the4smileys

Merry Christmas from the4smileys

2008-12-18T18:19:00.000-08:00

Dearest Friends and Family,

I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season! I have been hiding out in my house for 72 hours during our huge snowstorm; shopping online, baking, cooking, wrapping… not being a very motivated home-schooler (what happened to those lofty ideas of science experiments, milling grain and sewing are own clothes?) The boys have been outside more than inside(Praise God) and digging a snow tunnel. Also I’ve made my second visit ever to this blog...crazy. So let me take this opportunity to wish you Grace and happiness in 2009 (and to thank our normal editor).

2008 was blessed with trips!! A conference in Orlando in January with Young Life, Kona with the Smileys!, a SW tour with my sister Jan, sunny trips to Calif., my nephew’s wedding with lots of family in Henderson, NV, a quick trip to Colorado (where I didn’t throw up in my husband’s boss’s car), camping in Moab and an American History trip to PA, VA and DC! I love the trips as much as the cherished visits from friends and family. It fills my love tank.

Another highlight for Josh and me included taking kids to camp. We both went to Lost Canyon (absolutely different than living here), but I went for a week during the summer with high school girls that came from a small town an hour away and Josh went with William’s Wyldlife (middle school boys) last weekend for Winter camp. We probably expended the same amount of energy. A huge praise was getting to see the mission of Young Life camping up close and personal (and loving it!). 

It’s been two years that we’ve been here and that is a comfort in many ways. It’s nice to not feel so “new”. It’s a relief to not be as pained about being away from our Colorado community. There’s also the chance I might get to do it “right” because I know what to expect a little bit more, but I still seem to miss the mark on lots of stuff…alas.

Getting to be around the phenomenal staff (and assignment team) and the precious college-aged people who live here all summer (and then visit after) is the reward. I pray God would let us be faithful to whatever He has for us to do.

We have taken some baby steps in hanging out with some great families in our William’s home school group and the boys seem to be happy learning at home. They are taller and a little more adolescent and we are thankful to live life with them. They like to play in the snow, play with the dog, play on the trampoline in the summer, eat candy, watch movies, play video games and read when they have a book they are enjoying. Justin likes the projects he’s continually creating and Ryan likes board games with Josh. Josh likes playing any game and working and is getting to drive tractors today to clear the snow.

We grieve this Christmas with our church family in Colorado for the loss of precious friends Paul (in May) and Vickie (this December) yet are comforted by Jesus' words in John 11:25,26.

“Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.'”

We hope you see God loving you this year. We would love to welcome you here.

Amy, Josh, Ryan and Justin

2008-11-24T08:50:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share with you pictures of our new pet. We think he will do a better job guarding our front door than our dog.

Real Story: This big boy bull Elk hung out at our front door for 4 days before walking into the pond and ending his time here at Lost Canyon (he died). We think he was sick since he was only 4-5 years old. We named him “Moose” because he was so big….like a moose . Was fun to have him around for a bit although we had to go through the garage to get to the front door most of the time. (Staying out of the antler range)

Summer 2008

2008-08-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

Hey we fell off the side of the world for Summer 2008, but what a great summer in Williams AZ.

You can see a New York Times article on the town ....one of our friend's daughters made the picture list too. (hit slide show)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/greathomesanddestinations/15havens.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Josh

Welcome Bauer Smiley

2008-02-18T12:16:00.000-08:00

Yes its true. After much diliberation the Smiley family has gone and got a dog. The Offners had recently acquired a Rot/Retriever mix from second chances but decided to raise a child instead, so the offer went out and we accepted. Bauer joined the family in January 2008. Great dog..still a puppy and the boys love him.

Winter Projects

2008-02-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

As the snow pushes activities inside, Justin has been in heaven to have both project time and snow time. He loves both. We recently received an issue of the "Home Times" at our bedroom door stoop from the local Justin paperboy. This first edition of the Home Times included a headline "Outcome of Champion Chip". In this first story, it outlined the championship pillow fight at the new pillow fight city...'come see or feel the feathers fly'. A story further in the paper tells about the new place that opened recently in Justin's bedroom. Other news stories in sports and of course a well placed advertisement of Justin's wish list (Media folks are so tricky). It was a great read, I recommend everyone subscribe. In other news, the Smileys have been hanging out with a few other families in town. Just this past weekend a snow project resulted when one family brought over 4 pairs of skis and we subsequently assembled like a good research team some cutting edge sleds. Wicked fast and dangerous...the sleds were affectionately known as "death sleds" since they could easily take you out with their top rate of speed. Many folks had to bail out to save their skins from the rock garden and various assundry trees. The sleds were great fun. I will post some pictures later.

