C.I.A. Camping - June 4 - 6 - CRAZY!!!!

Coming off of a trip to Cornwall, and then to Oakville, you'd think I was tripped out  (so to speak).  Well, each year I try to fit in a camping trip at the beginning and end of the YP season.  It just so happened that the next weekend, June 4 - 6 was the best time to host this event.  So, I did.

This time around it was just for the older group (sorry ETM'rs). At times it's good to just have the older group go, and this was going to be a smaller group. With this comes the opportunity to build relationships in ways you can't do for 2 hours every week.  

So, on Friday, June 4th, 8 YP, Chad, Janine, Ethan,  Graham, and I headed out from Calvin CRC for a weekend of Camping at Group Campsite 'A' in Charleston Lake Provincial Park.  

If you have been reading Pastor Ken's PKN notes, you will have read that he commented about my comment about the fact that every time I go camping, it usually rains.  He mentioned that I was having an Eeyore moment, but in actual fact, I was quite serious.  He just didn't get that fact.  


It does rain every time I go camping.  This weekend was once again no exception.  Thankfully, this time, it didn't interfere with our plans very much.  

Below are about 80 ish pictures that help describe the weekend.  80 you say!!!!  Hey, there are a total of 400 that were taken.  1/2 of them by Fontana....and they are pretty much useless pictures.  Fontana and camera's just don't get along......another Jeremy on my hands.  So, take a look at our fun weekend together..................

We arrived at the group site A.  The only one in the park that accepts tent trailers, a must for me when it comes to camping.  The shelter was a nice site as well, and came in VERY handy when the rains came.  We ended up being the only ones in the group sites that weekend too.  Good thing because we were VERY LOUD!!!

This is the girl's tent.  Chad had to help them set it up, and I had to donate my extra tent pegs because Hannah forgot to bring them along with her.  Good thing I pack extra stuff, eh Hannah!!!

After camp was set up, it was time for the camp fire.  Chad started it, with the help of some of the others, I think.  We enjoyed hot dogs, and smoorze and pop.  Yummy camping food.  

I found this picture in amongst all the others. I have NO IDEA what Chris and Jacob are up to.  Maybe photography art?  Or maybe putting up the tent trailer tired out my little Christopher : )  

Michael seems to have had his sugar fix for the evening. 

Camp Fires are always great places to get to know each other.  I let the conversation be pointless for a while, and then began to ask questions of the group.  I started with Hannah because I know she'll answer pretty much any question I ask, honestly!  She did.  Thanks for getting things rolling Hannah.  Soon, the others wanted questions asked of them too......

Jacob brought along his harmonica once again. (You can JUST see him in the background).  Campfires just wouldn't be the same without him and that musical instrument.  

We got to sleep around midnight and the rains began about 3 AM.  Gentle rain, but still .....rain.  Ethan got up about 6 AM and woke me up.  I ended up getting up around 7:30 am to get breakfast rolling.  WAY to early for me, but hey, I was hungry.  

Here is Chad getting some bacon going.  We had OJ, coffee, eggs the way you wanted them, and bacon.  LOTS of bacon.  

Doesn't that look AMAZING?  I can feel my arteries hardening!  We cooked three packs of bacon.  JUST enough for everyone.  

Ethan (the short one in the picture) is an eating machine.  He came up to me requesting eggs, I think.  He reminds me of Chris, my son.  Eats non stop now......Strength to you Chad and Janine.   : ) 

Here I am enjoying my breakfast after all the hard work of cooking.  It was YUMMY!!

Apparently, Larry was hungry too and began to eat my breakfast with me.!! 

This is Fontana.  
This picture may be serious in nature, but don't be fooled.  Fontana may have her serious side, but she can be a hoot as well.  Just DON'T let her use your camera!!!  You will  be SORRY.

Part of Camping also means helping with what needs to be done.  Here are Hannah and Megan doing dishes.  

After Breakfast, it wasn't sunny yet, so the beach wasn't an option.  Instead, the group set out to play some bocce ball.  

Others in the group set out to do the next best thing when it comes to camping.....relaxing.  : ) 

After bocce ball, soccer sprouted up.  

Kevin arrived at 9 AM ish for the day.  

Soccer soon became old, so Chris and David set up the horseshoes. 

Megan's having fun! 

Even though the sun wasn't out, it wasn't really cold, and several wanted to go swimming, so we piled in the cars and made our way to the beach.  It was just us on the beach.  

Chad brought along his fishing gear.  He and Ethan went off to try out the fishing.  They ended up travelling to the dock for better fishing.  We went to see them after the beach and Ethan was having a hoot catching smaller fish.  Chad got his share of other fish too.  The weekend was already a sucess in their eyes.  : )  

I didn't bring my bathing suit along to the beach.  It was too cold for me, but certainly not too cold for the rest of the group.  

Hannah and Megan showing off.  

They look so small from so far away; and cold too.  

I was asked to hold onto a pink hair band.  Little did I know that I'd end up wearing it too.  

