Team Francks

Summer Bliss...

Spending hot Texas days at the lake with friends.

A cute little boy who threw rocks in the water for hours... he was in absolute heaven.

Getting caught in an amazing summer rain storm... so fun.

I love Summer.  Have I already mentioned that?

 

 

 

Chasing Waterfalls

More catch up...

The Saturday before school started we went with a big group from Church and spent the day in Southern Oklahoma at Chickasaw National Park.  We had a super fun day hiking, swimming, waterfall hopping and spending the day with friends... it was the perfect end of summer adventure!! 

We love these people... and we absolutely love Southern Oklahoma!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Girls Camp Edition

Lots of summer posts coming up... its now or never!  :)

1.  Girls Camp this year was held at Lake of the Arbuckles in Chickasaw National Park in Southern Oklahoma... it was beyond beautiful.  The days were sooooo hot but we had an awesome breeze right off the lake.... so beautiful.

2. We went hiking up rivers... so fun...I love hiking up rivers.

3.  We also hiked to Buffalo Springs which is a natural springs where the buffalo's came to water every spring.

4.  We jumped of waterfalls at Little Niagara.  The water was soooo cold but it was sooooo fun. And even though I'm scared of heights and even more scared of heights and water I did jump off several times. 

 

5.  I did the meals.  You'd be surprised (and hopefully impressed) at my "cooking over the fire" skills.

 

6.  The view from my tent every morning.  Amazing.

7.  We went swimming in the base of another waterfall (Turner Falls)... water much warmer this time.... while half were swimming the other half went horse back riding (hence the jeans in the waterfall pictures)... but I didn't go riding so I don't have pictures of that.

 

 

9.  We went swimming in a natural water hole called the Blue Hole Pools... there was a slide built in to the rocks that had the funnest drop off... another dare devil moment that I feel proud of myself.   There also had a fun diving board and we had diving contests.  This place was sooooooooooooooooooooo fun.  The water was warm, the slide beyond fun...we could have spent another whole day here... hours and hours fun.

 

10.  I had the girls have banana boats (bananas, chocolate chips and marshmallows) for breakfast our last morning.  I'm a fun leader like that.  I sent an extra apple in their lunch to compensate.

 

 

11.  We did star gazing... the girls were very creative in what they saw... they were so fun to listen to... the stars were so bright and it was a nice way to end the day... just laying and talking in the dark.

In addition to lots of fun we had lots of spiritual experiences too... we communed with nature a lot... every day we all went off by ourselves on the banks of the lake and did scripture reading, praying and meditating... it was good for the soul to be able to take a few minutes every day to reflect on all the blessings that we've been given... and where better than in nature, one of God's greatest creations.

This year of camp goes in to my top three best camps ever. Lots and lots and lots of work... but 16 years of girls camp and this turned out to be one of my very favorites.

Its bittersweet to look at these pictures now and know that I don't get to be with these girls anymore... I love them and girls camp so much.  It's been a wonderful four years with them.