3rd Annual "Snowshoe" Trip!

What an incredible trip! Every year is amazing as the children share in an memorable community experience while developing their awareness of the incredible strength they possess. This year was special in that many of the children were in kindergarten the first year I took the kids on this trip. The last two years they have been anxiously waiting for their time to come and go on THE snowshoe trip. I will always remember one child saying as we were driving out of the parking lot, "I can't believe this day is here! I can't believe I'm going on the snowshoe trip!"

What also amazed me about this group of kids is that they were a younger group than in the past, carried their own packs the entire way, AND did an extra three mile hike on our second day up there, totally their mileage at 12 miles! WOW! And that's not counting all the sledding and climbing up hills! Since there was little snow this year, we left the snowshoes at home and hiked in. The kids still like to call it the snowshoe trip. No blisters or frozen toes but we did leave with a stronger connection with our friends and nature, an opportunity to persevere and accomplish something great, and oodles of memories!
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Here are a few photos of our experience together...

And we're off! Four and a half miles to go! Some of us did a little math along the way as we checked our mileage to see how far we had gone and how far we had left to go. And what does 3.2 miles really mean? Well, let us discuss fractions and tenths...

It's so great to have good friends by our side.

We saw lots of animal tracks!


We love sledding together...

...on each other...

...and getting a little extra push!

Who needs sleds?! At every moment you could be sure there was a kiddo scoping out the terrain for potential sledding spots!

Occasionally we took breaks to eat, sleep, and play games together in our cozy hut.

And the whole crew! What a beautiful group of people!