| |  Dear Friends and Family,
2007 is winding
down and it’s time to send out our annual electronic Christmas letter. We hope you’ve all had a wonderful year. This version is full of photos to go with the
story. Enjoy! It was our first
full year living in Iowa at Camp Hantesa.
We started the year, appropriately, with a New Year’s party at
camp. Imagine staying up all night with
dozens of young campers, many of whom are staying up all night for their first
time! It was noisy, to say the
least. Later in January, we were visited
by Harley’s Aunt Catherine and Uncle Tim and cousins Karl and Anna, who live in
Iowa Falls. They welcomed us to the
state and showed us around Ames. Sarah’s
brother Bobby also visited with his wife Beth and son Christopher. We enjoyed showing off our new home .
Harley and the boys
joined an Audubon field trip to see Northern Saw-Whet Owls near Waterloo, Iowa. They tromped through the snow to find a
fist-sized owl perched inconspicuously in a cedar tree. Although we have heard these owls calling in
Wisconsin and Idaho, this was our first time seeing one in daylight.  In February, we
returned home from a Super Bowl party at Harley’s parents’ home in Sibley,
Missouri, just before the first big snowstorm hit. Later in the month we had a blizzard, dumping
8 inches of snow, followed by ice that knocked out our power for three
days. The boys had a blast camping out
in front of the fireplace, and we made do by cooking on our propane stove. Thankfully, our water kept running, so things
were never dire.
Harley also gave a
presentation for the Great Backyard Bird Count, his first paid speaking
engagement as a “bird expert.” Benton
joined the local homeschooling group’s chess club, and got to play against some
other kids, instead of just his Dad, who never goes easy on him in chess games.
Sarah started to get
busy at camp, with Hantesa hosting “Dad/Youth” overnights during the weekends
in the late winter. Benton got to go as
a camper, and spent the night with Dad in one of the lodges. One of the other Dads asked Benton if it was
his first camping trip. Benton said “No,”
a bit incredulously. “I’ve been camping
a lot, but this isn’t camping.”
Spring came to Iowa in March, with the snowmelt flooding the
road near our house. For three weeks,
camp was full of kids on spring break.
We hosted, in turn, kids from Boone, Ames, and Des Moines. Our first wildflower, Spring Beauty, appeared
on March 22. Gray Treefrogs started
singing down by the river on the following evening.  In early April, with three busy weeks of camp behind her,
Sarah took a few well-earned days off.
We met up with Harley’s brother David and spent a few days camping and
hiking in southern Illinois. We found a
couple of new favorite spots: a boulder playground known as “Garden of the
Gods,” and a moss-covered slip-n-slide called “The Little Grand Canyon.” From there we headed to Saint Louis for an Easter
get-together.  Before heading back to Iowa, we stopped in Columbia to visit
Harley’s grandfather in the hospital. The
boys delivered homemade get-well cards to their great-grandfather, and we
visited with Grandpa Buckman and other visiting family members. Grandpa Buckman had been in and out of
hospitals for more than a year, with kidney failure and complications arising
from resulting infections. So it was
with mixed feelings that we received news of his death a few days after our
visit. He will be missed at every family
gathering, but we were relieved that his suffering had ended.
The spring sports season made for a busy April and May, with
plenty of excitement for Benton and Henry.
The boys both played soccer for the first time, and I don’t think it
will be the last. I think the most
memorable game was Henry’s last one of the season, when he scored 6 goals in a
4-3 game! Somehow we found time to
harvest a few dozen wild morel mushrooms from the camp property. They were quickly consumed, with butter,
flour, and smacking lips.
Benton played T-Ball for the second year and continues to
impress with his base-running speed. The
video below shows him motoring around the bases en route to a grand slam. It was a blast to watch his team, the Lugnuts,
play at the big Little League park in Boone. Harley spent lots of time birding in May, taking walks from
our house to Ledges State Park next door almost every morning. He was rewarded with several new birds for
his life list, including Kentucky Warbler, Mourning Warbler, and Cape May
Warbler. Yes, Ledges is known for its
warblers! He also traveled to the
Council Bluffs area for the spring Iowa Ornithologists’ Union meeting where he
made many new birding friends.  By late May, everything else took second stage to the
beginning of summer camp. Dozens of camp
counselors arrived, transforming our sleepy neighborhood into a bustling, busy
place. Many of the staff came from Iowa,
but we also had counselors from South Africa, England, Russia, Kazahkstan, New
Zealand, Australia, and a volunteer from Germany. For Harley and Sarah, it was fun to
re-experience their camp staff days from a few years ago. For Benton and Henry, it was a brand-new
adventure. They had literally hundreds
of playmates for the summer. Most of the
campers and all of the staff knew their names, and they soaked up all the
attention happily.  In June, we experienced another family loss when Sarah
suffered a miscarriage. We had been
thrilled to share the news of a baby, expected to arrive in November, and it
came as a terrible shock to lose that gift.
We deeply thank many of you who helped support us through that tough
experience. It was comforting to know
that we weren’t the first parents to lose a child. We planted two seedling apple trees in our
yard as a memorial, and nurturing that new life went a long way in healing our
hearts.
