Tag Archives: rural

Cousins Camp at the Farm

July 29, 2016Expats, Expats and TCKs, International Travel, New York, Third Culture Kids, United Statesadventures, animals, boating, camp, country, cousins, cow, explroe, family, fields, friends, fun, hammock, horses, New York, pont, rural, swing, tire swingbreanamjohnson@gmail.com

IT WAS A PLAIN TWO STORY FARM HOUSE
I WISH TIME DID NOT GO BY SO FAST,
OH, THE MEMORIES OF THOSE YEARS LONG AGO
JUST TREASURES OF MY CHILDHOOD LONG PAST.

-Adine Cathey

Every other year, the Brown grandkids come to the farm in New York to spend a week or so at “Cousin Camp.” This year, the Johnson kids were fortunate enough to be a part of this tradition! We were all staying on the Brown farm for my brother-in-law Stevie’s wedding to Kirsten, one of the Browns’ granddaughters.

One of the Cousin Camp activities is decorating t-shirts for the event. The kids loved this, of course! Each shirt was unique and creative, and all of them said “Cousins Camp 2016” on the back to commemorate the occasion.

The Brown side of the family stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Brown’s farmhouse, and the Johnson family got to stay at Jeff and Lindsay’s house down the street. The new house wasn’t quite finished, so we got to help a bit in the process of building the house, which they are building themselves from scratch. I came later than most people, so all I did was sand a couple of window frames, but it was still cool to be a small part of the process! It was so generous of Jeff and Lindsay to let us stay in the house– they had 19 Johnsons staying there for almost an entire week! They had even left us things like shampoo and a coffee maker. What I loved most about the house was the little girl’s room. It looks out into a field with grazing horses. I could imagine her waking up ever day and looking outside on the wildflowers and horses– so wonderful!

I loved the rural neighborhood. It is so quintessentially rural American, with sprawling lawns, bales of hay on the fields, and signs for fresh milk and eggs at the end of long dirt driveways. If I didn’t want to live overseas, this would be my dream. Naturally, I took full advantage of the time in the country, and so did everyone else. It was a great place to run, and it is safe, which is a nice change from home.

The kids, of course, were most thrilled by all the water activities of Cousins Camp. They loved fishing in the pond (as you can see by Zach’s enthusiastic fist-pumping) and splashing each other in the pool.

The farm is a fantastic summer getaway. There is so much to do there, and none of it includes screens or electronics. In fact, I didn’t have internet or much cell service the entire time I was there! And guess what? I hardly missed it. It was refreshing to my soul to have to unplug for a week.

Every day, there was something new to discover. I snapped peas, fed a calf, got a new bread recipe… even hanging laundry on an outdoor line for the first time in a decade was fun and fresh to me.

I guess I’m sort of a city slicker now, but I remember a time from my childhood when we lived in the country and could spend our days gathering wildflowers in the field and chasing cottontail bunnies. Oh, to be little and in the country! It was so nice to be able to relive some of those memories with my nieces and nephews.

One of the most wonderful parts of the whole experience was the sense of belonging that permeated the entire week. The Brown side of the family treated us Johnsons just like their own side of the family. We got the same welcome and the kids got the same treatment. I had to stay a couple of extra days after the rest of the Johnsons left, and the Brown/ Wilson family invited me to stay in their house and made me a part of their family. I’m not even their in-law (does that make me their out-law?), and I still got a family welcome. Even the kids accepted me like family and invited me to do this or that with them.

I got a whole new branch of extended family. It’s a picture of how Jesus has made us all one family, despite our last names or bloodlines.

The whole week was so much fun. You can see by all the smiles that everyone had a great time! What kid (or kid at heart) doesn’t love being barefoot and berry-stained?

New York Waterfall Adventure

July 28, 2016International Travel, Nature, New York, Third Culture Kids, United Statescaves, family, hike, kids, nature, New York, pools, rural, water, waterfall, waterfallsbreanamjohnson@gmail.com

Away from the hustle and bustle of New York City life is a serene world of natural beauty. It came as a bit of a surprise to me that New York State could offer such a wonderful wilderness. As a West-Coast girl, I tend to think of New York as one giant metropolis. Not anymore! While I was in Springfield Center with my family, I discovered the wild side of New York.

The day of Ben’s brother’s wedding, I went with my sisters- and brothers-in-law to Robert B. Woodruff Learning Center, a waterfall hike near the farm where we stayed. The kids needed to get their wiggles out before the ceremony, and some of us still hadn’t seen the falls yet.

This day also happened to be Uncle Don’s birthday, so it was fun to get to all do something together with him.

Beside the falls are a series of natural caves. The kids were excited to go spelunking through them! They are deep enough to be interesting, but not deep enough to be dangerous, so they were able to run free through the natural playground. Micah discovered a hole that went from the bottom of the caves to the top, so of course everyone climbed through that several times. It reminded me of the secret entrance to the subterranean house in Peter Pan.

Once everyone had their fill of caves, we headed down to the falls. Okay, let’s be real—no kid ever has their fill of caves. But once we convinced everyone to clamber down the wooden staircase to the water, they forgot all about the caves and began to dare each other to swim from the shore to the falls in the freezing cold water.

