We had such an amazing family vacation at Young Life’s Trail West Family Camp last summer that we decided to go back this summer. Literally, not a week went by when the boyz didn’t mention it – the random dinner conversations of “Remember at Trail West when Francis stepped on a porcupine!?” or “Remember at Trail West when we were called up on stage and had to dance in front of everyone!? (But Carter hid behind Daddy-O’s leg and still did the hand motions!?” or “Remember riding Mac & Cheese” (The shetland ponies who give pony rides to the younger set at Trail West.) or “Remember the sheep talked to us and bleated ‘Donnnnn’t Leeeeeaaaavvvveeee!’?” 🙂 Daddy-O and I would exchange knowing looks that “Won’t they be surprised when they find out we’re going back this summer?!” But even though we signed up to return around Christmas time, we kept it a surprise and didn’t tell the boyz until the weekend before we left for Colorado.
They knew we were going to the Frisco house for a week of hiking and potentially camping, but they had no idea we were cooking up a surprise return visit to Trail West. We also had arranged with a few other families we’d met there the year previous and we were all returning the same week again – a mini reunion! I was bursting on the inside so excited to see their reactions when we unveiled our plans. But just telling them over dinner didn’t seem adequate enough – we needed a bigger build up, more of a Young Life approach to divulging the news.
So, after much thought and some last minute inspiration, I cooked up a scavenger hunt down at the lake one balmy summer weekend before our trip. Gigi & Papa were down and Gigi helped me run all around the property in the Ranger and the boat setting the clues before we let the kids in on the surprise. It literally took an hour just to set the clues!
I had taken a piece of cardboard and drawn the Trail West logo on the back side of it and had written in large letters “We’re going back to Trail West” on it. Then on the reverse side, I had drawn and cut jigsaw puzzle pieces and I wrote clues on each piece that would lead the boyz all over Lamb Lake! They had to go by boat, land, Four Wheel Ranger, and even tromp through the mud and scale to the highest point of the swing set! It was an extreme scavenger hunt!
Piece by piece, clue by clue, those who were able to read would take turns reading the clues then all would take turns guessing and deliberating until they would figure out the next location. Then we were off again to sniff out the next clue! Each was set in its location under a rock (That Gigi and I had pre-placed) so they wouldn’t blow away.
Here were the clues:
1. “A relative of Mac & Cheese” bring some apples, if you please.” (off we went by Ranger to the neighbor’s barn to feed Storm the horse some apples, where we found clue #2)
2. “In the barn or sawmill I am parked near, as we all know “Nothing runs like a _______?” (and we were off to the J.D. or “John Deere” to find the next clue)
3.”A view of the lake that Papa Russell made, where we drive as fast as we can yelling “Yeee Hawww” and where the sunsets fade.” (Off to the dam where you can see the full view of the lake and found clue #4 midway across the dam)
4. “An old row boat no more, with my new motor, I can soar! (Thanks to a boy who believed in me!:) “(Back to the dock where the newly restored row boat, newly re-named “Blue Water Tiger” or BWT after Carter dug out an old 8 HP motor to make it into a “speed boat”)
5. “The lost boys would like to use this Island as their hideout but if Hook couldn’t find them, he would pout.” (We took the Blue Water Tiger to the Island near the dam where we found the next clue on the banks of the shoreline)
6. “If you want to jump in the lake, any old edge will do. But if you want to dive in with form, here’s the only place that will perform.” (And we were off, by boat, to Uncle Creepy’s diving board on his swim platform, where we found clue #7 with a rock percariously balanced on one of the pontoons!)
7. “A log cabin designed for play, come for tea parties or an overnight stay.” (And we motored on to Uncle Creepy’s log playhouse and found the next clue on the table inside.)
8. “Girls are allowed as long as they’re moms, but this trail is usually were only boys stomps.” 🙂 (We had to return the boat to the dock, and jump back onto the Ranger were we took off to the Boys Only Trail and found the clue balanced on a log, again being weighted down by a rock.)
9. “Swing to the tree tops, slide down from the skys. This place has seen a lot of highs.” (We raced back to the swing set at Papa & Gigi’s and they climbed up to the tippy top of the slide and found the final clue balanced on the top of the slide.)
Now, they were told in the beginning to keep all the pieces to make it all make sense, but the only one who remembered that detail was Carter, who was in the back of the Ranger frantically piecing all 9 puzzle piece clues together in the end. With coaching to “Work together…” they soon were all working to piece the pieces together. Meanwhile, I’m video taping all these moments – on film and in my memory!
When at last, they successfully completed the puzzle and read “We’re going back to Trail West!” They all were flabbergasted and they didn’t believe us! I was expecting hooping and hollering, but it was more of a breathless shock and awe. But they were surprised alright! With several exclamations of disbelief, “We’re going back!?!”
And we had another amazingly memorable week back at Trail West. It was better in some ways because it was familiar and it was like coming home again. There were other ways it was bittersweet because it wasn’t new…. we knew some of the surprises to expect. But it’s kind of like Christmas morning – seeing it anew from the kid’s perspective made it all worthwhile! They loved it! And they loved seeing some of their same friends again. We made new friends, too, of course. And bonded with some of the YL Summer Staff workers. (But not as much as we did the first year!) But we were grateful that the same leaders returned and we got to pick up where we left off with them, which was also a really special gift.
At the end of the week, they have a brief open mic time where individuals are invited to share what they got out of the week. Several of the adults shared how special it was to be there with family and create life-long memories together all under the umbrella of renewed and shared faith. One Summer Staffer came into the room just to step up to the mic and shared that he didn’t come from a great home and wasn’t too excited to return home the next day, but he shared how much he had learned observing loving families who were there each week spending time together having fun and he said he wanted to provide that for his family someday. After his boldness, I felt like I needed to stand up and share what was on my heart… (the kids are all in the room to observe this open mic session too!) So, as I was handed the mic and I started saying something about all the fun we have at camp reminds me that I want to be INTENTIONAL about having fun back home. That’s when Fletcher – my 3 year old- grabbed the mic from my hands and started saying something we couldn’t’ understand …. like “… and she did these clues, …and we took a boat, …and we saw the horse… and we drove the Ranger.” My mind was trying to piece together what he was talking about as we HAD seen horses at Trail West but none of the other things. I thought he just liked hearing his own voice on the mic and he seriously kept interrupting me so I quickly made a joke and passed the mic back to the guy out of my embarrassment.
It wasn’t until later that I realized that Fletcher had been talking about the Scavenger Hunt that we had done! As they say, sometimes only out of the mouths of babes! It was through his 3-year old mind and his puzzle pieced memories that he was literally encouraging me and affirming me – publicly – that I actually DID do something creative and fun. It was such a sweet reminder to me to stop all the mom guilt and remember what I have done!
So this one’s for me to remember… and hopefully they’ll remember, too!?
Happy Trails!
Oh, and we’re going back next summer, too! (Shhhhhh!)