Merry Christmas to Friends and Family - December 2007

2008-01-01T21:34:00.000-08:00

Dearest Family and Friends,

Merry, merry Christmas!! We hope you are well! We are thinking of you and praying that you are experiencing peace and blessing. It’s been one year since we left our home in Colorado and moved to Northern Arizona. The climate is the same (high altitude. snow in the winter) but just about everything else in our life is very different.

November 2006 Josh took leave from IBM for a job opportunity with Young Life (a non-denominational Christian outreach ministry to middle and high school students) (sorry if this is review). He is the manager of Young Life’s camp called Lost Canyon fulfilling a life-long desire to participate in a forum where Jesus is shared and kids are loved (away from the day to day of life). God really used Josh’s time as a manager at IBM to build his skills to be prepared to lead the 20-person team here. He is great at this job, too, and now he drives a golf cart to work. He would also say that work is still work and “people issues” exist in every job to grow us, but he’s where he’s supposed to be for now. The camp is two miles up the road from a small route 66 town (population 3000). We’re about an hour from the Grand Canyon and there is a train that goes to the Canyon that draws tourists to our town (complete with cowboys that “rob” the train and have a shoot-out). I ran into an unknown but familiar man at the William’s community Thanksgiving dinner and my mouth blurted out what my mind had been trying to figure out, “You’re a cowboy!” Apparently, they have other jobs as well. I finally feel at home in my Safeway and post office here, but don’t spend much time in the actual town.
We live in the only house on the camp property surrounded by the Kaibab National Forest with a little pond in front (it looks like winter wonderland right now). Besides college and the 5 years following, I have only ever lived in a suburb (similar houses, community pool etc). This is my first experience without neighbors. When camp is in session, however, I have 400 neighbors 350 yards away. I do not borrow a cup of sugar from any of them but sometimes we will eat with them in the dining hall. The camp has high school or middle school kids here all summer for a week at a time and then the winter has weekends booked for church retreats, conferences, and weekend camps. I like having an indoor gym, game room & gift shop in walking distance and elk poop in the yard, but I miss our wonderful neighbors.
Another big change is that I’m home schooling our boys this year. The local public school was not recommended and driving 72 miles a day (2 round-trips to a neighboring town) became old. I had been deliberating between getting a job and going back to school and I got both. We bought scripted lesson plans with a complete curriculum program to help us figure it out, and we belong to a home school group in town where I’m getting to know some families. We take art with the group and do some recreational things. I love being around the guys and the flexibility, and my patience is growing (?). I’ll let you know how the year goes for the boys, but I am learning a great deal (and we don’t wake up early or make lunches).
Ryan (10) and Justin (9) like to play (outside in the snow, board/card/video/computer games, with Legos and Pokemon, pool, ping pong, disc golf and anything with Dad). They also like to read and jump on the trampoline. During the summer they ran all over camp (and ate most of their meals in the dining hall as well)...we barely saw them unless we had friends here. They are making up for lost time with me with the home schooling thing.
While we don’t have all our amazing Colorado friends and church here, our camp staff is great and they have been a family for us. We hang out with a lot of 26 year olds (average age of our staff). We have lunches, dinners with staff and families, and women and men’s bible study almost weekly. When we “get over” being older than them (or being the boss) we have fun (especially playing games) and we pray we will build friendships with people in town in 2008.
the4smileys.blogspot.comIf I had to pick a couple of many blessings to praise God for in 2007 it would be growing closer in our marriage and the extraordinary love and support from our family and friends with visits, calls, prayer, emails and hosting us so we could get out of town. Moving is certainly the hardest thing I’ve done in a while and God sustained us while we were lonely with 67 visitors (some repeat offenders) during 20 visits (and we left town about 15 times). We appreciated it all so much. You are always welcome here.
God bless you far and wide.

Home Schooling Adventures

2007-12-03T08:27:00.000-08:00

look to pictures at the right and a short story from Ryan Smiley

Is It A Fairy?

Once upon a time a very happy king had a baby girl named Charm. He had spoiled her so much she started to get greedy. One day (when she was much older) she was going to ride her favorite horse, but never found it.

Later that night, while she was in her covers weeping, Charm heard a faint little thump, thump. Charm jumped out of bed startled and heard a “Weeeeeee!!” Surprisingly, she saw a very small hermit – like person walking on her covers!

