Day Three

Well, yisterday was a big success. After bein' awoke once more by Haley's trumpet, we headed out to shoot bows 'n' arrers and practice our aim with BB guns. Lemme jist tell you sumthin', if these here cowboys are ever attacked by empty Coke cans, them cans won't stand a chance! Even th' little fellers like Henry, Cole, and Buddy managed ta finish off a can er two-- and as fer the big 'uns, 'specially JM 'n' Ashley, well, let's jist say they're the sort you'd want ta have at yer back in a stagecoach robbery.
After fillin' them cans full o' hot lead, we headed back to th' house to paint plaster figures 'n' write in our journals 'n' the like. Then we throwed our grub in our sacks, loaded up th' canoes and boat, and headed out to Snake Island fer a luvverly picnic 'mongst the chiggers 'n' poison ivy. Well, ta be fair, nobody actually sat in th' poison ivy, 'n' only half th' kids got chiggers. They had a rip-roaring time hackin' through the undergrowth 'n' all, and even found a secret Indian treasure-- I mean, an old bottle full o' shells. After our picnic, we took a li'l snooze at the house and jumped in the lake. GrandDad took half the hands out fer a "little ride" on th' tube-- by this I mean, o' course, he tried his best to flip them kids over!! While th' Blue Team (Haley, Ashley, Henry, Cole, Brian) wuz out on th' tube, the Red Team formed a posse and went after those low-down, yellow-bellied, calf-ropin' wasps that 've bin botherin' everybody. Then the Blue Team came back 'n' the Red Team headed out fer their flippin's. The Blue Team explored th' art o' Indian war painting, usin', o' course, good ol' Lake Fork mud.
After th' lake activities, we rode back to th' house on "Ol' Green" fer another traditional cowboy activity-- scrapbooking. Uh, well, we scrapbooked in a truly cowboy manner. John Wayne couldn't have scrapbooked half as tough as we did.
By th' time we finished the aforesaid activity, th' sun was slippin' towards the western horizon, so we set down to a good ol' homecooked meal of chili 'n' cornbread. The contents of the chili were later called inta question by GrandDad, but as th' cook refused to answer questions, we're bettin' it was just possum. Th' Red Team also performed sum mighty fine skits fer us, 'n' Caitlin led us in singin' sum campfire songs.
After dinner, we wuz gettin' pretty doggone tired, but we paid mighty good attention to GrandDad's reading o' the Good Book, particularly Psalm 16. Then we hit the sack 'n' snored till sunrise.
Today, we're lookin' forward to more shootin', more tubin', 'n' possibly a showdown between Ashley 'n' Josiah at th' Ping Pong table. Th' cook 's fixed up a mighty nice cake fer Aunt Beth's 'n' Aunt Kelly's birthday tonight, 'n' we're all set ta hev some guests at th' ranch. See ya tonight!!

Howdy, Y'all!

Hey, y'all! Where y'all from? Welcome ta the ranch!
We're doin' real good at cowboy camp-- bin havin' a doggone good time ridin', pickin', cookin', swimmin', 'n dancin' too! Camp kicked off yesterday with a big yee-ha when Smith and Hasz grandkids arrived at Grammy's house to watch skits, practice th' Hoedown Throwdown dance, and jist in general have themselves a big time.
We do have a little problem with some rough 'n' tumble outlaws, however, ranging from Henry "Hank" the Cowboy (REWARD OFFERED!!) to the Bank Robbin' Brothers (WANTED, dead or alive!!) to the Invisible Sharpshooter (wanted for the theft of the State of Texas). Those crafty Bank Robbin' Brothers managed to duct tape the head of an ancient 'n' highly respectable bank to a chair and make off with two stagecoach's worth o' money. Then there's our redskin friends, Swift Deer, Running Water, and Growling Dog, who 've made off with 6 million silver dollars and 15,000 head o' cattle. There are even a couple o' persons we don't know their names of, who've recklessly robbed banks, rustled cattle, and held the Moon hostage.
But we got Sheriff Clyde an' his lovely wife Bonnie workin' on it, so don't feel too bad.

