On June 10 - 12 CIA finished off its ministry year by going camping once again. We were headed to Charleston Lake P.P. We've been there a couple of times now for several different reasons. The most important of which is that the site takes tent trailers, a must for this youth pastor. : )
This year the YP took over 600 pictures, and many of them were pretty good. As I was preparing this blog entry, I realized that I should probably break the event up into a couple of different parts, so you will notice a part 1 - 3 for this camping trip. There will also be some good video clips in entry #3 as well. Enjoy experiencing CIA's year end camping trip........
We were set to leave by 5:30 p.m. to give us time to set up before dark.
Sometimes those plans don't always come to fruition. We ended up having to wait for some people and here are the YP keeping themselves occupied with some football throwing practice. They're going to need it, as we will soon be playing keep away water football. : )
Once everyone arrived we loaded up my box trailer.
We prayed for safety, and minimal rain as this was a camping trip that I was on once again, and then it was time for a group shot.
I thought that once we got into the vans our YP would talk and talk and talk to each other because they do know each other quite well. However, it seems that a certain book series that Hannah was reading was much better than the company in the van, so she took to reading the final pages of her book before engaging in conversation. I heard it was a really good book, but you'll have to ask her about it.
Janine, one of our youth leaders, came with me because only two would fit comfortably in her truck, and Ethan, her son, was with Chad in the truck. She showed us her gluten free muffins, and was pretty adimant about not touching any of her gluten free food. Go figure : ). Fontana and Janine have a gluten allergy and brought their own food along....or should I say that Janine did. I don't even think Fontana thought about the fact that she needed other food....ah the joys of taking youth to different places.
Since Hannah was reading, I guess some of the others felt it was ok to get in some reading time looking at their school yearbook. Here are Chris and Megan laughing at the pictures and picking apart the quality of this year's yearbook.
Michael was in the back as well looking at all the strange pictures of the yearbook too.
Leah rode in our van. She's strange you know. : ) She also packs a good punch in the arm, but more on that later.
I think Hannah was being bugged about her anti social behavior and it finally got the better of her. Relax Hannah. Take a couple of deep breaths and you'll feel better.
See, it works, doesn't it. : )
The YP liked this sign on the gas pump as we filled up in Brockville. I guess they don't take youth as payment for gas....hmmmm
Kevin also took a bunch of people in his van. Here's Melanie, another of our leaders relaxing and enjoying the ride.
Jeannine grabbed the front seat pretty quickly from what I could tell. She's smiling now, but just wait until she starts playing tackle duck duck goose and keep away football. Her countenance certainly changes. : )
Alex and Rosy and Fontana squished into the back of Kevin's van. They look happy though.
Kevin and Chad stopped at a different place for some food and to stretch. Seems that Fontana and Rosy really took that stretching part seriously. What are they doing?
Here is Rosy trying to climb a pole, or is she trying to do some sort of judo move? I'm so confused. : )
Chad and his son Ethan getting ready to continue on the journey. Ethan loves coming camping with us. He reminds me of my son Christopher when I used to take him camping and on events with the youth in Sarnia. He just assumed he was one of the youth group.
Hey Benny boy....or should I just say Ben. How's it going? I think you must have had a bucket seat in Kevin's van. Much more comfortable than that back seat eh!
I arrived at the park first, and walked in to register. I heard the sound of generators, and there was only one light on in the registration building. Turns out Charleston Lake had been without power since Wednesday's storms. That meant no hydro, but it also meant no water.....hmmmmmm
Oh, and you'll notice that Rosy and Fontana are still having trouble walking. Maybe they are just stretching their legs after a long ride.......
Hmmm, I get it now. They were trying to see how high they could kick in the air. Looks to me like Rosy is going to fall over if she's not careful.
After registering we set up camp. Kevin has his own little cottage type tent......
....whereas Jeannine has more of a condo like tent. Huge. Brand new, and set up about as fast as I did my tent trailer. They look comfortable.
While we were getting set up, Ethan tried to get anyone who could to play sports with him. Apparently he's a sports nut. He got his fill this weekend.
Speaking of nuts, here are two in our group who decided to pass the time by jumping off the picnic table having their picture taken. The things these kids come up with. : )
Not to be outdone of course, Chris and Alex do the same thing.
My son showing off. I just wonder what happened to his other arm. I don't see it anywhere.....
Please do not try this at home. Go see a qualified chiropractor. Fontana is NOT one of those, as you can see from Hannah's facial expression. That must have hurt!
The girls all slept in one tent. Here's Leah having a moment....I think she's wondering if she forgot anything, but I can't be sure. : )
As I mentioned before, no hydro meant no water. Chad and I decided it would be a good idea to try to get some water from a place on the highway, so we set out in his truck. We ended up finding a place with hydro that was kind enough to let us use their water. Whew!
