Royalty Abounds in the Heavenly World!

I “get” the fascination with this spring’s royal wedding. Though I would deny this to my mountain bike buddies, or the crowd I count on to watch the Super Bowl with, I logged a few hours of coverage myself. We all need a good party to distract us once in a while. Life’s a celebration … Continued

Free Range Kids!

Western North Carolina is pretty “crunchy.” Nearby Asheville attracts a pretty eclectic crowd, from the granola set to outdoor enthusiasts, artists, sustainable livers (not the organ)…you name it and you can probably find it in Asheville. There is a big movement in these parts to buy local foods, raised or grown in our own backyards. … Continued

The Importance of a Good Rain Plan…

I’ll have to admit, I was eyeing the radar screen surreptitiously on the old iphone, hoping those bright greens and reds would move right into our path right before dinner. What I wasn’t expecting was the loud BOOM that started the squeals and screams from all corners! A good old-fashioned summer thunderstorm. In the mountains, … Continued

The Pleasures of Ice-Cream and Sliding Rock!

Some of you may not know about the Sliding Rock Challenge. A trip to this natural rock slide in the Davidson River is part of every Illahee girl’s session. I like to accompany every trip…they’re just that fun. Despite the silliness and pure pleasure of watching so much fun, I like to make sure we’re … Continued

Simple Living and Air Band!

It’s interesting to me that the more complicated our lives get, the more we yearn for simpler times. There are websites and magazines dedicated to helping us simplify, and they are BIG business. I’m pretty convinced that a lot of the angst in the world is born in these layers of complication. For me, the … Continued

First Day of Activities and County Fair!

Technology moves a heck of a lot faster than we do, but it is fun to utilize some of it to give you all a glimpse of all the fun we are having. With that in mind, here are a couple of items of interest: we will try to upload pictures in almost real time … Continued

The Best Summer Ever!

But, this morning felt a lot like I remember Christmas feeling when I was Hillbrook age. Yesterday, I was dead-tired from the last “push” to get ready and then got “schooled” by my sixteen year-old on the Butter Gap trail on mountain bikes last night…(we left at 6:30 PM and rode until almost nine and … Continued

It’s Begun! THE BEST SUMMER EVER!

It’s going to be the BEST staff ever for the best summer ever. Veteran Nurse and camp “mom” Denise  was chatting with Gordon and Laurie this evening and said, “you all got all of the best ones back”! Indeed. It’s a “who’s who” of camp favorites and one is going to be YOUR counselor this … Continued

A Big Year for the Illahee Campus!

Laurie had a “Skype” appointment with one of our campers from Massachusetts this weekend. She was interviewing Laurie about camp, and had a laundry list of great questions for her research paper. One of them was “what makes Illahee unique”? I know Laurie did a great job in her answer, but it made me think. … Continued

The Countdown BEGINS!

This time of year is a very busy one in the Heavenly World, and it seems that this year it is even more so. We have a bunch of projects going on…and camp is slowly coming back together. This has been the year of the “big dig.” Last year, Heigh Ho was a mess as … Continued