We send our love and blessings. In an effort to keep in touch and share our lives with you - our friends and family, we each chose an event that happened this past year to share with you.
Thrilling Ride—Matthew (age 14)
Two whitewater rafting trips made for some thrilling adventures. When I heard that we were going whitewater rafting I was nervous because I had never gone before. Tennessee’s Ocoee River was redesigned for the 1996 Olympics Whitewater competition so it is "man made". 
Our rafting experience was a non stop rollercoaster ride with huge rapids, deep-holes and lots of water in the raft. Later in the summer in Colorado, the first thing on my to do list was to go white water rafting again. Thinking this would be like the Ocoee, I was surprised because the rapids were short and far between. For a thrilling ride, the Ocoee River is an amazing experience.Rocky Mountain High - Miriam
One of our Rocky Mountain experiences included a strenuous hike, magnificent views along with some disappointment. As a 13 year old girl, I climbed Mt. Yale with my family but failed to reach the summit due to being scared by marmots which scurried around the rocks. This year my goal was that our whole family would stand on top of the mountain, victoriously conquering the 14,194 foot Mt. Yale near Buena Vista, CO. Our continuous uphill hike began about 8:00am as we huffed and puffed our way up the mountain, taking breaks as needed for everyone to stay together. Later we found out 
8am was not early – we should have started by 5 or 6am. “We can do this – It’s not a race” was my motto. Four hours later we were above tree line, amazed at the views of the surrounding mountain peaks, enjoying the many wild flowers but still starring up at the summit only about 45min. away. Dark storm clouds were rolling in and we didn’t want to be the highest point on a mountain in a lightning storm. Disappointedly we started down. Sure enough, a storm hit with hail and thunder that you could feel in your chest since it seemed only 25 feet away. It was a cold, wet two hour hike down. Hot showers at our camp were such a blessing. Even though we weren’t at the summit, it was a Rocky Mountain High.Weary Hikers - Caleb (age 18)
After we left Colorado and the cool crisp Rocky Mountains, we headed to the dry heat of Arizona and the Grand Canyon. Surprisingly the Grand Canyon is quite an international hot spot with only one in three tourists being American. Each morning and evening we went “Elk hunting” with our camera since the elk are protected they 
freely roam the park. We were amazingly close to these huge animals. On our second morning, we started our hike into the canyon at 7:00 am. It’s a deceptive hike, as it is easy going on the way down but hard on the way out unlike our hike of Mt Yale the week before. By 10:30 we had reached Indian Gardens 4.9 miles and 3,000 feet into the canyon where it was a scorching 105O. The hike back out took twice as long as the decent in the hot Arizona sun. Thankfully there were two water stops along the way to prevent us from getting dehydrated. While the views were amazing, this nine hour hike would have been a good one to do in October not the end of July. It is definitely an experience that won’t be quickly forgotten by the weary hikers.
Amazing Transformation - John
A Welcome Challenge - Jacob (age 17)
Exhaustion, pain, hard work, fun, describe a new experience 
I had this fall. This year Caleb and I played football. This was a brand new experience. We played for a homeschool team, CHAP, Capital Homeschool Athletic Program the same organization and with some of the same guys that we play basketball with. I had no idea what exhaustion felt like until practice started in August. Most of our team or those in the Christian Football League had never played football before. Since we had such a small team – less than 20 guys, everybody had to play a lot. Caleb played offensive line and defensive line and I played quarterback, safety, and kicker. Each game was a challenge. Our record was 3 wins and 5 losses; if we’d won our last game we would have made the playoffs. It was the highlight of the year for me and I’m looking forward to playing next year.
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