We managed to get away from camp for a weekend in late June,
and made it down to the Meramec River in Missouri for the annual Derhake float
trip. It’s a decades-long tradition that
we always hate to miss (although we’ll probably have to miss it in 2008.) Lying on an inner tube in the warm sun,
traveling at the speed of nature, holding a snoozing kid in your lap—what could
be more relaxing?
Benton celebrated his 6th birthday with a special
week at camp. For the first time, he got
to stay in a cabin with a counselor and other campers, without Mom or Dad! Meanwhile, Dad had the new experience of
driving the camp bus, after he got his Iowa CDL. Both Sarah and Harley are proud to report
passing their CDL exams on the first try. Henry’s midsummer days passed with marathon
blackberry picking sessions. Ranging up
to a mile from home, he and Harley collected gallons of wild blackberries, a
few of which are still in our freezer.
It’s a wonder Henry’s mouth and fingers aren’t still stained purple!
More family members came up to Hantesa in July, with Harley’s
Mom serving as the guest instructor for Creative Arts week, his brother coming
as a camper, and four of Sarah’s nieces and nephews coming up as campers as
well. Then in August, the whole Derhake
crew came up for a canoe trip down the Des Moines river and a weekend stay at
camp. The canoe trip was a bit too windy
to be much fun, but the time spent playing games, swimming in the pool, and
sitting around the campfire was enjoyed by all.  As summer camp came to a close in August, Sarah’s boss
Shannon announced that she’d be leaving for Kansas City, leaving a job
opening. The Campfire USA council
decided that Sarah could fill the camp director position, and she was quickly
promoted. We had been expecting some
time to rest and relax after the busy summer, but her new responsibilities
haven’t let up yet, and she continues to work long hours to improve the
camp. Luckily for us, she has a 200-yard
commute, and the boys are always welcome at the camp office!
Benton and Harley also had news at the end of summer. Harley received a request to become the new
editor of the Iowa Ornithologists’ Union newsletter, which he accepted. And Benton joined the local Campfire Club
along with the Tiger Cubs. The start of
his scouting career was an especially exciting and long-awaited moment for his
Eagle Scout father. We also bought a
membership to Living History Farms in Des Moines and enjoyed several homeschool
field trips there throughout the fall. The boys enjoyed joining in on an 1870s ballgame, as pictured below.
 Fall brought migrating birds back through Ledges State Park,
with Harley adding Canada Warbler to his life list in September. On one hike, Benton and Henry spotted several
volleyball-sized mushrooms while Dad was scanning the treetops for warblers. The fungi turned out to be edible Giant Puffballs,
and we had fun sampling and sharing this new culinary experience. They’re not quite as tasty as morels, but
have a subtler flavor.  We went to Kansas City in late September, and enjoyed a trip
to the ballpark to see the Royals defeat the White Sox. Even though Harley’s beloved Royals finished
in last place again, he’s still optimistic about next year.
For the third straight year, Harley traveled to Florida to
do bird surveys for the Army Corps of Engineers. This time, it meant splitting up the family
for two weeks, while Sarah was busy leading Mom/Youth overnights along with
many other camp director duties. Being a
supermom, she somehow found time to bake a cake for Henry’s 4th birthday. Sarah and the boys also traveled to Kansas
City for the wedding of the previous camp director, known to the boys as Miss
Shannon. Her family now remembers Benton
and Henry as the two flashy dancers at her wedding reception. The boys must have gotten that talent from
their mother!  We were reunited in mid-October at Harley’s cushy field
house, on the gulf coast in Freeport, Florida, and we all got to spend a little
time at the beach. There we were
introduced to the phenomenon known as “red tide.” (cough, cough) More enjoyable was a trip to a deep
freshwater spring, where we waded in and watched an underwater CSI team in
training. Cool, unexpected, and totally
unplanned.
Back in Iowa, the boys enjoyed trick-or-treating in a
neighborhood in Boone, where half the houses seemed to have kids that knew
Sarah and the boys from summer camp. Our
house started getting a flood of telephone calls from presidential campaigns,
with the Iowa caucuses coming up. It was
also back-to-school time for Benton after the Florida trip, and he has been
enjoying studying space, animals, pirates, ancient Egypt, and reading
everything we put in front of him. Another
highlight of the fall school session was a trip to Des Moines for a performance
of the Nutcracker. We’ve also been
getting regular swimming time at the local YMCA’s pool session for homeschoolers. Benton is proud of his ability to swim a
hundred yards or so by himself, and even swim underwater (something his daddy
still has trouble doing!)  After traveling to Missouri for Thanksgiving gatherings in
Linneus and St. Louis, Harley surprised Sarah with a getaway trip to
Texas. We spent a few days soaking up
the sun and hiking around Big Bend National Park. (Henry is soaking up a hot spring in the photo above.) We all got to do a bit of birding and
wildlife watching there, and a few weeks later followed up by participating in
three local Christmas Bird Counts.
Our Christmas travels have taken us to Sibley, MO, St.
Louis, and back home again. Now we’re
preparing for the start of winter resident camp, with campers arriving tomorrow
morning. We had a white Christmas, with
big meals, lots of presents, and best of all, time with family and
friends.
 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Love,
Harley, Sarah, Benton and Henry Winfrey
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