Thursday: Adventures and Entertainment

Today’s post begins with a rap song composed by Boe and performed with help from Blake as the DJ and chaperone Dan:

Dan: Yo! All you Christians, got Sum’n to say. If y’all don’t obey, y’all gonna pay.

Boe: Yo! Dis is Boe and Dis is Dan, he’s my right hand man, and he’s really gettin’ tan.

Dan: Yeeeeeee AAA

Boe: Now all you ladies in the hot, hot sun, throw yo’r hands in the air ‘cause the trip’s nearly done.

Dan: No’I’m gonna tell you a li’l story ‘bout Pastor Kirk… He tends to get a li’l irked. Look at his smirk, him ‘n’ his white tee shirt. He works on Sundays and vacation on Monday… and Tuesday… and Wednesday…

Boe: Yo! He’s runnin’ every day, so he can get away, from the bills to pay.

Dan: Yo! It’s time to go, so thank Little Boe, so keep it low and say it ain’t so.

Chaperone Sandi has shared these reflections for our blog:

Today is Friday. YEA!! It’s been a long, hot week, with conditions some of us are definitely not used to – but Dan won’t allow me to whine – so enough of that! Although it’s been horrible in some ways, it’s been a pretty cool experience. It’s fun to see everyone pitch in and work together with everyone taking a break whenever needed. I personally have never drunk so much water in my life. It’s great… I now love WATER!!

We all enjoy being sprayed by a simple water spray bottle (often!). And every so often we turn on the sprinkler system in the horse arena and get cooled off that way! Each evening it cools down to a perfect temperature and we have our supper (and all of our meals have been great!! Then we have our devotions.

Last night a bunch of us waited and watched the moon come up over the mountain and many took cool pictures. Lots of card games were played and lots of visiting and giggling! Oh yea, and LOTS of “meowing.” My group of girls that consists of Trisha, Lindsey, Jenna, and Katie named themselves the “Cool Kitties” and guess who I am? Yep, “Mama Kitty”! Last night they would all meow til I came to take care of them! And it was useless to try to ignore them!! Anyway… they are SPECIAL little kitty cats!!

It has been so cool to see all of the kids mingling with each other that maybe they normally don’t hang with, it’s awesome! Lots of new friendships are developing. More and more people each night have been sleeping outside – the first night only four of us dared to do so, three adult females (who do not think camping is the greatest thing in the world!) braved the great outdoors, along with Pastor Kirk (Mr. Adventurous, “I enjoy everything” guy!). Although we froze our butts off because of no sleeping bats, we covered ourselves with our bath towels, and thank God I brought two blanket throws along. We got to enjoy the absolute beauty of this ranch! Hills surrounded us and a gorgeous full moon! Awesome! So now each night there gets to be more people deciding to sleep outside (last night was 10).

After the first day of complete stress, crying and telling myself there was no way I could last for two weeks like this, it has gotten much better. Praise the Lord!! I’m even having fun and loving the kids – they are great! I am looking forward to getting back home to my babies (a lot) – but in the meantime I’m enjoying my new part-time family here. Hi to all of you Madison people, and a great big hug and kiss to Carson, Dari, and dad! Love you lots!!

And finally for today, a contribution entitled A Pretty “Normal” Day from Tara, Carly, and Amanda:

This has been an exciting trip so far, especially today. It all started this morning when Tara woke up to a big bug crawling on her. After we thought it was gone, Amanda felt something crawling on her. We got up and ready for the day. Not too long after that, Amanda fell down a hill and popped her knee out and had to go to the doctor, but she turned out fine.

Shortly after that we were chopping down trees and Tara and Carly were sitting on the branch trying to break it. Unexpectedly the branch broke and Tara just about tumbled down the hill along with Danielle. We went in for dinner and laid low for the rest of the afternoon, except for Mac, Trent, Joel, Matt, and Carly, who decided to climb a nearby mountain. It was very steep but quite an adventure. But luckily we had a reward at the end, the scenic view. We slid most of the way down but ended up back at camp safely, yet dirty.

We all had supper and showered up. After supper Amanda, Brandon, Taylor and Tara went into the tent with the bug. Brandon felt something crawl on his leg and then we saw the nasty bug. We cleared everything out of the tent besides a cot, which we sat on to search for the bug. After the third time seeing the bug, we finally got it! It was a big bug with a lot of legs. We then got settled in and went to bed. It made for an interesting day!