the "devil's slide trail..." AKA the perfect smore...
definitely had an "excellent" camping trip this weekend (mr burns' "excellent" being the choice word of the weekend, that i seemed to use in every good situation, haha)...
jason and i picked up tim and zach, then headed over to the gonzales' house... received an awkward hug from auntie, who was excited to poke my belly and hope that i keep the pounds off... grabbed some KFC, and with allen joining our car, the guys were in our car and the girls in the other, we drove to idyllwild, in the mountains past redlands and loma linda, with 'nsync, backstreet boys, and 98 degrees blasting in our car, since the guys were in a pop mood, singing off the top of their lungs, haha!
we arrived there, and it was a lot colder than i packed for... not good... i definitely wasn't a smart packer, only packing a single thin sweater... the campsite was beautiful! we were the first ones there, so the guys picked out a prime spot... turns out each unit had their own individual campsite... everyone slowly arrived, and when there was a large group of us, we went into town and raided a candy store! chocolate covered gummy bears, and dark chocolate covered raisins...
got back, pitched tents, every unit cooked their own food, a bunch of us played a couple rounds of catchphrase, and we had a meeting at the amphitheater, since there was a rule that no more than 8 people can congregate in one site... all of us mentioned our expectations for this camping trip, pairing it with a verse that mentioned our expectations; mostly smart-alecky answers came out from that... back at the camp, we tried starting campfires... the teen boys stole wood from another campsite, and we figured out why it was abandoned, b/c they spent the next hour and a half trying to start it, using axe body spray to try to strengthen the fire... i decided to raid the junior girls' fire and steal their smores, haha!
turned in pretty early, sleeping in auntie's SUV... i became alyssa/tracy/myrtle's pseudo-counselor, since their counselor was MIA (good job, hazel, haha!)... also, since i wasn't an official staff, i didn't have to submit myself to drawing lots for which unit i ate with... they woke me up, i helped them prepare their breakfast, as well as their sack lunch of cheese and turkey quesadillas... we met for a morning service, watched and laughed as the kids sang this hilarious wannabe "father abraham" song called "making melodies" (thumbs up, elbows up, knees bent, heads up, butts out, turn around, sit down? HAHA!)...
got ready for our hike... only 2.5 miles, but a pretty steep incline the entire way... the trail was called the "devil's slide trail..." i wore a pedometer, had alyssa and pamela carry my water bottles for me, and tracy carry my food (haha, what a lazy bum i am!), and we started our trek up the mountain... we ended up breaking apart into three groups: allen/tim/zach/matthew/derek/emily/yvette/nicole/luke/adriel with pamela and i, and the rest with jason and auntie cheryl, with the slow straggler adults falling way behind... we didn't naturally decide to split up, but our group just wanted to take a faster pace... fun times with GROUP ONE!, warning each other about the ICE! on the trail, taking very short breather breaks and continuing whenever we'd hear voices from group two, finding prime picture spots along the way, making fun of zach and his ghetto backpack, several people throwing snowballs at each other...
1 1/2 hours and 7,736 steps later, we reached the destination at noon... ended up waiting almost half an hour for the rest of the group to come... they finally arrived, and we knew which group was supreme... "one band, one sound... GROUP ONE!" haha... our group were trekkers, and even though some people were in pain, we pushed through... i felt really good about the hike... everyone else needed to take breathers, but i barely broke a sweat and didn't need many water breaks... it was definitely a positive booster for my self esteem, knowing that i'm getting in better shape that i could endure a hike like that, without being short of breath... we enjoyed our lunches, i mooched off of emily's trail mix and the teen boys' sunchips... lounged in a hammock, mocked group two and their lack of pride in their group... my group would chant along with me; i would just start the saying, and they'd all finish it... good times...
^ "one band, one sound... GROUP ONE!"
^ the adults invaded our picture, haha!
