Danielle - Favorite Family Vacation

Talk about a favorite family vacation. Where did you go, what do you remember about it?

**Pictures to come soon when I can figure out how to scan them in.**

Growing up our family did not take many family vacations. Pappy bought and then ran his own business. Most of the time it was just him and one other guy. Since he was the majority provider of our family and leaving meant that the doors were closed on his shop which meant no pay, we didn't take lots of vacations. We did go away once a year to Camp Hebron as a family. This started when I was about 8 years old and continued until I was around 13. This was a highlight of our summer. Camp Hebron was located in Halifax, PA. It was a campground that had a pool, a lake, horses, basketball courts, and lots of other activities to do. Each year we would take the 2 hour trip up to Halifax, PA. The drive seemed like it took forever. Our good family friends, the Davis Family, also went along. There were a few families that were always there the same time each year but there were also other families that would come and go.

During the week, the parents would meet for sessions with speakers that helped them grow in their faith while the kids were split into age groups and got to enjoy lessons, games, and activities with each other. Until now, I never went back and thought about how my parents gave their week of vacation to grow closer to God and to give us the opportunity to grow closer to Him too. We could have went to the beach or any other place by ourselves but instead my parents dedicated usually the only vacation we took to take us as a family to a Christian run camp to sit in on sessions with friends to learn more about the Lord.

We stayed in Silvan View which had "hotel" type rooms that each family would sleep in. Meals were provided in a cafeteria type dining area. One night during the week, the families would head to the lake for a picnic type dinner followed by water games such as relays and races.

My favorite part of our week was getting to ride the horses. When we first started out I was only allowed to go for the horse rides where a person would lead the horse around a fenced in area. As I got older, I was able to go on the breakfast rides and trail rides. These were group activities but you controlled your horse which was AWESOME! I loved horses and this was one thing I always looked forward too.

A lot of our afternoons were spent at the pool. One specific memory I remember from our pool days was the day that Aunt Amber had to get stitches. She was jumping in backwards into the pool. She ended up jumping too close to the wall and caught her chin on the way down. Sure enough she had to go and get stitches.

Another memory that I have from one of our weeks at Camp Hebron was that the one night my class had planned to go for a hike on Peter's Mountain and camp out. We headed up the mountain shortly after dinner. We reached the top just as it was getting dark out and a little bit later a storm had rolled in. We were on the top of this mountain and lightning was everywhere. I just remember hiding under a large rock while we waited for the rain to slow down. The thunder was so loud and the lightning felt like it could strike right next to you. Needless to say, we were all soaked and were not going to be staying on top of the mountain that night. We headed down after the storm had slowed and ended up getting back to the Hotel late at night.

I am sure there are so many other memories from our weeks spent at Camp Hebron that I could share including talent shows that we participated in, games we played, trips to the icecream truck for a treat. It was always a great time to enjoy as a family and with friends.