Cancun

"Mom and dad did not really want to go to Cancun but I convinced them to come. We stayed at a very fancy resort with an arcade and a huge water park. we went on a big boat with a diving board and a water slide and it was a ton of fun, I had a lot of fun in Cancun, but the best part was definitely the ice cream shop that was included with our room (I probably had at least 8 cones of ice cream)." - Colton

Our friends the Lynch's invited us to go to Cancun and we weren't sure until the very last minute because of scheduling and Grant's foot. We only went from Wednesday-Saturday, but I am so glad we made it happen! The resort, Grand Moon Palace, was beautiful and we all loved the all inclusive amenities. Courtnye and Isaac's friend from St. Louis, Emily, came with her 4 kids - Dakota, River, Hope, and Hudson. Everyone got along great. Colton was the oldest, but the kids did a lot together. 

We went to Isla Mujeres on a boat one day, we enjoyed the shows every evening, Grant and I went to the spa on Saturday before we headed to the airport, we celebrated birthdays for me and for Isaac, and Colton thought our huge room was awesome. I would definitely go back!

Cadie and DD at Mo Ranch

By Cadie Walsh

Attending Art at Mo with DD is an experience I’m forever grateful for! I appreciate that it’s a connection unique to us, rather than one with the other grandkids. The week started off celebratory as we made our way to Austin for Westbrook’s 7th birthday party. That evening, I had a fun sleepover at Winky’s house while DD and Big John stayed at a hotel due to a cat allergy. The next morning, DD and I continued on to camp ourselves after dropping off Big John at the airport. Camp arrival was a quick and easy process. That first night, we had dinner, worship, and got to have our first look at our primary art class for the week. I chose stained glass, and DD chose watercolor. My class was a bit different from years past because it was nice to have one other person this side of 50 in there with me! Hannah was 35, and it was her first time taking stained glass. We had fun collaborating, and helping each other pick out colors. My table mates for the week were Pat, Janice, and Lori. All three women were lovely, although Janice was my favorite! The next few days passed in a blur of shining glass, torrential rain, and college courses. I made more pieces this year than both my previous years combined! This hadn’t been the plan, but I’m glad it worked out. My first project was Excalibur, then I moved on to an orca, a dive flag, a mini toucan, a mini dinosaur, a cross requested by DD, a horse for Grandma Margaret, a mini hippo for Ranger, a mini fox for Colton, and last but not least, a bumble bee for Mom’s birthday! All this in the course of 4 days. Each night, I would stay up late finishing my projects, then sit in the lobby of the registration building because it was the only place on the property with wifi good enough for me to do my online Baylor classes. As the week came to a close, the weather got worse. Mo Ranch is situated at the top of a hill, so we were never in any danger, but at one point there was a question of whether or not we’d be able to leave on time due to flooded roads. Thankfully all was well, and we had no trouble on the drive home. This was a very special week, and I loved getting to spend time with my lovely grandmother!

Ranger at Sanborn

By Ranger Walsh

This year was my second year at Sanborn and it was really fun. Big John picked me up to go to the airport and I was an absolute mess. After I was through security everything was smooth and I got to camp around 4. The first couple days were pretty slow. Everyone just got settled in and got to know each other, along with signing up for activities. We went on our unit 2 day as our first trip and I had a great time. I shared a tent with Steve. The hike was about 4 miles to our campsite and once we were there we did a lot of rock scrambling and exploring around the forest. We also found a deep narrow cave that was an old mine that we went down. The next trip I took was a 5 day mountain biking trip. My counselor was named Ritter and he was super cool. On the first night I stayed up all night throwing up and in the morning I woke up and went to the nurse on property. I had to quarantine for 48 hours, so I missed a lot of the trip. I rejoined a couple days later and we went to Buena Vista were we biked for a few hours then got pizza and swam in a river. On the last day we went to the Olympic and paralympic museum in Colorado Springs. After that trip where all the plans kept changing I had to go biking again on the MTB 2-day. My counselor on this trip was Brian Bruno, who I had last year. He is so fun and a great counselor. I had a lot of fun and got to make up for the biking I missed when I was sick. This year I also got the opportunity to do 2 fourteeners. I summited Mt. Sherman and Mt. Antero. Antero was only a two day trip where it was mostly older kids. The hike was 15 miles roundtrip and we finished in 9 hours. This was my first mountain ever and I was so excited. Sherman was only 5 miles roundtrip and it was some of my friends that are older and a bunch of 10 year old's. It was really easy and it still took us like 5 hours or maybe more. After we got down Mt. Sherman, we drove into fair play and got to go to the SouthPark city museum which was really interesting and unique. The person I hung out with the most throughout the session was a kid who didn't come my first year. His name is Jackson Bartlett. We had almost an identical schedule so we got pretty close. My counselors were also fantastic. Their names were Miles, Denzel, and Tobin. Denzel was so so kind and Miles was a great leader. I wasn't as close with Tobin, but I liked him a lot. This year was really different than last year, but I had a great time and was able to do some awesome things like mountains. 