^ enjoying nature...
the hike down was definitely easier, not taking a break for anything... the guys were singing their boy band songs off the top of their lungs... ran into four college students, who asked pamela and i why we weren't singing with them, and i jokingly replied that we "didn't wanna associate ourselves with them..." it was really nice to see different father/son groupings on the way up and down... fathers with their young sons, fathers with their teen sons, and even older fathers with their adult sons... i'm definitely doing this with my boys... also discussed choral music of today with pamela on the way down...
ended up waiting at the bottom of the mountain for everyone else, yet again... we headed back to camp, met up with edrey, who stopped by to visit for the day... played a couple of rounds of catchphrase (zach: "you have a 'blank blank blank...'" allen: "God gave us this..."), before we had to play jason's premade "Bible catchphrase," since it was the sabbath (zach: "they have this in church...")... haha... had dinner with emily/nicole/yvette since they had pancit canton and cha'i pow yu!
after eating, the drill team practiced in an empty parking lot... just seeing them drill brought back floods of pride and nostalgia that is attached to drilling... the group wasn't perfect, but i couldn't help but feel proud of them... even watching matthew taking charge at training meryll and ian for the drilldown... as lame as it sounded, i almost felt like crying and telling them that they make me proud, and that they have come a long way from their first routine at oshkosh... i gave myrtle personal coaching on commanding, and tried to instill a sense of confidence when we added the "series of commencement exercises..."
we closed the sabbath with matthew/alyssa/myrtle/tim sharing their experiences at the dallas youth convention... that night, we built several successful fires (with the use of the guys' huge pile of kindling), with the use of starter logs, which apparently used chemicals that would cause cancer... it inhibited us from making smores the conventional way, however... we had to wrap premade smores in foil and roast them over the grill... this resulted in me trying to make the perfect smore, after many burnt and cracked ones... smore version 3.14 was perfect... the graham crackers unburnt, the chocolate and marshmallow melted just enough... the kids made fun of my "analyzation" of the smore, but i didn't care...
played three rounds of mafia, breaking the "8-person" rule of the campsite... i was the narrator as always, and decided we'd try the new way of telling actual stories... first scenario: GFC pathfinders going camping... second scenario: GFC pathfinders at the zoo... third scenario: GFC pathfinders putting together a GAA benefit concert... the mafia ended up being successful in the second and third scenarios... jason and myrtle, and matthew and tim... funny deaths: tim being strangled by 23 monkeys, nicole being eaten alive by bats, zach having his tuba stuffed over his head, alyssa having a flute jammed down her throat... allen betraying nicole, who was defending him... tim dying the one time he didn't save himself as a doctor... me threatening to kill the second round's mafia, for not listening to me...
after the last round, we all turned in... woke up the next morning, ate a community breakfast, and started packing up... tim, allen, and i were defeated by an unremovable stake... it even broke the hammer and a brick! being guys, we didn't wanna give up, and become less of a man, haha... after the place was clean, we did our usual trash sweep, having the kids squat 10 seconds for every piece of trash we found... they, including pamela/jason/me, squatted almost two minutes! i wasn't sore at all from the hike, but i was definitely sore from squatting! geez... funny moments with the chip box, forcing everyone to take at least a bag, even if that meant that pamela would throw them at people and run, haha!
^ that STUPID stake! it's still there...
^ i've really grown to love these kids... just the majority of the teens, pictured here...
after our last meeting, we broke camp and headed our different ways... we drove allen and alyssa home, stopping by juice it up for energy boosters... being adopted by auntie arlene and uncle don (our church did an "adopt a youth" program, so we have surrogate parents for a couple of weeks, that are supposed to treat us out, and be there for us), they invited us to cece's birthday party at buca di beppo... jason and i headed over there, and became part of the ferrolino clan... for this adoption time, we're finally related to half the church! sat with the older kids, emily/allen/jason/nikki/alyssa, and stuffed our faces full of really good italian food...