She bent down to look at it and saw little wings on his back, so in a small voice she said, “Is it a fairy?” and the little fairy yelled, (which sounds like a normal talking to humans) “You’re an unhappy Gorilla!” That made Charm scream so loud that the fairy went purple in the face! After Charm finished screaming the fairy said, “ I’m glad not to be you because you are so unhappy when you don’t get what you want.” Continuing the fairy said, “I’m going to help you by giving you a story you have to do!”

The fairy proceeded to cast a spell and they disappeared. She opened her eyes to see a very beautiful castle. Charm said (in a snappy voice) to the fairy, “I want that castle!” And the fairy (who is taller now) said, “No, you cannot have the castle.” Charm (who was used to getting what she wanted) screamed, “Why!?” She stopped complaining when she heard a horrid noise come from the castle and the fairy said, “You can have the castle if you kill the terrorizing ogre and save the fainted prince from getting eaten.” Charm answered that she was too young to fight, but when she looked in a pond she realized that she was older, bigger, and more beautiful and covered in all things needed to kill an ogre.

The encouraged Charm said “I’ll try since it’s a story.” And she went into the castle. Seeing the horrid ogre, she drew her sword and the prince waking up from his faint and seeing her yelled “Don’t, run be...!” but the ogre smacked his mouth before the prince could finish talking and the ogre licked his lips and he and Charm charged at each other. Charm fought the ogre until the ogre couldn’t fight any more and with a triumphant dance Charm killed him and the prince ran up to her and kissed her and she danced with him until the night was over. Then she woke up in her own bed and it was still dark out and the same time as when the spell was cast and she saw the fairy flying a way saying, “I hope greediness has left you because you will see the prince again!”

While she was lying in bed thinking, she heard a knock on the door and she said, “Come in.” and the door opened and there was the castle black smith and in his hands were the sword, bow and arrows the king had asked for when she was a baby to be given to Charm on her twentieth birthday (which was the next day).

Five years later (after she had lots of practice with the sword) her castle was about to get laid siege by a group of monsters, the king sent Charm away to the neighboring castle. On her way there the fairy flied by saying, “You are going to see him soon!” Charm got to the neighboring castle and, there she did every thing in the story the fairy had created but for real. After she killed the ogre the siege ended and prince and Charm lived happily ever after.
The end

IS It a Fairy?

By Ryan Smiley
(Moral: You have to earn what you want.)

“Is it a Fairy?” is about a beautiful princess who acts very greedy and complains if she doesn’t get what she wants.
A Counterpane Fairy brings her through five years forward to get less greedy and finds you have to earn it not just to get it.

Foot in Mouth

2007-12-03T08:14:00.001-08:00

Rain says you. Dry says I. When we first got here...I was told about the infamous Arizona monsoon rains. Yeah Right I told eveyone. Well I was proved wrong this summer. You were right. I was wrong. Flood waters captured the camp as the water poured down and the Canyon captured it...and then it started to overflow...wow..some cars could not pass out of camp. I will post a picture for a bit showing the Monsoon aftermath.

Labor Day Glory

2007-12-03T08:11:00.000-08:00

Heaven on earth stopped by Lost Canyon in September with the Young Life Family camp. An influx of great friends from Colorado ushered in the Fall camp season with a bunch of our favorite families coming to visit us here in Williams, AZ for some crazy fun with the YL crew here. We love being here, but it always amazes us what depth of friendship we have with the Colorado crew...why did we leave? GRIN..we know why and love being here, but we miss the Colorado friends but grateful they still claim us and some are able to visit. We love you all.

Summer Wrapping-Up

2007-08-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

An amazing summer. God really uses people to love on each other and create space and miracles that could only be because of Him and His unconditional love. I know it seems strange for people to be used...we are all so broken and hard to get along with when we get down to it. But I saw it. Folks sacrificed their summer's to serve. Sure they got to stay in a beautiful place but they worked like dogs to insure that kids and leaders had the best week of their lives. Amazing! The Smiley clan had a great summer..lots to learn and lots of work too. Ryan worked in the pits (dishwashing) and got to know all sorts of kids that came to stay at Lost Canyon. Justin "went around camp" a lot and spent hours with our video Intern helping to capture the moments of summer on tape. Both boys logged good hours on the zip and on the water slides. Mom and Dad took one spin down the zip together. (aaaaah) It was a great summer and got to know some amazing folks. The latest pictures is of the Smiley's supporting the Local Baseball club..ya know the Diamond Backs! Great game and stadium and a blast with the interns down in Phoenix.

