy skiing the way they enjoy other things in life, with enthusiasm. But this was completely different. They loved it! I mean really loved it. When I suggested stopping to grab a bite to eat the first day they only wanted to keep skiing. I made them eat a little of course. As we sat to eat, Samuel declared he was almost as good as daddy.  That is just too good! ;) They really were becoming good skiers and in just one day.  I can’t even explain how much they enjoyed skiing. It was like dolphins enjoying jumping out of the water as high as they can. I have never enjoyed skiing so much myself. Watching the kids have so much fun was almost more than Sam and I could stand. Little 7 year old Lena would ski down the mountain singing at the top of her lung a song Sam taught her on the lift.

"Please help me I'm falling

Down the mountain again.

Close all the lifts quickly

Before I do it again.

All my friends say skiing,

Is the most fun of all...

I'm not so sure,

Oops, I'm going a' fall."

--by Sam's Aunt Joanne

(Sang to the tune of an old country song called “Please help Me I’m Falling”)

Lena singing down the mountian with me in the back ground.  Not bad form. :)

We knew we were a little “road weary”, but we did not realize how much we needed a few days with just our family. God is so good, He stretches us, and then He brings us in his fold to refresh us. My only regret is not having the video camera. The second day we skied all over the mountain from top to bottom. Sam led a lot and I bought up the rear. So, I got to see all my little skiers following their daddy down the mountain. It came almost as naturally as breathing for them, even on the steeper slopes. My skiing wasn’t too bad this year either.

In case you're wondering if Sam's still got it.  He did several jumps for us, including a back scratcher and cruzed down a double diamond at top speed. 

An Amazing God Given Adventure...but First the Back Story

In 1982 when Sam was 11 his Uncle Chet took him on his first ski trip. They skied at Beaver Creek in Colorado the second year it was open! You can call me a ski snob, but I am pretty convinced BC is the best place on earth to ski. Sam and I also think any day you get to ski is a great day, but more on that later. The next year Sam's mom saved up and took the whole family. Uncle Chet helped make it possible by helping with accommodations. So, started a ski tradition and many wonderful memories with cousins. Sam skied Beaver Creek without missing one season for the next 15 years. Even the year of Desert Shield/Desert Storm he was able to make it back to ski. What a contrast, the heat of the desert to a winter wonderland.  In fact, the top pictue is of Sam during his Marine Corp days. He doesn't have any ski poles, because his wrist is broken.

When Sam got out of the Marine Corp he tried out to be ski instructor and despite 12 years of bad habits he made the cut and spent an entire ski season out at Beaver Creek. For the next several years he returned between semesters and during spring break to instruct. One of those years, I drove out with Sam's family and joined them for ski vacation. I got to learn to ski and watch Sam work all at the same time. It was so much fun to be in his beginner class. As you can imagine, Sam is very good at teaching. After we married, we drove out together. Sam instructed and I worked at the children's ski school. What wonderful memories we have of that beautiful place.

Our first Anniversary picture taken by a sharpshooter photographer at the base of the mountain.

Our last year at Beaver Creek was the 1996/1997 ski season. We finished college, moved to Germany, and had five children. A few weeks before Sam deployed to Iraq in 2003 we were able to take a ski trip to Austria. The kids were small. Hannah and Josiah, ages 3 and 4, were able to go to ski school, but Samuel and Adelina were very young. We had a great week, mostly just thankful we could spend it with Dad before he deployed. We enjoyed the snow, sledding, lots of hot chocolate and a little skiing.

What a fun chapter skiing has been in our lives, but it is something we have never had the opportunity to share with the children.

Here is a picture of us.  We had skied and sledded at a small local hill near our friend's the Elkin's house near Hohenfels, Germany.  You can see how small the children were.  Sam is wearing his ski instructor uniform.

Is Your Husband Down with Your Crazy Diet?

Believe it or not yes! He just came up with a raw almond butter recipe and he's making super healthy chocolate shake right now. Recently a friend ask how to begin moving towards healthier eating habits with a resistant family. I am brain storming on some practical ideas and recourses.

One of the first things to do is drink water. It's not a huge thing and everyone will feel better instantly. Really, you would be surprised, just like a cool drink of water from God's Word does wonders for a parched, defeated heart, water will rejuvinate and revive. So go throw out all those sodas and flavored drinks. Now not only are you taking a good first step towards good health, but you are saving money by not buying all those drinks. Unless, of course, you're living in a country were you have to buy bottled water like we do in Mexico. So no more Dr. Pepper--you know who you are.

And Other Food Stuff.....

Starbucks Espresso Truffle

We’ve combined Starbucks espresso with our premium European-style cocoa blend used in our Signature Hot Chocolate and steamed milk, and topped it with whipped cream and a touch of chocolate powder. This sophisticated beverage delivers rich chocolate flavor with a velvety mouthfeel balanced with a smooth coffee flavor.
Sounds wonderful and yummy and it’s one of Sam’s favorites, although he never buys it. It cost a whopping $4.

