Closing Up Our TIme In Missouri With Christmas At Grandma's

This was the "Christmas Room".  My grandma decorated the
walls with lights, set up the tree, and put all the presents
in here.

Christmas time! What are the first two colors that come to mind? Red and Green. What’s the first song that comes to mind? Twelve Days of Christmas. What’s the first food that comes to mind? Spritz cookies!


Yes, Christmas brings lots of unique joys that only come once a year. This Christmas has been unique for us in that it’s the first one spent with our family in Missouri in the last three years. My grandma, Juli, and grandpa, Tom, let us park our 42’ “house” in their driveway for the couple weeks we were there. It was definitely a fast-paced two weeks!



Here's Hanna and Adam playing a fierce game of tennis,
while Jackie and Cole watch from behind.

 Some friends of ours from Arkansas happened to be staying about 10 minutes from us at their uncle’s house for Christmas, so we were able to get together with them a couple times, which was great! We brought our cousin, Cole, to their house and had a huge Wii tennis tournament one afternoon; ending with my friend, Adam, beating us all relentlessly. He somehow was still able to win, even while his brother, Brian, was throwing stuff at him! Adam also shared some of his “delicious” authentic Mexican candy with us, which tasted like chili powder and had the consistency of half dried glue. Their sister, Jackie, decided to skip out on the Wii tournament, and instead sat watching from the back. So, I guess we’ll never know who the real champion is since not everyone competed! Sorry, Adam…



Here's Cole taking Naomi, Tytus, Ella, Josephine, and Gabriel
for a joy ride around the driveway.  With him behind the
wheel, it's not "EZ-GO" at all! 

 We had a blast at my grandma and grandpa’s visiting, sitting out by the bonfire, and doing Christmas activities. Oh, and driving the golf cart! This little golf cart has probably had 500 miles put on it by us and our cousins Cole and Ella. Cole and I have done some of the coolest stunts probably ever attempted on a golf cart! (ha ha) For some reason, though, I always end up as the driver while Cole does some crazy stunt; which, to tell ya the truth, is just fine with me!

On Christmas Eve Grami said everyone could open all the presents from her and grandpa Tom, and then on Christmas morning we opened all the ones from Mom and Dad. I always stand by the side with a garbage bag and practically grab the wrapping paper as the kids tear it off. Between fourteen people all exchanging presents (my aunt and uncle were there, too), there was a lot of wrapping paper! Soon, my job changed from “garbage man” to “present opener”. The rest of the day was spent slowly opening different presents and having fun talking and joking and then eating Christmas dinner that evening.



Naomi and Grami loved playing problem solving games
on the computer together.

 We did a lot of work in the camper while we were there, too. Our camper hadn't left the southern Missouri area for about eight months. There was a lot of reorganizing, packing up, sorting, and cleaning to do! It was great to get it all done, though, and we knew our time in Missouri was coming to a close.

We had an incredible time staying at my grandma and grandpa’s twice that year, working at Camp Eagle Rock, going to two church camps and putting on one ourselves, spending some much needed time in Wisconsin, and getting to spend time with lots of friends and family from Missouri that we hadn’t gotten to see much for about two years; among lots of other fun things that are too many for me to mention. We even, surprisingly, made new friends while we were there that I keep in contact with now.



Grami with all her Smith grandkids the morning we left.

 It was really sad saying “good bye” to my grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, and cousins (who are more like a brother and sister rather than cousins). I can’t wait to see you all again! We’ll be back soon…

Now, on the road to Texas and our friend, Mike Lee’s, ranch. Keep up to date, I have a feeling there could be some more exciting adventures coming soon!

A Summer of ATVing, Camping, Volunteering, and Firefighting



This is my cousin, Cole, standing next to a very pretty 15
foot waterfall on the camp.  This picture was taken during
really horrible drought; normally water gushes down where
he is standing.

 The past several months have been great! We’ve been at the incredibly amazing Camp Eagle Rock, in southwest Missouri. This place is one of my favorites in the entire nation because of its beauty, seclusion, and history. There are about 35 buildings on the camp, which includes cabins, lodges, bathhouses, barns, etc. All of these buildings are on only about 300 acres of the entire 1500 acres the camp spans. So, obviously there is a lot of empty wilderness there; something I love! My whole family is part of an organization called MAPS (Mission America Placement System), that has set up a system with most Assembly of God churches and camps across the country for volunteers who want to work at them. We’ve been volunteering at Camp Eagle Rock since 2004 and enjoy it every time.