definitely an eventful weekend... enjoyed yelling at the guys to stop referencing 300... SO glad i chose to go...
jason and i picked up tim and zach, then headed over to the gonzales' house... received an awkward hug from auntie, who was excited to poke my belly and hope that i keep the pounds off... grabbed some KFC, and with allen joining our car, the guys were in our car and the girls in the other, we drove to idyllwild, in the mountains past redlands and loma linda, with 'nsync, backstreet boys, and 98 degrees blasting in our car, since the guys were in a pop mood, singing off the top of their lungs, haha!
we arrived there, and it was a lot colder than i packed for... not good... i definitely wasn't a smart packer, only packing a single thin sweater... the campsite was beautiful! we were the first ones there, so the guys picked out a prime spot... turns out each unit had their own individual campsite... everyone slowly arrived, and when there was a large group of us, we went into town and raided a candy store! chocolate covered gummy bears, and dark chocolate covered raisins...
got back, pitched tents, every unit cooked their own food, a bunch of us played a couple rounds of catchphrase, and we had a meeting at the amphitheater, since there was a rule that no more than 8 people can congregate in one site... all of us mentioned our expectations for this camping trip, pairing it with a verse that mentioned our expectations; mostly smart-alecky answers came out from that... back at the camp, we tried starting campfires... the teen boys stole wood from another campsite, and we figured out why it was abandoned, b/c they spent the next hour and a half trying to start it, using axe body spray to try to strengthen the fire... i decided to raid the junior girls' fire and steal their smores, haha!
turned in pretty early, sleeping in auntie's SUV... i became alyssa/tracy/myrtle's pseudo-counselor, since their counselor was MIA (good job, hazel, haha!)... also, since i wasn't an official staff, i didn't have to submit myself to drawing lots for which unit i ate with... they woke me up, i helped them prepare their breakfast, as well as their sack lunch of cheese and turkey quesadillas... we met for a morning service, watched and laughed as the kids sang this hilarious wannabe "father abraham" song called "making melodies" (thumbs up, elbows up, knees bent, heads up, butts out, turn around, sit down? HAHA!)...
got ready for our hike... only 2.5 miles, but a pretty steep incline the entire way... the trail was called the "devil's slide trail..." i wore a pedometer, had alyssa and pamela carry my water bottles for me, and tracy carry my food (haha, what a lazy bum i am!), and we started our trek up the mountain... we ended up breaking apart into three groups: allen/tim/zach/matthew/derek/emily/yvette/nicole/luke/adriel with pamela and i, and the rest with jason and auntie cheryl, with the slow straggler adults falling way behind... we didn't naturally decide to split up, but our group just wanted to take a faster pace... fun times with GROUP ONE!, warning each other about the ICE! on the trail, taking very short breather breaks and continuing whenever we'd hear voices from group two, finding prime picture spots along the way, making fun of zach and his ghetto backpack, several people throwing snowballs at each other...
1 1/2 hours and 7,736 steps later, we reached the destination at noon... ended up waiting almost half an hour for the rest of the group to come... they finally arrived, and we knew which group was supreme... "one band, one sound... GROUP ONE!" haha... our group were trekkers, and even though some people were in pain, we pushed through... i felt really good about the hike... everyone else needed to take breathers, but i barely broke a sweat and didn't need many water breaks... it was definitely a positive booster for my self esteem, knowing that i'm getting in better shape that i could endure a hike like that, without being short of breath... we enjoyed our lunches, i mooched off of emily's trail mix and the teen boys' sunchips... lounged in a hammock, mocked group two and their lack of pride in their group... my group would chant along with me; i would just start the saying, and they'd all finish it... good times...
^ "one band, one sound... GROUP ONE!"
^ the adults invaded our picture, haha!