Ah, the canoe.  A picture taken by Fontana.  One of the hundred she took around this time of day.  I've spared you all the boring details.  However, this canoe has another story attached to it.  Apparently the boys saw this canoe on the shore, complete with oars.  As I was watching the girls swimming, Graham and I noticed the boys carrying this canoe to the water, with the oars.  I couldn't believe my eyes (well, I could, sort of).  Graham called to them to return the canoe back to its original spot.  As the boys came over to us, I asked them what they were doing.  They said, very sincerely, that they were going to take the canoe for a spin.  I asked them if they knew who owned it.  No response.  I asked them if there were any lifejackets......no response.  

Sometimes I'm very proud of my YP.  At this moment I was not, but I was also chuckling inside.  They just wanted to take the canoe out, but hadn't though all the issues related to ownership, safety, etc.  Always teachable moments.  This was certainly a good one, I hope.  

This was actually one of the better pictures that Fontana took.

The next 4 pictures are strange.  Just eyes.  Fontana's, Megans, Hannah's and Rosy's.  Can you guess who is who?  

#1  Who is this?  

#2  Who is this?  

#3  Who is this?  

#4   Who is this?  

A reward if you get them all correct.  Email me at youthpastor@calvincrc.ca  if you think you know.  

After our time at the beach, the group wanted to get showers.  I'm not sure why.  When you camp you don't shower, do you?  If you shower, the bugs just love you more.  But, being the nice guy that I am, I relented and let them all shower.  The girls beat the guys........

Back at the campsite it was now time for Lunch.  Three different types of soups and bread.  This one is a picture of Chicken Corn Chowder.  They said it looked like Barf!!!  I don't agree with them, and it was GOOD!!!

Yes, Fontana with another shot of our lunch.  We had juice too.  sigh.......

With lunch completed and digesting, the group needed to figure  out what to do next.  Chris took to dragging Hannah around the campsite.  I did NOT teach him to do that.  Seems she didn't get much help from her friends either.  

Just some simple down time for a bit.  

Another task of the group was to get us water in the water jugs when needed.  Here Megan is carrying the filled container while Hannah just walks beside her.  Nice eh!!!

Chris and David doing dishes.  I love watching my son work.  

As the afternoon wore on the YP decide to play the game called Wink Murder  (or prom date).  A strange game I played last year consisting of someone in the middle who has to wink at another who is being watched by another.  That final other has to prevent the middle person from getting to the middle once they are winked at.  It's a hoot to watch.  

Here you see Jacob ready to pounce on Kevin.....no contest really.  Kevin won handily.  

Here Fontana and Megan fight it out.  

Chris tried to keep me from getting to the middle.  I just picked him up and took him with me.  

David, you aren't going to get anywhere simply sitting down.  

Here you see what I mean.  Hannah is a mean machine when it comes to this game. Rosy didn't have a chance!

Hannah had fun.  Thumbs up.  

Oh look.  A random cloud picture.  Guess who took this one....if you guessed Fontana, you are on the right track!!! Apparently, I must make another correction here.  This picture was taken by Chris, not Fontana....but I bet she took some cloud pictures too.......

After the game it was time for some rest, and more socializing. 

Jacob had some toe nail issues, so we fixed it the only way we knew how......

Black electrical tape.  

It seems that Hannah is always posing in a dance position.  

Before we headed off to the beach again  (the sun finally came out),  it was pyramid building time.  Not bad but I think Megan was the smart one.  

We spent the majority of the afternoon at the beach, and in the water.  A great game of keep away - boys against the girls.  The girls play for keeps, let me tell you. Especially Fontana and Megan.  I was bitten, bruised, and drowned by those two.  We had lots of fun.  The water was pretty warm too, which was an added bonus. 


This is an addition to the blog, because Rosy reminded me of some things I needed to place in, so here they come.

1.  In the game of keep away, Rosy tried to defend herself against my constant attacks.  Seems she's been taking lessons from Kevin.  She kneed me in the throat, quite effectively thwarting my attack.  

2. Rosy wanted all of us to know that she didn't get sick this time at camping.  Seems she's had that problem the last couple of times. 

3. It seems that I forgot to mention that even though I was drowned about 3 times, I think I managed to attempt to drown Megan and Hannah and Fontana many more times than that.  Well worth the gallons of water swallowed.  : )  

Did I miss anything Rosy?  You'll have to comment back to me if I did.  

    

Jacob has this thing for digging holes in the beach sand.  He ended up burying himself 1/2 in the ground.  

Chad wanted Ethan to be in a picture showing that he was pretty much as tall as Jacob.  Ethan wanted NO part of it.  It was funny to watch.  