Mr. Roger and Mrs. Barbara, the camp managers, are both very nice and Mr. Roger always teaches me new things every time I go there. He’s also always ready with a funny comeback or saying for everything. For example: one day Mr. Roger and I were on our way to a different part of the camp and saw my mom talking to Mrs. Barbara. After stopping and talking to them both for a few minutes, Mom said something like, “Those kids have been so wild lately; I’m going crazy!” Mr. Roger, with a sly smile, replied, “Well, it’ll be a short trip.” I tell you what, if Mr. Roger hadn’t have sped off as quick as he did, I’m sure Mom would’ve gave him a earful!

This is my... I mean, the camp's Kubota that I brush hogged
with.  It could be 95 degrees outside, while I sat in the 70
degree air-conditioned cab.

Just some of the things I worked on while we were there are: brush hogging, installing air conditioning units, mowing, splitting and stacking wood, fixing toilets, installing windows, making wood trim, various woodworking projects, machine maintenance, painting, cleaning cabins, and much more! I spent most of my volunteer time brush hogging; using a 75hp Kubota with a heated/air-conditioned cab. It was great and I put a TON of hours on that tractor. The next thing I did the most was probably mowing. The camp’s zero-turn mower is like a small tractor itself; a 21hp diesel Kubota with a six foot deck on it.

There are lots of four-wheeler trails on the camp, and lots more in the national forest around it. I probably rode my Honda 250EX more than most people while we were there! I figured between riding for fun and getting around for work, I rode somewhere up around 10 miles per day. There are some amazing old homesteads to visit by ATV and a couple really pretty waterfalls that we went to several time during our stay.

Hanna and I made this Chippewa kitchen
from scratch.  We cut down the trees,
scraped some of the bark off, cut them to
length, lashed it in sections, then lashed
the entire thing together.  It made a great
place to put kitchen supplies and gave us
some "counter space" to keep our food
off the ground.

After Mom came up with the awesome idea, Hanna and I went camping for four days together on the camp property. It was a blast and we both learned a lot about each other and got to practice working together! We weren’t suffering too bad, ‘cause we had a huge 21x11 foot tent separated into three rooms. We also had lots of really good food and had fun cooking almost every meal over our campfire that I lit every time with flint and steel. Building and using our latrine was a very interesting experience, but we soon got it figured out. (ha ha) Several nights deer and coyotes came VERY close to our tent, and one night we think the coyotes got into our food bucket. When the four days were up we were both disappointed, but glad to be back with the rest of the family.

Not long afterwards, it was time for my birthday and I decided to have a weekend campout with a few friends. We chose a ridge above Table Rock Lake, which borders the camp, to set up our tents. We did lots of riding and hiking that weekend, and saw some really cool stuff! My cousin, Cole, found an eight-point deer skull that we stashed in an almost dry creek bed to return for later. As with Hanna and I, lots of deer and coyotes walked right by and even through our camp at night. After dark we spent hours sitting around the campfire laughing and telling stories. We also did some archery at the camp’s range, and swam a few times in two giant outdoor swimming pools. It was an awesome weekend and we all regretted having to pack up camp and head home.

Another adventure that we had, but that was a little more unexpected, came one hot dry day.  There was a brush pile burning in a field behind our camper, but very quickly it caught the dry grass in the field on fire and soon about five acres were burning.  My dad and I used two shovels to start putting it out while Mom went and got help from some people that were renting the camp.  The woods began to catch fire, but with the Lord's help we were able to keep a forest fire from starting and potentially burning down the camp.  After the help arrived we finished putting out the last of the flames around the field and Mr. Roger built a dirt berm around the brush pile to keep any more fire from spreading.  It was an intense few hours, and a day I'll never forget, that's for sure!



My cousin, Cole, found this falling rock ledge during a hike
on the camp and thought he could save it.  I kept telling him
it was a lost cause... but he gets an "A" for effort, I guess.

 I love Camp Eagle Rock, and it’s definitely somewhere I hope to continue going back to often; in the future taking my own kids to enjoy it as well! If you’ve never been, I would HIGHLY recommend going there as soon as possible. Try to go in the Spring or late Fall to avoid the stifling heat and bitter cold that can sometime come in the other months.

The camp hosts meetings, clubs, churches, individuals, and anyone really, in its wide range of facilities. Check out their website at: http://www.eaglerockcampground.com/.

In the words of Mr. Roger, “I’ll see ya ‘round if you don’t turn square!”