Trekking Barris

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Family Camp at De Benneville

This was our first summer experience at Camp De Benneville, our Unitarian Universalist retreat center in San Angelus Oaks on the back side of Big Bear in the San Bernardino Mountains.  We spent a week at Family Camp, living in a cabin, having meals cooked for us, and coffee/tea available in the lodge 24/7.  It was wonderful and one of our kids favorite vacations yet!  They loved having other kids there to play with and the freedom of being able to run and explore all day without needing as much direct supervision.  They ran around in little packs of 3 and Bella loved being able to be a 'big kid'. 

The site has a playground with climbing wall, monkey bars, slides and swing.  There is a nice swimming pool with a deep end - 12 ft and shallow 3 ft.  Both girls loved it!  There are lots of trails that will connect to the hiking trails up to San Gorgonio.  There is a small cabin building, called the coffee house, used for morning yoga.  Lake Jenks is about 1 miles away where we all went canoeing.  At night there are a zillion stars and there are a lot of trees - great places to attach a hammock! 

Everyday there were loads of activities to choose from.  I started most days with early morning yoga before breakfast.  Morgan came twice with me and did fairly well considering the focus was on breathing techniques and more meditative.  After breakfast there was a morning service - this year's them was "learning to love better".  Then a morning activity - such a tie-dying, jewelry making, coffee roasting, hiking, swimming, archery... and then lunch and an afternoon activity.  Followed by vespers, dinner and evening activity - night hike, smores, camp fire songs, skits or movie night (we watched Shrek under the stars and had popcorn!)!  It was a lot of fun and nice for us to totally unplug from tv, cell phones, work, etc and really come together as a family and a community.  Because of the different ages of kids, Jeff and I were able to find teenagers that wanted to watch the girls while we went on a few hikes.  Two of the days we got in some nice walks. 

Wonderful week!  Love JeLiMoBe


 

Paper bags to put notes for campers

 

Poop Out Hill!
Root Beer Floats before Talent Show
Pictures of who's who - with questions, if we could be a dessert what would we be, what do we love or what do we need to learn to love better, and our cabin assignment.  Morgan said she would be Mint!




Clouds that appeared for seconds and then melted together; doesn't it look like a mountain?


We read in the weekly activities to bring fancy clothes for the banquet... which we did. Only it turned out to be a Viking theme.  We were a bit overdressed.  One of the craft activities was to duck tap a hat.  One of the ladies gave hers to Morgan at the end of the night.
 
Typical yummy camp food! Salad, desserts, sides and main dishes (veg and meat options!)

The Girls with Dean Amy

 


 
 
 
 

 
 

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