When we got back, it was fire time.
Time to roast some hotdogs and marshmallows and drink some juice with Water! Don't they look great. It seems like some in our group need to take a cooking course or two, in that they don't know how to roast a hot dog. What is this world coming to? !
Melanie is happy.
It's amazing how quickly we can make a mess when camping. It's equally amazing how few clean it up afterwards. : )
Campfires for us are times to joke around, talk, and also get to know each other better. We learned in this picture that Hannah needs a course in marshmallow roasting. She burned several marshmallows before getting the hang of it.
I have no idea what this stuff is supposed to be, but I hope it's either ketchup or mustard or a mixture, because if it isn't.....I'm going to faint.
Janine and Ethan relaxing by the fire.
After a good night around the camp fire, and getting to bed around midnight, we awoke at around 8 am. The forecast was calling for rain through the night and in the morning (yes, I was going camping again), but I had asked Annette to pray for little or no rain. God was listening. : ) We woke up to a sunny morning. I woke up to Melanie waking up with a face wash. : )
You know, some say that dogs and their owners have an uncanny way of looking alike at times. For me, Larry from Veggie Tales is my hero. I pulled out this shirt for camping, as it has become a bit old and tattered, but I can see that I do look a bit like Larry. Scary!
Eewwww.....looks like Fontana didn't get much sleep last night. (tee, hee). Good morning Fontana.
Kevin isn't a morning person, as you can tell. Talk to the hand Ron, talk to the hand.......
We had neighbours this weekend. I heard them at 6:30 am yelling something. Then I heard them at 6:40 running past our site and talking loudly. When I got up, they were returning from a jog. They were all wearing judo uniforms with red belts. I wasn't about to talk to them about their morning wake up call....they could hurt me!
Our food for the weekend was the usual fair for camping. We began Saturday with REAL bacon and eggs. My stove broke, so thankfully Michael suggested we bring along his as an extra. We needed it. I took care of the bacon making....
Chad made espresso. : ) Nah, he did some cooking too. But that espresso machine sure was cool. I stuck to my flavoured coffee, as did Jeannine and Melanie. Ben took some too, to help his hot chocolate become more of a latte.
Ethan got up, and right away wanted to play football.
Looks like Fontana woke up and is playing a bit more than tackle football if you ask me.
So, seems like this book thingy is in the family. Ben is now reading another in that series. Sometimes it's ok in a group to just sit down and relax and read.
I just realized recently that Hannah is now wearing contacts. She had forgotten her backpack in her van, complete with contact solution, so she didn't quite know what to do. Kevin offered some of his, but did suggest that Hannah simply stick to glasses during camping because contacts can get dirty, etc.
I tried contacts once, for about a week. I hated them, but hey, each to his own. I'm not sure what Kevin and Hannah are looking at when it comes to that tiny contact, but it was fun to watch the drama unfolding. : )
Like I said, I hated putting in contacts. Here's why. : ) Hannah finally decided to wear her glasses for the rest of the weekend.
Back to breakfast. Time to cook some eggs.
Janine needed one egg to be saved for her pancake mix tomorrow. We had about a dozen left over, so no worries.
Don't they look fabulous.
Leah and Fontana being, well, themselves I guess. : )
As you can tell, I didn't have the camera all the time, and Fontana had taken hers along too. Why would anyone want a picture of my earlobs......on second thought, they don't look 1/2 bad, do they! : )
Breakfast in the outdoors. Food always tastes better when you are camping.....although I'm not sure if Ben is beginning to feel sick or what.
Yes, with a meal comes time to do dishes. I recruited Michael, but many others pitched in as well. Hannah doesn't look too happy doing dishes, does she.
I was expecting the mosquitos to be pretty bad this season, but they weren't nearly as bad as I thought they'd be.....well, actually for some with sweet blood it seems that they were pretty bad. Look at those bites. Ouch!
Kevin and Janine doing the last of the dishes.
Chad, Ethan, and others playing some baseball. I think we lost the ball several times in the tall grass.
"Well Ethan," says Chad. "Did you have fun playing baseball?" Ethan replies, "Yea Dad, but this glove is a bit heavy...it's pulling me to one side."
See, What did I tell you.
Just a nice picture of all our chairs protected from the elements.
Obviously Fontana hasn't learned the art of getting a cup to gather water for a drink. Gross!
Here is Chad and Janine's new tent. I could fit my trailer into that thing.
Well, this ends part #1 of our camping experience. Click on part #2 to find out how cliff jumping and tackle duck duck goose went, as well as our keep away football at the beach.....
No comments:
Post a Comment