Home Again Home Again Jiggety Jig

I am home from camp and it was fabulous week! The best parts of Paisano are the memories we have and the traditions we experience year after year. Here is my recap of the week with a few of my favorite traditions.

I love the feeling I get when we start driving into the mountains. It is so exciting because you know you are almost there after the long 5 hour car ride. My dad can name alot of the major mountains in the area, so my brothers and I would always quiz him to find out the names as they appeared on the horizon. This is a picture of the Twin Peaks. The best part of this year's drive into Alpine was the fact that it was raining. We would always hope for rain when we were driving in so we could roll down our windows and smell the rain on the greasewood plants. It is the most divine smell and we got to experience it!

Once we arrived, the task of getting everything set up and ready began. Here is a picture of our cabin. The cabins are rustic, to say the least, but I think they are utterly charming. They are all painted white and my step mom Barbara always says they remind her of a little snow villages when they are all lit up at night. Some people own their cabin and fix it up, but ours belongs to the camp so we have to bring all our own stuff each year. I have many memories of going into our cabin for the first time and finding little critters that had set up shop there over the year (mice, bats, daddy long leg spiders) but none this year, thank goodness!

My favorite part of the day at Paisano is morning. I love to wake up early, put on my sweatshirt and head to breakfast. After breakfast, all the programs start. When I was a kid, I went to day camp. When I was a teenager, I went to the youth program. But now that I am neither of those, but I don't feel totally grown up, I just head back to my cabin for some relaxation time. I went walking every morning. Sometimes I went with other people and some times by myself. Here are some pics from a little hike that Dad and I took together.

Dad looking out over the camp.

The gorgeous landscape

There is a morning service at 11:00, which this year I felt adult enough to attend, and actually enjoy. I love singing my heart out to all the old hyms like "Victory in Jesus" and "When We All Get to Heaven". We also had the best preaching this year from 2 great pastors- Dennis Wyles from Arlington and Steve Wells from Houston. I especially loved Dr. Wyles' sermons on "Lessons from the Cloud of Witnesses" He took different people from the bible that have a lesson to teach us through their successes or mistakes and gave some present day applications. I especially loved his sermon on Daniel and the Lion's Den. He has a great style of preaching that makes you feel like he is just chatting it up with you instead of preaching. Here are Dad and I in the tabernacle after one of the services- we were twins that day!

After morning service is lunch in the cook shed. I love the food at Paisano, but I think it is just because I have had the same things there my entire life. They serve pinto beans at every meal and they always have plain bread so you can make "Paisano Pie"- bread with peanut butter and maple syrup. Here we are at the cookshed. Sorry Dad, Eunice chopped your head off.

After lunch, the day is all yours! There are organized activities like a basketball and volleyball tournaments, but I just used this time to chill. Most days, this would include a nap, reading my book, or some watching of The Office season 2 on my laptop. So lazy! One day we played golf in Marfa with Dr. Wyles and the bible teacher, Dr. Still. I was nervous that I would get frustrated and throw my club or something, but I handled myself well and had a great time. Sorry, no pictures of this!

6:00 is dinner time, then an evening service at 8:00. After the service, there are a few hours to fellowship with friends and family. This brings me to another Paisano tradition. Certain families have special parties each year. We always have homemade ice cream with the Baldriges one day, watermelon with the Hertzogs another, and the ever so popular Mitchell party another. The Mitchell party has great snacks like sausage balls and yummy punch, but the part I like is the sing a long. We sing the same songs every year (are you catching on to this trend yet?). Here is a little video of one one my favorite songs that we sing. It is sung in a round.

After the parties and fellowship, it is back to the cabin for lights out at 11:00. That is pretty much a day in the life at Paisano Baptist Encampment. It is a very special place to me that is hard to describe with words. I plan to "keep coming back", as they say, every year.

Paisano Peak

"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." Isaiah 55:12

Oh yeah, here is the picture in front of the bell this year. I really missed sweet Rocky while I was away! Hopefully he can come with me again someday!