Ah, Fontana and the infamous broken glasses.  Apparently, she wanted to try to put Chris in the water at the beach, but just before she got him to the waterline, Chris gave her a face plant and she ended up in the dirt.  Her glasses broke, and I tried to fix them using, what else, electrical tape.  It worked for a bit.  It doesn't even look that bad Fontana....really.....it doesn't.......really  : )  


Another correction to make here, just so my YP don't think I type nothing but lies  : )  Apparently the story now is that Fontana DID do a face plant, but wasn't wearing her glasses.  She had them on her person, but not on her face.  She had them in her mouth for some reason by the water, not wanting to get sand on them, and they dropped out of her mouth.  Somewhere in this whole experience, they broke.  Did I get it right now?  

Next on the agenda was supper.  Macaroni and cheese and vegetables.  Cream corn, peas and beans.  

Here's the hungry hoard eating together.  

The more mature of the group ate at another table.  

It seems that Jacob and Chris have foot fetishes.  They were massaging each other's feet.  No comment!  

After dinner we took a bit of walk to pass some time and work off dinner before our camp fire.  Here the group is playing follow the leader.  Unfortunately, Chris has led them right up a tree.......

Hannah picked wild flower weeds (not sure if she was allowed to do that or not), and here you see her posing thinking thoughts of her boyfriend (whoever that is) giving them to her.  She looks content.  She ended up giving me those flowers......awkward!!!!!  : ) 




You will see that she commented on this at the end of the blog.  I stand by my statement that she was thinking about her future boyfriend (if not her actual one......eh Hannah!!  ) (tee, hee).  

As we were walking, Megan walked in front of the camera.  The first though that came to my mind was

HALT!   Dear Crossing! 

Get it?

DEAR crossing  (not deer).  

I thought it was pretty good...........

Rosy is just enjoying the walk.  

After the walk it was time for a slapping game.  

Chad is hooked on fishing, so he took Ethan out once again for some fishing and father/son time. 

Soon, we were all playing "duck, duck, goose".  Man did that end up being lots of fun.  This was no ordinary game, let me tell you.  Fontana almost killed Rosy, I almost killed Chris, and many of us got way to competitive....it was lots of fun!!! REALLY!!!!

Janine got some reading time in while we played.  

It seems that some in the group took to tying up each other's shoes.  They must have been getting bored.  Not a bad tying up job though.  

Our second camp fire was now upon us.  More hot dogs, smoorze and juice.  More questions and stories to tell too.  I like camp fires.  

The bugs liked the light.  There were LOTS of them.  

We had lots of wood left, and I didn't want to take  it back, so we burned it all.  A pretty big camp fire.  Very hot too. 

Once in bed, the rain started again.  This time it was windy, and rained quite hard.  We ended up sleeping in until 9:30 am.  Couldn't do much else.  Here you see Hannah and hmmmm is that Rosy, trying to stay warm.  

Chad and Ethan came prepared.  They looked alot warmer, and dryer than most of us.  

Rosy and Megan wanted to make the pancakes for breakfast.  Who am I to argue?   They did a GREAT job.  

Megan made me a VERY large pancake.  It took both of them to flip it over.  It was really good.  Thanks for making breakfast you two.  

Remember that food fetish I showed you a bit ago.  Seems it hasn't gone away.  Here you find them in my tent trailer staying dry, and massaging again.......still not comment from me.  

The rain wasn't stopping, so we ended up packing up in the rain and moving on to Athens.  A youth service was planned for the evening, and since it was on the way home, we were going to go.  We ended up arriving at 1:30 pm, 1.5 hours early.  We warmed up inside the home of John and Debbie.  

Here is where the service was going to take place.  

Before the service, we ended up playing volleyball.  This is one of about 100 pictures that Rosy, Fontana and Megan took.  I've spared you the details.......

This is one you have to see. Fontana fighting me yet AGAIN!!!!

There was some time to go to the barn to watch the cows being milked.  Hannah, Rosy, Megan and Fontana found the cute little calves.  

Here are the cows being milked.  

I think Hannah took this picture of the cow posing for her.  

It seems that they also found kittens in the barn.  So as not to offend any of them, I took pictures of them all, minus Rosy, who must have been taking the pictures.  

Eventually it was supper time.  Guess what we had.....hotdogs....again!!!!Oh well, they look like they are having fun anyway.  

Church time on the farm.  A nice way to do church.  

A great praise band led us in worship as well.  

Soon everything was over and we were on our way back home.  We arrived home around 10 pm, but while driving Fontana got hold of the camera again, and there are another 100 pictures of strange faces and posses.  Here's one of Megan.  Interesting........again, I've spared you from seeing the rest of them.  

I actually liked this picture of me in the rear view mirror.  I was informed that Megan took this picture.  Makes sense, as Fontana would be taking a picture of just the mirror with no one in it!!!  : )  

Hannah is wanting to keep some sort of secret.  I wonder what it is?  

It must be a doozy.  She looks scared here.  Stay tuned to find out what it is...

And so ends the weekend escapades of C.I.A.  We had a great time.  The weather didn't interfere too much with our plans, and we got to know each other much better.  I love camping trips with youth groups for that reason.  They seemed to love it too because they wanted to go again the next weekend............not until September people.....not until September.. ... .