My Truffle Mocha
One pot strong coffee-Starbucks uses expresso, so you could make the extra effort and brew expresso, but it turned out great with strong coffee.
Maybe three tbsp, I didn’t measure, will measure next time-Xylitol
Maybe three tbsp, again didn’t measure, taste and add more if you like-Coaco powder
Cream or milk….mmmm….enough to make it a tad creamy.
Top with whip cream, barely sweetened with xylitol, I whipped my from heavy cream in the blender on high.
Sprinkle coaco powder on top
I put the fist 3 ingredients into a pan and warmed them to almost boiling. Poured it into coffee cups leaving a little rrom on top for whipped cream and sprinkled with coaco powder. Tasted like the starbucks drink!
This drink cost over $4 at Starbucks and I made a whole pot for under $2. It is too sweet for me to drink very often, but on occation it is awesome. Oh and the xylitol is good for you and it’s made with sugar at Starbucks.

Thai Bubble Tea/Food Blog

I am sorry I have taken the food blog off for right now. I don’t have internet access enough to keep it going. I hope to resume it when we get to Mexico, along with plant a garden. We are still shooting for 50% or more raw. We juice almost every morning. It is very rare we eat anything cooked before lunch and our lunches are raw most of the time.

Here’s a fun treat, Bubble Tea. We made it with a packet this time, but it is easy to make with black tea, sugar or xylitol and cream or milk. Cook large tapioca pearls according to directions. Place in bottom of each glass. Fill with ice and pour tea mixture over pearls and ice. If you make it with green tea, xylitol and farm fresh milk it’s actually pretty good for you! A very fun treat. Oh yes, you need to grab some of the extra fat straws when you’re at the Asian market.

We have an obsession with coconut right now. We put coconut oil in everything and on everything. It is a super food, I mean amazing stuff. It actually clears bad cholesterol out of your system, it helps fight disease, and a mired of other things. It is even one of the best things to use on your hair and skin and since you shouldn’t put anything on your body, you wouldn’t out in your body I use it as my face and body lotion. It also works as a natural sun screen. It kept us all protected in the hot AZ sun this summer. We put it in our veggie/fruit shakes every morning and it makes them creamy and yummy. It has to be cold pressed. I hear Wal-mart is carrying cold pressed coconut oil now. I order mine by the gallon. Sam has had borderline high cholesterol for the past 2 years. This year after coconut oil and all our raw diet the doctor was floored by Sam’s blood work and physical. He said he was the healthiest patient he had seen in a long time. Then when he looked at the change from last year he was really floored. Sam had dropped his cholesterol 80 points or more! The doctor actually wrote down our green smoothie recipe.

Young coconut milk is also an amazing food. It actually can be used as a universal blood transfusion, being identical to blood plasma. It will balance electrolytes better than Gatorade ever thought about. So if you’re feeling a little run down grab some young coconuts when you get your Bubble Tea Ingredients at the Asian Market. I’ll try to put a tutorial on here for opening them soon.

Beyond Borders

This is from my brother-in-laws blog.  It is my constant prayer to never be content where I am, yet it is my human nature to what to be.

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true

Because we have dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely

Because we sailed too close to the shore.Disturb us, Lord, when

With the abundance of things we possess

We have lost our thirst

For the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life,

We have ceased to dream of eternity

And in our efforts to build a new earth,

We have allowed our vision

Of the new Heaven to dim.Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wider seas

Where storms will show your mastery;

Where losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars. We ask You to push back

The horizons of our hopes;

And to push into the future

In strength, courage, hope, and love.

attributed – sir francis drake -1577

You can read about the McDaniel's journey to find a dear African orphan in Zambia at http://www.mcdanielbeyondborders.com/.  Get you tissue ready before you read.  Our whole family was ready to embrace Memory, now know how to help her with our prayers.

Happy Thanksgiving all.  We had a great day with dear friends and family. 

All Pumped Up

We enjoyed our time in El Paso. We had several churches to present at, so we were in one spot for two weeks. The weather was nice and we were out at the Bearing Precious Seed Compound, so the children got to enjoy the desert and the nice weather. Lots of sand gets in, but I didn’t mind. Last Friday we had the opportunity to cross the border into Mexico and be a part of another missionaries community outreach. They set up a screen and showed a movie in a neighborhood park. The movie is salvation based and then a short sermon was given. About an hour or two before dark, church members breakup into teams and knock on doors in the neighborhood to tell people about the film and hand out tracts and John and Romans. Also, a van goes around with loud speakers announcing that a film will start at dark in the park. We all giggled every time it went by us.

We got to go with Maria. I was really pumped up by her zeal. Many people have gates and bars on their homes for security, but this did not discourage Maria. She chose a good size rock, banged loudly on the gate, while her and her two daughters loudly called, “Buenos Tardes”. No timid little knock and I guess they aren’t home for her. Come on now, you know you’ve done it.

