letters from Tall Timber...

Dear Jesus,
You are ever present at Tall Timber Ranch. The absolute GLORY of your mountains and your meadow never cease to amaze me. Nowhere else in my life am I so at peace in my heart as when I am surrounded by the beauty of your creation there. Thanks for helping me find this place so many years ago...


There is this place...
In between three sets of mountains (Grasshopper, Chiwawa Range, Dirtyface)...
In between 2 rivers (Napeequa, White)...
Backed by Mt. David and the Poets range...
That is full of amazing people, good teaching, delicious food, friends friends friends, and too many memories to count...
A place that is so close to my heart...

Tall Timber Ranch

I have too many memories to count here, and too many lifelong friends made, to really describe them all would take blog post upon blog post. So I will just tell you what it was like to come back to it after a few years away. The last time I had spent an entire week there was probably Snow Camp of 2002 when I volunteered in the kitchen for the week. Luckily my ex-boyfriend Steven happened to be volunteering that week also and realized he was still madly in love with me... but that's a story saved for another time :) Maybe on our 5th wedding anniversary next month! ANYHOW it had been a long time. Now that we both work full time, have a huge extended family and a kiddo of our own, and jobs, taking a week out of life to relax up at TTR has just not happened since 2002. SO LONG AGO! So this summer we decided to go to Family Camp. It is actually a full week long, but we could only go for Sunday-Tuesday, but decided it was worth it and did it. We were super late registering but luckily since Mom is the admin assistant for Tall Timber she slid us in. We stayed in the Pratt cabin... I think next year we will register earlier and shoot for a "cooler" cabin like Wenatchee. But Pratt was just fine and we enjoyed it. Jenny, Trygve and Ingrid came up with us as well, which was really special. How fun for the kids to experience it together! They all did really well.



What a difference it is to be a camper instead of staff... no special priveledges, no kitchen keys, no late-night climbing wall, no golf cart racing (no cooking or cleaning either). it was... AWESOME actually! The summer staff crew they have up there this year is made up of mostly Whitworth students and grads and they were really fun. Very dynamic and you could tell they were excited to be there serving the Lord for a summer. I was honestly very impressed with them.



I don't really know how to describe Tall Timber... fellow bloggers Ann, Becca, Kristin... you know what it's like to be on staff and be campers. SO MUCH FUN. Staff is almost like an exclusive club that only select few are a part of. I thought for sure I would miss being on that side of it, but I didn't at all. I was so happy to be a camper, to relax, be taught, let the staff take care of my kiddo for a few hours a day, have good conversation with other adults, receive great teaching from Chris Ward (formerly of Whidbey Pres Youth Group), and just enjoy being a camper again! I really encourage all y'all former TTR staff and campers to consider coming next year... we will for sure be there enjoying it all. (I am serious about this - think of the memories for your kiddos!)





And now... a BLAST FROM THE PAST!

Jenn, Ariyl and Annie, Program staff gals summer 2000.

The whole crew, post frisbee game, 2000.

Me and Ann. I swear I lived at this wall all summer. When I wasn't at the ropes course, of course.

Here we are again clowing around, waiting for campers to come try it out!