An Afternoon Adventure

The boys invited a friend over for the afternoon.  They decided to walk out to our dock to go swimming and canoeing.  (We've started letting them do this as long as they follow the rule to wear life jackets every time they are on the dock.)  They walked the long trail through the bush to the dock.  At the dock they are only somewhat visible through the trees and the only way to communicate from the house is by yelling at the top of your lungs.

I could hear their voices and they sounded like they were happily playing.  I was sitting by the big window, when I looked up and saw this:

Those are bears, by the way.  They are exactly at the start of the trail leading to my children.

It was amazing to see, but they were between me and my kids!  I felt a little bit panicky and other than grabbing the camera, I wasn't sure what to do.  :)

I could hear the boys playing, but couldn't see them, and was scared that they were heading back the trail to the house.  I knew that as soon as I would start yelling for the boys, the bears would head into the bush, straight for the boys.

But I started yelling at the top of my lungs: "ELI!  ELI!"
Finally he heard me and answered: "WHAT?"
I yelled: "GO TO MILLERS!"  (Our neighbors across the bay.)
Eli:  "WHAT?"
Me:  "GO TO MILLERS!  THERE ARE TWO BEARS IN THE BUSH!"

At this point, I realized that the boys were probably panicking.  The bears had taken off, but not far.  I could still see a little bit of them nearby in the bush.  So I continued yelling: "YOU'RE OKAY!  THE BEARS ARE RIGHT HERE!  I CAN SEE THEM CLOSE TO ME!"  I yelled reassuring things.  However, I found out later, that the 3 boys were too busy running around and being scared to hear me.

A couple of them were in the water when they heard me say there were bears in the bush and they had to scurry to get out.  Poor Eli had to run up the hill toward the bush to get the canoe paddles.  And even worse, his friend really was panicking and near tears.  I think that actually helped Eli stay calm because he felt responsible to reassure his friend that everything would be fine.  (Evan wasn't panicking because, as he told us later, he didn't hear me and didn't know why they were now getting in the canoe.  He just went along with it.)  They made it into the canoe and their buddy calmed down once they were in it for a bit.  I yelled that they could paddle around for a bit if they wanted, but they said they wanted to go over to the neighbors and come home right away.  So I got in the van to go pick them up.  As I pulled out of our driveway, I saw the two bears running across the road to escape the yelling chaos of the Hochstedler property. (Poor things.)
By the time the canoe was on shore at the neighbors, the boys were calmer and it all quickly became an awesome adventure story:  The brush with death!  The close call with savage beasts!  They are all excited about telling their story tomorrow on their first day of school.

I felt bad because I knew that some of the panic was due to my yelling.  But that was our only form of communication.  Bears are supposed to run away, but lately we've been hearing more stories of bear attacks.  (Not in Red Lake.)  And I just really didn't want the kids to meet a mama bear and her cub on the trail.

I was proud of our kids.  They were brave and responsible and they knew how to get in the canoe and get to the neighbors.  And Eli was a good friend to his buddy.  He told us that his buddy was really scared and that he had to be beside him in the canoe to help him stay calm.  And about the near tears, he said, "Neither of us are going to tell that part of the story at school tomorrow."  :)

So yes, in spite of the beautiful animals just minding their own business near battle with the savage beasts, we are all fine.  Just not so sure about walking the trail to the water anymore...

The Midwest for Our Kids

It was very hard to leave our kids while we were in Costa Rica.  But they were in good hands with Mom, Dad and Karissa.  The kids spent most of their time in Indiana.  Toward the end, Leonard and Twila were passing through and stopped and picked up the kids for the last few days.  We were so grateful for grandparents and an auntie to leave them with.  The boys were excited and Lydia just never knew what was coming.  From what we hear, they did really well.  I'm sure it helped Lydia lots and lots to have her big brothers with her the whole time.
We were apart for 11 nights!  Too long!  But as you can see by the following photos provided by Grandma, the kids had a great time!  (Notice she didn't include the photos of the coffees drunk and ice cream consumed, nor are there any photos of the clock at bedtime... :)  )

We could hardly wait to get our hands on our kids when we got back.  So excited to see them!  The boys were ready to see us too.  I wasn't sure what Lydia would do.  She got a huge smile, but seemed to be in a bit of a trance.  She just quietly let us hold her and she looked oh so happy, but didn't really seem to know why.  If I could have read her mind, I would have heard, "I feel so happy...  Something feels so right..."  It did feel so right.  I love my kids!

Costa Rica Youth Trip

A little sigh as I see that the last time I posted, it was still May. 
It has been a busy summer.  We went to Costa Rica with our youth group in July.  We were kept very busy in the months leading up to the trip. 
We left for Indiana on July 11.  We spent a few days there and then left our kids with Grandpa and Grandma and Karissa.  Kendall and I flew out of Chicago and met the rest of our group on our layover in Charlotte, NC.  Then it was on to Costa Rica!

Here is our group plus 4 staff members:

We were very happy with Pura Vida Missions, the organization we went with.  The first few days were spent at a retreat center with another youth group.  It was a mini discipleship training.  From there we went to Jaco, a beach town, for a 5-day outreach.  We stayed in a church and did work projects, kids club and house-to-house prayer.  Every evening the Pura Vida staff would lead our group in a time of debriefing. 
During debriefing we would all share a high and low of the day.  My high was seeing the kids be pushed and then blossom as they tried something new or uncomfortable.  I was very proud of the kids.  I also loved the FOOD! 
I had some lows too. :)  I missed my kids lots.  I missed alone time/couple time.  I was HOT and tired.  I sometimes had to kick kids in the butt to get to work or have a good attitude.  (Not literally, by the way.) 
It was good for me to have to wake up each morning and put on my youth leader uniform: A smile and a thick skin.  (Now, if only I could figure out how to keep that uniform in good shape here at home...)

This may not look like hard work, but it was hot and it was hard work.




At the end of our time, we got a vacation day.  And I finally got to do something I've wanted to do for a long time- Zip-lining over the jungle!