The only thing that slowed her down was dogs, but she would still yell from the street and bang with her rock. At one point she was able to spend several minutes presenting the plan of salvation to a man, whom couldn’t come see the film because he was on his way to work. She called it “giving the call”.

Imagine my surprise when I found out she only got saved in July at a neighborhood film showing like the one we were doing! God blessed our effort and seven people were saved.

Home for the Holidays

Today is a travel day. A long travel day, but everyone has had a good attitude about it. We are driving from El Paso, TX to Rogers, AR. I think that is roughly 16 hours. We tried to fill our schedule, but it just worked out that we would be back in Arkansas with family over the holidays. This maybe the last holiday season we are with family for a while, so it is probably best. We had breakfast of fresh veggie and fruit juice before starting out this morning, snacked on fruit and nuts and had hummus and veggies for lunch. For dinner we pulled into the back side of a Home Depot and Sam busted out the grill and whipped up some BLTs, too funny. We dropped some frozen corn on the grill. It came out tasty and it cooled the grill down. Sam packed it up and put it away before anyone realized we were grilling in the parking lot.  I think we will do the tag team driving some tonight. I drive until I’m tired while Sam sleeps, them Sam gets up and drives until he’s tired and them we pull over and sleep until morning. This way we drive while the kiddos are sleeping and it’s easier on them. It makes the travel day shorter tomorrow.

Making Tracks!

We had a little time last week to enjoy the journey, not just hurry to the destination.  Only not having a schedule to fill in the free time makes me edgy.  I am way too driven sometimes.  I know that, that's my deal, but that is a whole other post.  Anyway, back to enjoying the journey. We were able to stop at Dinosaur Valley State Park and Creation Evidence Museum.  The park has places where you can see numerous huge dino prints both sauropods and tauropods.  It's very impressive to think of these large animals.  The kids really enjoyed the field trip.

Activities: Dinosaur Valley State Park contains some of the best preserved dinosaur tracks in the world. The dinosaur tracks are located in the riverbed, so please call ahead to check on river conditions. There are two fiberglass models; a 70-foot Apatosaurus and a 45-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex. They were built, under commission of the Sinclair Oil Company, New York World's Fair Dinosaur Exhibit of 1964 - 1965.

The girls put there hand in and discover the imprint of a sharp claw!

Foot prints that look suspiously like human foot prints are discredited.

We had to wade across a stream to see the prints.

A little discovery

We spent the next day at the nearby Creation Evidence Musuem.  The children are standing in front of an Allosaurus.  We have the video documentary of when this fossil was exavated, so it was very cool seeing it.

We are now in El Paso, TX.  We were able to park our RV on the Bearing Precious Seeds Compound.  We have been here a whole week and will be here a week more.  Two weeks in one place!  WOOHOO!  It has been such a blessing too, because it is slightly outside of the city and they have tons a land for the kids to roam and another missionary family that works with BPS lives here with their kids.  The only problem is it has been hard to get the kids to focus on school with the nice weather and great outdoors calling, not a terrible problem to have.

Old Friends, New Friends

Deputation suits us better than I thought it would. We have been nomads for many a year, because of Sam’s military career. Deputation has been more of the same. New places, new faces, and new friends with the added blessings of getting to see some friends we have not seen in years.

This past week we attended two missions conferences we have been looking forward to for a long time; Talking Rock Road Baptist Church in Branson, MO and Bible Baptist Church in Lawton, OK. TRRBC is the sending church for the Benedict, whom we are joining in Mexico, so they welcomed us in like family. We are not complete strangers to them. We were at their conference last year, but just to meet the Benedicts to help plan our first trip to Mexico.  Bro. Bob Larson spoke at the conference. We met him a while back at another conference and he’s the boy’s hero. They think he’s the best preacher ever. TTRBC was kind enough to give us a CD of his sermons. It was such a blessing to be part of their mission week. They also put Bibles together for Bearing Precious Seed. The kids love participating in that.

Then Friday morning we packed up the RV, jumped in the truck and headed for Lawton, OK for PM services. After a wrong turn, getting stuck in the mud and almost getting our home plowed through by a dump truck we arrived just in time for dinner and services. BBC was our church whn we lived in Lawton, so it was once again like going home. It was so good to see all the old friends and lots of new faces too. They planned their fall festival in the middle of the missions conference, which was great fun for the whole family. Haden’s favorite thing was the hay ride, so that’s where I spent a good deal of time…I didn’t mind. Our friends the Anderson’s from Duncan, OK came to join in the fun. Haden ate his hotdog, then made a potato chip sandwich….too funny.

On Monday we had lunch at the Heinz’s house. Bro. Heinz is the director of the Serviceman’s Center. He and Sam and Will Hader spent lots of Saturday mornings knocking on soldier’s doors on post, inviting them to church and sharing Christ. It was so good to spend the afternoon with them.

After a week of services and visiting, we spent some family time out at the Wildlife Refuge. It was fun to watch Haden discover the rocks and paths so familiar to the rest of us.

And of course, you can’t go to Lawton without visiting Meers. 