Day 3 of Camp

2007-05-30T02:19:00.000-07:00

I am without excuse for not updating this sooner. Its been a crazy couple of months with the sprint to summer. We finished up (mostly) 4 major construction projects and got the rest of camp ready for summer. Been praying for the kids coming and the staff that will run the various camps as well. Today was Day 3 ....huge event late tonight for the kids to help them play a bit. I took a nap in the middle of the evening around 9..and woke up for the event and now its 2:30 a.m. What has transpired between that time...amazing stuff. A huge event with 300 kids eating popcorn and playing..a few altercations one that went into the night with 8 people sitting around a table getting to know each other better and God's peace settling so everyone could go to bed. A medical emergency that required a bit more attention than was probably necessary but got to keep folks safe. And I can't sleep now...anyway...was a great first week of camp for first 3 days. Let the summer rage!!! Praise God He is present..this is going to be quite a ride.

Spinning up for Summer

2007-03-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

Staffing, Insurance, Water, Construction,Pray...or is it Pray, Staffing, Insurance, Water Construction or even better. Pray, Staffing, Insurance, Water, Construction, Pray. Vote on the best way to handle my recent days. These have been the hot topics along with risk management of the last few weeks...all while I got to travel to the nation's hot spot of Atlanta....woot. Amazing that both IBM and Young Life seem to want to send me to Atlanta...very cool to visit friends there. I also got to meet the entire summer assign team the week before here at Lost Canyon...overwhelming but very fun.

J- man's basketball is wrapping up at the Y. B-days for the boys have come and gone. Ryan has just built his first Star Destroyer....the dark side is strong in this one. And Amy had an amazing time at the YL Women's retreat at Camp...She went to this cool camp and got my a sweat shirt there. Will try and get a picture up of it.

Return of the Day in the Life Post

2007-03-03T17:13:00.000-08:00

Ok, its been a while and a new diversity of stuff has risen to the surface. These past weeks have been quite different. A day would start with a devotional with the staff...great folks. The other day I handed out pieces of paper to everyone and said "7 lines"....they proceeded to draw 7 lines in various configurations...was very interesting. Stop by the office to see the Lost Canyon first annual art show of "7 lines". Similar days might have a worship prior to staff lunch at the dining hall or the Assigned team for the summer might be here for training from various western camps to meet and plan...lots of dining hall food that week...mmm. Yes I might gain weight. Travel has been a recent activity..flying to Reno for the Western Property manager's meeting at Mountain Lodge..a very cool location..and then a few weeks later to Atlanta at Sharp Top to meet with the rest of the property managers for some refresher training for them..new to me. Risk management was the scariest....even over finance. Truly by God's grace we walk in this ministry..any youth ministry for that matter. Still loving the diversity. Another day would be filled with discussion on starting the new intern program, followed by review of a store layout chock full of train station themes and concerns over materials and probably display space and the best use of the entire floor plan. More invoice signing of course and a day long meeting and overnight with the property committee at Lost Canyon to make sense of the future. Kicking out the next 5 year plan and budget for round 1 discussion for 2008...man already!! Major maintenence is a continual focus to keep the camp in as new condition as well as expand on some unfinished parts of the camp...got to get that mud landscaped. Hit the Lost Canyon website and see the new buildings..its really going to be amazing in Summer 07. Oh and for Y-man...I will try and post some frisbee designs per your request in the last post. For the more observant blog reader...you may have noticed that Ryan and Justin's ages have changed...yes it is birthday time..both kids will have had their birthdays in the game room here at camp...very cool. To keep folks interested...two words for another post "pig roast".

A Post from Ryan (10)

2007-03-03T17:09:00.000-08:00

Hi fourth grade,
I am having a great time here. I am also having a bad time. Hope you are having a good time. How are you guys? I miss you guys a lot. I have some friends. My school is fine. But it is not RMCA. Thank you for giving me encouraging words. I really needed them. Some of the kids in my school are mean. I have different special subjects such as typing class and Spanish. I won first place in the science fair with a friend named Nick. Subjects are 1 hour long and at recess every grade goes together. My family does like our house. My school’s name is Maine consolidated #10. Justin said it wasn’t fair that you guys got so much snow. My school has a big play ground but there’s not much you could do. My teacher is funny and serious. There are many spider webs on the high ceiling but otherwise it is fine. The kids in my class don’t laugh as much. Some of them laugh at each other if they fall down or something like that. Sorry I didn’t write back quickly. My dad got the hang of his job really quickly. My favorite subject is probably technology now. My PE teacher is fun and not fun. I still play the recorder in music. I also have this activity in music called recorder karate.

