Operation Purple!

For our last project, Fire Four is reunited and we will be going to Larkspur, CO tomorrow. We are working with Outer Edge Performance, which is an outdoor program, and one of the programs it runs is Operation Purple camp. We have had two weeks of training with the staff at OEP. The training was a lot of working on our skills and how we can be great leaders. We also learned a lot of fun games to play. At OP, we are working at a summer camp for kids whos parents have been deployed. This camp is there to provide a week away from their difficult lives, where the child may be taking on adult responsibilities with one parent gone. We, as AmeriCorps members and OEP staff have come together to be camp counselors for these kids. The first week of camp starts tomorrow- there are three weeks. The kids get to do fun activities, such as white water rafting, biking, horse-back riding, rock climbing and hiking. Then, there is a ten day teen leadership camp, which will be much of the same activities, except that the teens get to do a service project of their own after the camp is through.

Crown King

So now that we are back from Crown King, I thought I would upload some pictures. But of course I ended up putting them online in backwards order of what really happened. So they start when we came back from Crown King and ends in the beginning! oops!!

the Boulder Tea House was imported from another country piece by piece to the US

Back in Colorado- at the Boulder Tea House with Julia and Becky

We went to Arches in Utah on our spike travel back to Denver
The other team who was with us in Crown King
Doug, Walker, Ruthie, Jen, Stephen, Charlotte, SJ and Lauren


Charlotte (my new team leader), Katie, Jen and me

Delicate arch


Trevor, Arden, Jack, Mike and Lauren


Double arch

this is called balanced rock, which I would say makes perfect sense!

wedding picture at Arches!


My squad and I were always in charge of making sure Rescue One was doing okay


looking out from our cabin

My team!
In back- me, Leia, Arden and Trevor
In front- Jack, Mike, Katie, Aubbi and Lauren

sunset at lookout point

Lauren, me, Aubbi and Arden in front of an old firetruck near the mine.

Arden, me, Lauren and Aubbi decided to see if we could make a shadow word


Arden, Aubbi and I went into a mine which was really cool.




Aubbi and me venturing into a mine

me, Aubbi and Arden

an old fire truck we found





Charlotte and Jack trying to fly a kite!

the trees are all burnt from the Lane Two fire last year


left to right- Lauren, Aubbi, me, Katie

a pretty lake at the top of the mountain in Crown King


Walker and Stephen at a great lookout at Red Rocks in Sedona.

the Red Rocks in Sedona


At the Grand Canyon- Luckily the next day it was nice and warm and we could see the canyon


Lookout tower



Looking out over the Grand Canyon

Doug is about to jump off the edge of the Grand Canyon!

There really was nothing to see because of the fog and man was it cold and snowy!


it was awesome to see nothing. It looked like the world ended at the edge

the Grand Canyon the night we first arrived

our wonderful nomex for work (yellow shirts and green pants) and complete with helmets, glasses, gloves and steel toe boots

the awesome bright yellow chipper where we chipped all of our cut brush. We ended up clearing 14.6 acres by the end of our time in Crown King!!

One day we decided to go for a hike and ended up at this rock, which looked like it was from the Lion King.

the kitchen in our cabin

There were four of us sleeping in the same room. Arden slept in the little room in the back.

Leia and I lucked out because we got the bed, while Lauren got the cot and Arden had a little closed in closet-like area