Happy Father's Day!

While I missed my Dad, I thought it was one of the best Father's Day's ever! Big John requested a weekend together at the farm and it was wonderful. We all met there on Saturday afternoon, had a family dinner together at Tia Juanita (slow service, but fun memories), made a Braum's run after dinner, and had brunch together on Sunday morning at DD and Big John's new house at the farm. It was simple, lots of laughter, and a wonderful celebration of the Dad's that make our world go around! Plus, super exciting that Austin will be a Dad next Father's Day!

Colton at Sky Ranch Morph - The Saints

Colton and Thomas had a great time at Morph!

Colton received the Wisdom award which read, "Colton, It has been such a blessing having you in my cabin again this week. The energy and love of camp you have is contagious. The desire you have to get to know the Lord is so encouraging. The Lord is going to do great things in your life!! Matthew 5:6 - Sam Martin"

Sam shared that Colton spoke up a lot during Bible studies and that he knew so much about the Bible that he had to ask Colton to give the other guys a chance to answer the questions. That tracks.

By Colton, "Thomas and I left for sky ranch together, we rode in the same car. One of the first things we did was establish a friend group, we also noticed that we had sone of the same counselors from the previous year, we also gave the counselors nicknames, like Mr. Tall Guy, and Mr. Dude. We also built the "Mega Fort" on the second day. Some of the highlights were the party pool, and the water slides. On the second day we had tree tops which was a lot of fun, and we also had party pool again. That night Thomas and I started "bible study on the bunk" which was a small bible study with just us two. The next couple of days we had a lot of fun. Some highlights were the pier, the crazy pool, the yard, and the ziplines. on Saturday my mom brought Thomas and I to the farm and we played in the lake, overall I had a great time at sky ranch."

Cadie, Faith, and Heidi in NYC

Faith Mazzucchi: This summer, Cadie and I visited New York City with my mother! Cadie and I are both huge musical theatre fans, so we were super excited to get the opportunity to visit a city with as wonderful a theatre scene as New York. We landed in NYC after a smooth and quick flight on Wednesday afternoon, whereafter we saw our first show, Ragtime. One of our favorite actresses, Cassie Levy, was playing one of the lead characters, ‘Mother’, and we discovered a wonderful talent in Joshua Henry, who was playing another one of the lead characters, ‘Coalhouse Walker’. After Ragtime we had a slice of quintessential New York pizza and enjoyed some donuts as an after-show treat. The next day we headed to our second show, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, where we laughed to no end! We followed that show with lunch and games in a nearby courtyard space and dinner at a delightful dog-themed fusion restaurant. Our last show was Operation Mincemeat, which was both Cadie’s and my favorite! It was witty, meaningful, and energetic, and the talent of the cast blew us away! We spent our last night in New York, and the following morning flew home to Dallas after a wonderful and theatre-packed few days! 

Cadie Walsh: What she said. One more thing to add is that we had a super cool hotel room! It had a bunk bed with a twin on top and a full on bottom. I was on the top, and it was a wonderful little nest! 

Ranger at Quest Colorado

By Jack Ranger

This year I am going into 10th grade, so it was my first year in Colorado for Sky Ranch. Big John dropped my off in Van on a Sunday afternoon. We spent all of Monday in Van doing the most popular activities like the torpedo, Tree Top Towers, Party Pool and more. We left on Monday night to drive to Horn Creek at about 11:30 and we stopped at Chick-Fil-A and McDonalds on the way. When we got to Colorado it was about 4:00 pm. We unpacked and I was able to see some of my past counselors who were working in  Horn Creek. I didn't know many of the boys, because this was my first time doing sessions 1. I was good friends with Nash Holt though so we sat together on the way there. The two people I hung out with for the majority of the week was Nash Holt and Caden Titko. They were both in my bible study and cabin as well. My bible study leaders were Luc De Villers and Will Wolfe. They were both awesome and extremely helpful when I was confused. We went through the entire book of Colossians as our main topic. Another thing that happened was Caden and I created a "professional fuse ball team" that caused a lot of drama including tears. It ended up being way more popular than we intended and everyone cared even more than us. On the last day, before we drove back to Dallas, Braiden arrived for session 2 so I saw him for a few hours. I wish I had been able to go to our Gullickson Family Reunion in Boise, Idaho, but I was also thankful to be at Sky Ranch and I had a great time.