A little further downstream, past the main falls, there is another wide fall that is covered in moss. The green carpet makes the falls comfortable and easy to walk on, so you don’t have to worry about slipping down them. We could safely walk right down through the bubbling stream of water to the pools below. The pools would be great for swimming, but none of us adults were willing to jump in the water like the kids were, although a couple did walk under the main falls.

The kids wandered around and found interesting things to catch their attention. Zach found some insect larva in one of the pools. Micah walked around with a great big Gandalf walking stick until he discovered fishing line and a hook. Carl and Linden learned to skip rocks with their dad, and Layla rolled up a great big green, fuzzy “allergy ball” from the algae on the rocks.

It was time to go all too soon! We said goodbye to the caves and the falls and walked back up the path, through the school, past the garden, and to the car. Who knew New York could have such beautiful nature?

The Last Wedding

July 27, 2016Expats, Expats and TCKs, International Travel, New York, Third Culture Kids, Uncategorized, United Statesbarn, ceremony, family, farm, front yard, handmade, Johnson, marriage, married, New York, reception, romance, romantic, rural, weddingbreanamjohnson@gmail.com

Well, it’s official—all the Johnson kids are married! Jesse and Joy were the first to get married 14 years ago almost to the day, and Stevie and Kirsten tied the knot last week, about two years after we did. The wedding was lovely, and it was a huge blessing to be there for it. My brother-in-law Jacob thought that “The Last Wedding” would be a good title for a blog post, so here you go!

Kirsten and Stevie met in high school at Rift Valley Academy, the Kenyan boarding school that Ben and all his siblings attended through high school. They met and started dating in 2010. I met both Stevie and Kirsten during my RVA visit in 2013. Stevie proposed on Lake Kivu in Rwanda last year, after their second year of long-distance dating in college.

Kirsten’s grandparents live on a farm in New England, and the wedding was held in the front yard.

The flowers are all wildflowers that Kirsten and her bridesmaids picked from the rural countryside around the farm. The orange lilies were particularly lovely.

Ben was a groomsman, and a rather dashing one! I loved the African cloth ties that the men in the wedding party wore. It was a nice touch of Tanzania to represent Stevie’s childhood.

The ceremony was beautiful. My nieces Esther and Emily were flower girls, they did a great job.

The pastor gave a wonderful message on love and the hand of God in our lives. Stevie and Kirsten’s relationship is and always has been centered around their love for God and for each other. It’s been cool to watch as their relationship has grown and finally come to result in the beautiful marriage we witnessed.

The bride and groom decided to do a sand ceremony, but with jelly beans instead of sand. One of our nephews, who shall remain anonymous, admitted to me in a whisper that he swiped one or two after the ceremony.

The Johnson family sang a song from Mom’s songbook during the ceremony. Unfortunately, my video didn’t catch everyone in the frame, but most of us are there!

Kirsten’s mom and aunt also sang a song together.

The parents gathered around the bride and groom to pray over them and their marriage.

And finally, the moment that Stevie and Kirsten had dreamed about for years: The vows and the pronouncement of husband and wife!

After the ceremony was the reception. We ate homemade chicken tika, rice, salad, and veggies. As you can see, the tables were decorated to reflect Kenya, where Kirsten and Stevie met.

We took lots of pictures with the barn as our backdrop. So lovely. I found out later that the barn was only chosen as a background because it was the only place with shade. It really couldn’t have turned out better, though. The red of the barn contrasted nicely with the bride’s white dress and the bridesmaids’ navy blue sundresses.

After the wedding paparazzi had subsided, it was time for toasts, cake, and celebrating.

One of Kirsten’s aunts made the wedding cake. She even made the edible flowers on top—they aren’t real flowers, believe it or not! They look like the Gerber daisies that the bridesmaids held during the ceremony. The cake stands are made from a tree that Kirsten chose in the forest, as are the stumps that lined the aisle for the ceremony.

The wedding favors were bags of Kenyan chai. This is the best kind of tea in the world. You steep the tea in scalding water, then add almost the same amount of milk as there is tea, and finish it will a ridiculous heap of sugar. A little chai masala sprinkled on top creates perfection. Then you dip your toast or mandazi (doughnuts) in it.

The bubbles on the table were intended for the getaway line, but the kids couldn’t help breaking into them during dinner.

All of the wedding party introduced themselves and gave a toast. As usual, Ben was hilarious. He has quite the collection of funny stories about the adventures of Ben and Stevie.

At the end, Stevie and Kirsten sang a song together. You can’t tell from the photo, but Luke and Lisa accompanied on guitar and drum.

When it was time for the bride and groom to go, we all stood at the edge of the driveway and blew bubbles for them. If was fun to watch as the grown-ups had just as much fun with the bubbles as the kids did! We waved goodbye as they drove away in a cloud of bubbles and balloons.

Breana's Blog

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Tag Archives: rural

Cousins Camp at the Farm

New York Waterfall Adventure

The Last Wedding