I miss you guys, Ryan Smiley

A post from Justin (8)

2007-02-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

Dear 3rd grade,

I like it here and I don't like it. I don't like it here because I miss you guys A LOT! I like it because there's two big water slides at the camp's pool and the camp is huge. They've got a coffee shop, a game room, a snack bar, and a club room.

The school's great too. Instead of having one big building they have different buildings for different things, and only one of each grade, but the one thing I like that it doesn't have is you!

Your friend,

Justin

A Day in the Life

2007-02-09T19:27:00.000-08:00

For those who have worked with me before..I would often say..Hey I learned something new..time to go home. Well I go home about every 5 minutes here (or figuratively) although our house is now about a 45 second golf cart ride from the office. So here is an example day.

Leave the house and drive the property ..just to see it. Construction trucks start coming in around 7 a.m. Detail out parts of my day until the rest of the staff arrive for a morning devotion and any announcements. Email is here as much as anywhere..although it started as a Satellite connection in the canyon. Intern applications for the summer are reviewed. Construction plans are discussed. Meetings with corporate. (sound familar) Menus for food service are learned. Frisbee designs for the summer passed around. A quick run home for lunch with Amy. Sewer sepage smell is researched, water truck zips by as our well is not strong enough..yet, fill my pockets with trash from the ground as I walk around, stop by the wood shop and see what got created, dig golf cart out of snow to drive to go visit various folks on property, sign invoices, sign invoices, discuss staffing needs, (to be continued)

Continuing to transition

2007-02-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

Life continues to feel right in making this big change, but God's hand is necessarily present as leaving our community has been tough. The boys are making friends which is great but only time and His hand can only fill the vaccum of the Colorado clan. Amy is working out the Smiley family infrastructure as I am working out the Lost Canyon one....from IT Security Infrastructure of Ping, Power, Pipe, and Passionate Prevention to where Ping is now motorola radios to stay connected, power is the man upstairs, pipe relates to sewer and water (the top 2 prayer requests here) and passionate prevention is more safety related (don't smack your head while on the zip line). Oh and framing is not a mainframe term but the backbone of our new construction...fun cool new buildings. God is good and in the details and present in the blessings and hardships. So Be it!

Josh’s latest newbie top 10 list of events at Lost Canyon

2007-01-31T08:43:00.000-08:00

1.) In keeping with property staff mantra of always putting garbage in your pocket. Josh learned that gum found on the ground when frozen eventually thaws in your warm pocket and becomes like recently chewed gum and quite hard to get off of everything.
2.) Using the golf carts like a skateboard proves a useful technique when ice is on the road.
3.) Good to know who on staff is a vegetarian so you don't hand out the Turkey raffle prizes to them.
4.) Apparently prayer covers all the love languages
5.) Frisbees float but that doesn’t help when the lake freezes over the top of them
6.) Server means something different here then at IBM (Think Dining Hall verse computer room)
7.) Can you have a family golf cart?
8.) Dogs don't run very well on frozen ponds...nor do Ryan or Justin
9.) Follow the locals to really good sledding on your own property
10.) Bad sewer lines will always tell you where they are coming from if they are in the ground but not if they are in the walls.

Josh’s Top 10 teachable newbie moments with my first days and week at Lost Canyon

2007-01-31T08:23:00.000-08:00

1.) I learned thats is not as easy as one might think to board a moving golf cart and not run over your foot at the same time.
2.) Radiant heat in the garage is great. Especially for the cold mule deer who benefit from me leaving the garage door open to heat up the wild.
3.) Learning what it really means to be open and honest living on camp, mostly due to the lack of curtains in our new place.
4.) Survival training when you close up at an office with no lights anywhere and its freezing. (Where did I park? I guess we really do live in the forest..its really dark.)
5.) In the kitchen..we have true task masters that use both the whip of the kitchen and the whip of the task master. Its the Cliff and John show. True Renaissance men.
6.) I was excited that one of our staff was building themselves a new lake house, but at camp with many construction folks this was the ribing him for his recent build out of the pump house at the pond at camp.
7.) Another new exciting place to visit for me was to be the famed transfer station. Sounds like an exciting infrastructure place..right?!? Communications, a train shipping yard, or even an airport....blah its the dump.
8.) Experiencing a quality introduction moment with your new co-worker Joel from Alaska....what do you mean Joel is only visiting?!?
9.) Getting a whole new perspective on camp from Abby (I think she was 6) and her awesome picture of Lost Canyon (on display in the office so come visit)
10.) Everyone must stop by and see the amazing onion cutting device in the kitchen. Look mom I can cry without cutting off my fingers.