Early this mornin', they were awakened by the gentle notes of Haley's trumpet and treated to a downright scrumptious meal of cinnamon rolls and sich, before headin' out to Daniel's place to ride horses with John 'n Kay. Well, that's not entirely correct-- the little 'uns mainly rode Pete the Magnificent Mule, a worthy steed who both deserved and lived up to his name. We had ourselves a whooping good time, cookin' hot dogs and makin' ice cream and swappin' stories at the circle.
'Bout one o'clock, we decided it was time to get outta Dodge an' head back to the Hasz Ranch fer some pickin' and grinnin'-- berry pickin', that is. Grammy's wild blackberries ain't in full abundance jist yet, but they're a-gettin' there. After half an hour or so of pickin' (and a little tastin' too), we changed outta our chaps and jumped in the lake for a quick dip.

We had ourselves a grand time, playin' copycat dive, "Killer", and "Mafia"-- I mean, "Cattle Rustlers"-- on the dock.
The Red Team headed back to the camp cook to fix up some grub while the Blue Team practiced their skits, to be performed later on in th' evening. After a Spaghetti Western dinner-- or at least, a spaghetti dinner-- we packed up the plates and headed to the archery range and craft station, approximately.
Later on in th' evenin', we're lookin' forward to a great performance by the Blue Team and a campfire story from Caitlin.
Hope yer all doin' as well as we are!!

HASZ GRANDKIDS CAMP 2010

Hasz GrandKids camp 2010 will be held June 1-4 at the Lake home of Grandparents, Dave and Marybeth Hasz. The tradition is that you have to be six years old before camp to attend so this year we have eleven grandchildren that will be joining us and we are ready and can't wait!
Due to the health issues we've dealt with this spring (which by the way- the Pet Scan confirmed this past week what the Lord has told us all along- I am cancer free- Praise HIS name)so, due to those issues, we have met with and trained out four eldest granddaughters to assist us in running camp this year.

Caitlin just graduated from high school and will be attending the University of Texas-Denton in the fall. She will be in the role of "Camp Director". She will be teaching Bible and handling all the administrative issues all week. We know that she will do an awesome job. She has been in Washington D.C. this weekend at a Church retreat for College age youth. We are anxious to hear her reports when she gets back tomorrow.
Haley (on the right) is 16 and will be in the role of Leader of the Blue Team, Director in charge of Crafts, she will also be teaching Bible, leading a nature hike where they identify wild flowers to be used later in the week in a craft,telling a bedtime story, directing an evening game and has assisted in much planning and writing the schedule for the week.

Tori, (on the left) also 16, will be leading the Red Team and is Director in charge of the Kitchen. She has been in charge of making up all menus, meal plans, KP lists, shopping lists and will be teaching Bible, telling a Bedtime story, in charge of an evening game, assisting in crafts and sports and various other tasks. Since all three Smiths assisted their parents in teaching in the School they started this past year they come with much experience and we are excited about what camp holds in store for all the cousins this year!

Ashley, age 14, is our in house Dance/Sports expert. She will be assisting Haley with the Blue Team and also teaching dance- ballet and hip hop- She comes to us with ten years of dance experience. Ashley has also participated in many sports so will be heading up our sports program which includes basketball,archery, BB guns, soccer, ping pong and various water sports. She has set up all the brackets for the competitions in Checkers, Chinese Checkers and Ping Pong and has set up the score sheets for archery and BB gun competition. She will be assisting Grand Dad in many of these things. We look forward to what Ashley will add to camp this year!
Caitlin will probably be our camp blogger and all these girls will be photographers. Caitlin excels in writing so we will be assigning her the task of updating this blog daily. You will see a noticeable change in the writing from here on! So...stay tuned....We are one day out from starting camp 2010!