^ enjoying nature...
the hike down was definitely easier, not taking a break for anything... the guys were singing their boy band songs off the top of their lungs... ran into four college students, who asked pamela and i why we weren't singing with them, and i jokingly replied that we "didn't wanna associate ourselves with them..." it was really nice to see different father/son groupings on the way up and down... fathers with their young sons, fathers with their teen sons, and even older fathers with their adult sons... i'm definitely doing this with my boys... also discussed choral music of today with pamela on the way down...
ended up waiting at the bottom of the mountain for everyone else, yet again... we headed back to camp, met up with edrey, who stopped by to visit for the day... played a couple of rounds of catchphrase (zach: "you have a 'blank blank blank...'" allen: "God gave us this..."), before we had to play jason's premade "Bible catchphrase," since it was the sabbath (zach: "they have this in church...")... haha... had dinner with emily/nicole/yvette since they had pancit canton and cha'i pow yu!
after eating, the drill team practiced in an empty parking lot... just seeing them drill brought back floods of pride and nostalgia that is attached to drilling... the group wasn't perfect, but i couldn't help but feel proud of them... even watching matthew taking charge at training meryll and ian for the drilldown... as lame as it sounded, i almost felt like crying and telling them that they make me proud, and that they have come a long way from their first routine at oshkosh... i gave myrtle personal coaching on commanding, and tried to instill a sense of confidence when we added the "series of commencement exercises..."
we closed the sabbath with matthew/alyssa/myrtle/tim sharing their experiences at the dallas youth convention... that night, we built several successful fires (with the use of the guys' huge pile of kindling), with the use of starter logs, which apparently used chemicals that would cause cancer... it inhibited us from making smores the conventional way, however... we had to wrap premade smores in foil and roast them over the grill... this resulted in me trying to make the perfect smore, after many burnt and cracked ones... smore version 3.14 was perfect... the graham crackers unburnt, the chocolate and marshmallow melted just enough... the kids made fun of my "analyzation" of the smore, but i didn't care...
played three rounds of mafia, breaking the "8-person" rule of the campsite... i was the narrator as always, and decided we'd try the new way of telling actual stories... first scenario: GFC pathfinders going camping... second scenario: GFC pathfinders at the zoo... third scenario: GFC pathfinders putting together a GAA benefit concert... the mafia ended up being successful in the second and third scenarios... jason and myrtle, and matthew and tim... funny deaths: tim being strangled by 23 monkeys, nicole being eaten alive by bats, zach having his tuba stuffed over his head, alyssa having a flute jammed down her throat... allen betraying nicole, who was defending him... tim dying the one time he didn't save himself as a doctor... me threatening to kill the second round's mafia, for not listening to me...
after the last round, we all turned in... woke up the next morning, ate a community breakfast, and started packing up... tim, allen, and i were defeated by an unremovable stake... it even broke the hammer and a brick! being guys, we didn't wanna give up, and become less of a man, haha... after the place was clean, we did our usual trash sweep, having the kids squat 10 seconds for every piece of trash we found... they, including pamela/jason/me, squatted almost two minutes! i wasn't sore at all from the hike, but i was definitely sore from squatting! geez... funny moments with the chip box, forcing everyone to take at least a bag, even if that meant that pamela would throw them at people and run, haha!
^ that STUPID stake! it's still there...
^ i've really grown to love these kids... just the majority of the teens, pictured here...
after our last meeting, we broke camp and headed our different ways... we drove allen and alyssa home, stopping by juice it up for energy boosters... being adopted by auntie arlene and uncle don (our church did an "adopt a youth" program, so we have surrogate parents for a couple of weeks, that are supposed to treat us out, and be there for us), they invited us to cece's birthday party at buca di beppo... jason and i headed over there, and became part of the ferrolino clan... for this adoption time, we're finally related to half the church! sat with the older kids, emily/allen/jason/nikki/alyssa, and stuffed our faces full of really good italian food...
definitely an eventful weekend... enjoyed yelling at the guys to stop referencing 300... SO glad i chose to go...