For the first time, we went on two vacations this summer! I went to Mount Hermon as a young teenager, so when I heard they offered "family camp", I immediately knew I wanted to go with our kids.
All packed up and ready to go to half week Mount Hermon Family Camp!
Mount Hermon is located in Felton, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We opted for a "lodge" room, which slept up to 8 people. We had 2 sets of bunk beds, a queen bed, and a pull out sofa bed. The room was pretty minimal, but we honestly barely spent any time in it.
The kids were excited to experience summer camp!
Sunday night was a fun and relaxed introduction to camp. There were bounce houses and various other lawn games to enjoy while we waited for dinner. When you sign up for Mount Hermon, everything is included....lodging, food, activities and all programs.
We ate our BBQ dinner outside.
Followed by free ice cream!
After a short skit and welcome meeting, we wandered around to find out where everything was.
The whole campus is just beautiful. SO many enormous redwood trees and beautiful spots to sit and just soak in God's creation. We had limited cell phone reception, which I actually appreciated!
Monday morning we ate breakfast in the dining hall and then headed to our morning classes. The kids had their own kids camp, while the adults had a separate session, with a sermon. A certain 4 yr old didn't want to go to his class, so we let him sit with us.
We sat in the back outside so Andrew wouldn't disrupt anyone. Almost everything at Mount Hermon was outside. The weather was chilly in the morning, and it reached high 70s/low 80s by mid afternoon. Just perfect!
After a couple hours we picked up the big kids and headed to the dining hall for lunch. Meals were served cafeteria style, with a few different options at each meal. Overall the food was pretty good, although our picky eaters had a hard time finding food they liked.
Back to our cabin to change for afternoon activities!
Each afternoon we had Family Free Time from 1:30 - 5:30. There were various activities we could sign up for, and Mount Hermon really encouraged us to do whatever was best for our family. Absolutely nothing was mandatory, and we were free to wander and come and go as we pleased.
Our first family activity was archery! We had to hike down a little ways through the forest first.
First we warmed up by shooting tiny pebbles at pots and pans......
After a very brief archery lesson, we got to try it out. It was so much fun!
We had various targets to hit and I was disappointed because our time was up so fast!
Unfortunately this activity was only for ages 5+, so Andrew sadly sat and watched.
Our other activity for the afternoon was a ropes course up in the redwood trees!
Unfortunately this activity was also only for 5 and up, so I had to sit out with Andrew.
We watched from below:
Jenna went first and she froze.....it was a long way up and pretty scary for a 6 yr old! But with lots of encouragement, she did the entire course! I was so proud of her.
It was so fun to watch and the boys loved it!
At the end of the course there was a big zipline that everyone loved.
We wandered over to the rock climbing wall next. The boys went first but couldn't quite make it to the top.
Neither could Jenna.
So then I had to join them and show them how it was done.
I made it to the top and rang the cow bell! (I was only shaking slightly....ha!
After I reached the top, Adam had to prove that he could make it as well.
We spent some time playing in the gym until it was dinnertime.
After dinner there was a time for family worship and the photographer walked by and snapped this picture of us.
On this night there was a family trivia game.....we tried our best but totally lost.
The next morning we were up bright and early for breakfast!
At every meal we hoped and prayed there would be something available that Lucas liked. He pretty much survived the trip on cheerios and granola bars.
After morning sessions we went back to our cabin to change for the afternoon. On this day we decided to check out the swimming pool, since we hadn't signed up for any pre-planned activities. Adam and I had the bright idea to leave our cell phones in the cabin and just enjoy the afternoon with our kids....without any phones to distract us.
While I love the motivation behind this, I regret not being able to take pictures!! We began our afternoon with a canoe ride. The creek was absolutely covered with these tiny green clovers and while we were paddling we couldn't really see the water. I was in a canoe with Ryan and Jenna, while Adam took Lucas and Andrew. It was absolutely beautiful and so peaceful and serene (except for the 11 yr old giving me attitude about my paddling skills)
After that was walked over to the swimming pool. (Oldest pool in the state of CA!) Again, it was so picturesque, being surrounded by all the enormous trees. We swam, we watched the Dad's cannonball contest, and the boys rode down the waterslide into the pool about a million times.
Got our phones back!
We freshened up and then waited outside for dinner.
We got front row seats after dinner to family worship! The youth leaders gathered up all the kids to run around the sanctuary during one of the first songs, and the kids had so much fun.
Daddy snuck away to get us ice cream from the Fountain!
Tuesday evening we walked around the campus admiring all the views, knowing it was our last night at Mount Hermon.
And then this happened.....family camp zumba night. Dancing isn't really our thing, so we watched for a while before heading back into the gym to shoot a few hoops.
Wednesday morning we woke up to see Lucas' eye swollen shut.
We think Lucas had a small case of poison ivy right before we left for Mount Hermon, which he got from playing in a creek here in Rocklin. It progressively got worse on our trip, and caused his eye to swell shut. The poor guy was pretty uncomfortable at this point, so we made a trip to the nurse's station for some calamine lotion. He stayed with us during morning sessions, and then we checked out of our cabin after lunch.
I hope we can go back to Mount Hermon again....it is such an amazing place!
We had a hotel in Santa Cruz reserved for that night but it turns out they couldn't accomodate all 6 of us in a room. So instead we booked a hotel in Newark for the night. But before we headed there, we spent a few hours at the boardwalk!
We headed straight for the Logger's Revenge ride!
We split up for a little bit so the 2 littles could ride little rides:
And the bigs could ride big rides!
We met back up for the caveman underground ride (and soft pretzels and french fries. Remember this for later....Jenna ate a lot of fries and nothing else)
Followed by bumper cars!
Jenna's tummy wasn't feeling so great after this, so we took it easy for a while. We ended by riding on the haunted house ride, which I didn't love.
Then I took the kids down to the beach because you can't go to Santa Cruz without putting your toes in the water!
We hunted for shells and splashed around for an hour before deciding we needed to head over the mountain to Newark for dinner.
This is when things got extra queasy for Jenna. Between the french fries, the dizzy rides, and then the windy drive in the mountains, her stomach couldn't handle it. She threw up in the car when we were in Fremont, so only about 10 minutes from our hotel. We pulled over at a gas station and cleaned her up the best we could, and then picked up food from a restaurant at the Newpark Mall. (Jack's Urban Eats) By this time it was 9pm and we couldn't wait to get to our room and clean up, eat, and sleep.
It wouldn't be a family trip without someone throwing up, right?
Jenna showered and settled into her big comfy bed and I spoon-fed her macaroni and cheese.
We got a suite to fit all of us comfortably and it was so nice! Two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a main room with a sleeper couch. It felt pretty amazing after sleeping in a tiny old cabin all week.
Thursday morning after we checked out of our hotel, we took a trip down memory lane and toured Newark. (Where Adam and I both grew up and lived with our first 2 kids before moving to Rocklin 7 years ago)
We drove by our old houses and showed the kids where we met at high school. We also went to the Newark Lake and walked partway around. So many memories from this place!
I think he got tired of hearing all my stories.
It's so weird visiting our hometown. It made us feel both happy and sad! We were sad to see that our old house hasn't been kept up nicely out front. We do miss that backyard though......
We stopped for lunch at Dino's because that's where we always eat when we visit Newark!
I wanted to walk around Ardenwood but when we got there we decided we needed to hit the road to avoid a ton of traffic. 10 minutes into the drive home this happened:
A sign of a great trip! Mount Hermon family camp was so special and I'd love to go back. Going to Santa Cruz and Newark was a fun way to extend our trip by a day. I'm so grateful that we got to take not 1 but 2 vacations this summer!
