Creation Retreat

I know, I know - I haven't been updating my blog but life has been crazy. I'll try to do better. FYI - I will be dating these posts based on when they actually happened, not when I'm writing them.

The last weekend of September we went to Heron Lake for a Creation Retreat with the church. On Friday night we sat around a campfire, made stone soup, shared stories and songs and generally had a good time.

Saturday we went kayaking on Heron Lake. Not only was it a beautiful place but motorboats are not allowed on the lake so it's very peaceful as well. I could have stayed all day. Liane and I went Geocaching with Warren & Carol Siemens - a couple from church. We ended up at the Rio Chama Trail. The river is 150 feet down from where we started. That's a lot of steps. Totally worth it though. Once we got to the bottom we walked about half way across the suspension bridge. Absolutely beautiful. If we would have kept walking, we would have reached reached El Vado Lake, about 5 miles away. Instead we made the hike back up to the top and returned to the campground. We stayed an extra night - along with Warren & Carol - who invited us over for dinner Saturday night.

We left early for home early the next morning. I have to say camping in New Mexico is awesome because there's no mosquitoes, during the day it's warm because the sun is shining and because you're at a higher elevation it's really nice to have the campfire at night but I'm always glad to get back to my bed.

Here are some more pictures.

Peeling Chilies

Green chilies - so fun to eat, somewhat fun to peel. Every year on Labor Day - Jeff & Donna host a chili peeling party. They buy bags of roasted, green chilies which people then help peel - and chop if that's how you want yours. The best part - there's a carry-in with quesedillas being served with the fresh, roasted chilies. Yum!!



Some things to note about peeling chilies.
1. Have water to rinse your hands in - supposedly salt helps cut the sting.
2. You may need to wear gloves.
3. If you wear contacts, don't wear them to peel chilies. In fact, it's best not to even touch your eye area for a couple of days.
4. Your hands will "burn" more about 15 minutes after your done peeling than they while you are peeling. And they may sting for a day after that.
5. Fresh chilies in recipes is totally worth whatever you go through for them.

peace

Climbing trees and eating treats

I know, I know - it's been two weeks since I've last posted. What can I say? Time gets away from me sometimes.

Last weekend we went to AMC's Annual Retreat at Camp Oro Quay in the Monzano Mountains. It was a good time. Saturday morning we talked about the Enneagram and where we are on the circle. The Enneagram is sort of a personality guide but more about how you respond to situations. It's best used as a way to understand yourself and grow spiritually. I find it interesting and hopefully knowing that I'm a 7 will help me mature in all the ways I need to (although one of the 7's descriptions is Magical Child - which I try to live up to as often as possible).

We also participated in the ropes course - which I at least enjoyed thoroughly. Besides a couple of group activities which included walking across a low log bridge and swinging on a rope from one "island" to another over a river of evil chocolate - if you touch it there are dire consequences - there was a climbing wall, a high log bridge and a rope bridge. I elected to only do the log bridge section since that was my favorite last year. And because I wasnted to find out if I was in any better shape this year. When I tried it last year I thought I was going to die from climbing the extremely tall Ponderosa Pine. I could barely breathe. Besides not being in shape, I think I hadn't fully adjusted to the altitude - or drank enough water. This year I climbed the tree no problem. The guy on belay - the one holding the ropes that kept me from falling - said I was really fast. That made me happy. I wasn't as fast as one of the guys that works there. He can climb the tree, walk across the bridge and rapel down in 14.2 seconds. That's really, really fast. Kate & Liane also did the log bridge while Eric & Tim did all three climbing options.

In the evening there was a talent show with some very interesting acts. Tim also shared his guitar playing skills and we learned about wizard rock - songs that have to do with the Harry Potter stories. We also had some science lessons that I'm pretty sure should not be tried at home - or anywhere that fire or injury may occur.

To top the day off, we sat around a campfire and had s'mores. It was Liane's first one - and maybe her last. She thought they were very sweet which to me is the whole point of s'mores.

It was a very fun weekend - and tiring. I think we all took naps when we got home on Sunday. Luckily we didn't have to go to work the next day since it was Labor Day. Here are more photos from the weekend.