(all posts below this are from camp last year...)

Happy Trails to you....

Days three and four were happy, eventful and oh so tiring! All the kids were rescued by their parents today and are probably passed out sleeping on the way home. Yesterday the older boys made up a new verse to their marching song, The cinnamon rolls at Grandkids camp they say are mighty fine, one rolled off the table to a mountain of wine, oh we want more of this grandkids camp...hey mom we want to stay, gee dad dont' take us home, oh parents please let us stay here!!
Last night we tried to get in one more craft as we had the photos made and the "kits" for frames so we started this project about 9!






!

Yesterday we had archery, bb guns, swimming, tubing, crafts- we tie dyed shirts, made frames for a camp photo, finished up team flags and individual flags, did chess, checkers, Chinese checker tournaments-did skits, sang, had Bible time, ran, laughed, played, and....the pictures tell the story.


Today...Grammy's famous cinnamon rolls (made by Haley...late last night!), parents came and we had a short program-ate lunch and Thanks to Sam and Lisa, Mary and Jim, got all the patio cleaned up before they left. The rest of the "camp" will take a few days to restore...oh how quiet it is here!
We so loved having all the kids and are so grateful to our God for them, for our health to enjoy them, for the property HE has given us to have this opportunity. Thanks Amy and Brian, David and Beth and Sam and Lisa for loaning us your children for a few days. You are all doing such an awesome job of raising children to love the Lord, to love each other and to be obedient and respectful children. It was just a joy to have them here. We love you all so much!

day is done...gone the sun...

After a cloudy, cool, morning...we had to eat lunch inside even...the sun came out the kids were able to swim a few hours this afternoon- play in the mud....do they ever outgrow that?????




During the afternoon hours Dave had the kids out on the "shooting range" for their lesson in target practice!






After dinner we headed back to the "stable" to finish work on the team flags and the kids' individual flags...then down to the patio for the night time activities.










Tonight we had the worship band-

The older Smith kids on guitars, drums, and Ashley on key board- what a blessing to have the kids


leading us in worship songs! and then a skit...a story....and then off to bed. Tomorrow is another day!
Oh yes...the bob cat was spotted again tonight...



he was slinking through the grass down toward the lake!- 6 of them got in on "acting" and really having a great time... the audience loved it and begged for more!
And now...time for bed....morning comes early these days! But oh...we are loving it!

Cowhands at rest and working on skit!

Yes...it has been a busy time



Yesterday...after the camp "tour" with the counselors (Haley and Tori) and their groups...(What an amazing site to see how these two girls have developed in to TEACHERS!!! It is such a blessing...they had them in lines...rolling out the rules..quizzing them...just amazing...and the kids LOVING it!)
Then we went down for a swim since it was so HOT! The swim time lapsed into dinner time, mud time,fishing, smore time, more swim time- all the way until about 8:30 when the storms rolled in! We moved up to the "General Store" and had stories, jokes, Character development and then watched GrandDad Clyde- rush out in the rain and storm to try to put out his fire.





(He had a stump smoldering and when the winds came up...sparks flying all over and he was freaking out that he might burn down his new garage- then he couldn't get the water to run out of the hose- (shut off valve on it) and all this in the wind, lighting, rain....oh my!
All the kids were completely worn out by 9:30 and slept through the rest of the storms until revelie was played at 7:30 this morning- they rolled out of bed- the Blue team reporting for






KP and making flapjacks; swine strips, chicken fruit and getting ready for the day! March was then led by Tori,


followed by a trip out to the Stable to work on team flags and archery.













All that until noon when Red Team reported for Kp- lunch then songfest time.


















Now the little ones are down for naps and the older kids are working on a skit for tonight's program. Looks like it MIGHT be clearing up-
The highlight of the morning was when we were all in the "stable" and Ashley happened to look at the front porch of the house and saw a LARGE bobcat- sniffing the boots there! Oh my gosh! What excitement!