"Camping" by Ashleigh

As most of you know we had a Refuge Ranch camp out this last week from Tuesday through Thursday (which is why the Marshalls didn't blog on Wednesday). We packed up and headed south to a natural campground that is built on the edge of a river and in the middle of natural springs. Driving in it was dry, dusty ground, cactus everywhere and very unattractive. And then it seemed out of nowhere there came this campground. The pools that they have where all natural spring water and were fed from multiple springs. The water would usually flow into the pools on one end and there would be a small opening on the other end of the pool to let water out so that the pool always maintained the same level. Because the water in the pools as well as in the creek was spring fed it was crystal clear and warm!

I was going to upload some pictures for you all to see what we did but my Internet signal has been really low and on the fritz all day. So, I will leave the pictures to Julie or Lucy if they would like...if not, I will post some in my next blog.

Some highlights of the trip...planning! :) Actually there is a humorous story I wanted to share. During our staff meeting on Monday to divide responsibilities of packing and cooking while we were there I volunteered to make dinner on Wednesday night. I didn't have any ideas as to what to make and Julie asked for sloppy joes to which I agreed to make. However, in trying to translate that one it comes out sounding like "Joseph's garbage" in Spanish. Not exactly appetizing as the name for a food, eh? We all got a good laugh out of it and just moved on. Sometimes that's all you can do when working with a language barrier.

Other highlights for me:

-Having Rosa as a tent partner

-Spending time in a quite corner of the campground and journaling

-Swimming with the kids

-Playing chicken with Julie on the ropes above the pool

-Euchre with the Marshall's at night

-Going on a walk and taking pictures with Lucy

-Kayaking with Julie, Angie, Diana, Martita, Mark and Joanna (and then playing in the waterfall with a cave behind it when we finished)

Another story: We had the opportunity to zip line across the lake. The staff at the campground gave us a generous discount if a large group of us went. So for a mere $4 a person (give or take a little) most of us from Josiah on up went zip lining. I was a bit concerned about the weight limit as there is always a limit on this kind of activity. However, with it being Mexico...you just never know. :) I had Julie ask them about the weight limit and they said there wasn't any. They then asked what my weight was in kilo's. When Julie told them the reply was, "Yeah, that is should be fine. If the line breaks she will be the last one to go." Not exactly comforting is it? :) However, Julie has seen two people come across it tandem earlier that morning and was sure that it would be fine. So, I went and am so glad that I did! It was a lot of fun!

And that would be the summary of our camping trip this last week. Hopefully we can upload some pictures in the next week for you all to be able to visually participate in our vacation!