Fun-Day Friday!

It’s Funday Friday!  Many people chose to sleep in and skip breakfast today. (Breakfast time doesn’t change…it was still 7:15.) Lauren, Elise, Casey, Jake, Big John, Chuck and I all met to eat…and then this leader went back to bed. Hehe! We woke the rest of the crew up at 9:30 and they went through their morning routines and headed up to the high ropes course. All of us got to pick two of the four different courses/swings/rock wall to do. It was great fun to see them encourage each other and come to each other’s aid!
I don’t do unenclosed heights. It petrifies me, so I am 0 for 3 when it comes to times I have participated in the high ropes course. Today, the teens (and leaders) bullied….er, I mean encouraged me to do the swing. They put you in a harness, attach you to a rope, haul you 250 feet up into the air and expect you to pull a cord to drop yourself…where you then proceed to swing through the air. I told them I would do it (mostly because I told them I wouldn’t make them do something I wouldn’t do) and got strapped into the harness. (I was crying before I even stepped off of the ladder. It was SOOOO scary!) They hauled me up and because I didn’t want to be “that girl”, I actually pulled the cord. The teens told me that they have never heard a scream that scared in their entire life! (Perhaps my next job will be doing the voice over screams for scary movies…. ) I was glad that I did it though, because it allowed me to encourage those that were on the fence. I got some really great pictures and am hoping to get a few of them up on the blog tonight. (I’ll download all of them to facebook so the y.m. page will have them for people to tag themselves later in the week.) Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. (I’m just glad that they didn’t ask me if I would do it again! Yikes!)
After we changed for white water rafting, we headed to the mess hall for pizza, corn, salad and cookies. We answered some questions about rafting and then headed up to the outpost to check in for our trip. The guide leader did a great job going over what to do when, and double checked all of our equipment. We then boarded a bus and took a quick 20 minute ride to the put in. Our group had four rafts, with one of them being shared with another group. Erich, Christine, and I took that raft so the teens could stay together. From all of the stories I heard later, each of us had a great guide and only two people fell out! (Sorry Laura & Emily! ) The rapids were all class 3 & 4 due to the rain that they have had lately, and it was a great ride! (The water is normally about 1200 CFS , but today it was closer to 1600….just for the white water enthusiasts out there.)  At the end of the trip we took the bus back to Whitewater Express and walked back to our cabins.
We took showers and headed out to Pat’s Kountry Kitchen for dinner. Apparently all of the other groups from around TeamEffort had the same idea, so it was a pretty hopping place. The food was delicious and it was great to get to spend one last-sit down meal together before we leave tomorrow.
After dinner we drove back to camp and dropped off all of those who wanted to go to the ‘bonfire/dance party’ at the Riverhouse. Meanwhile, I took those that wanted/needed to go to the Piggly Wiggly with me. It was the most entertaining trip to the grocery I have had in a long time! We laughed at the “Mountain Yeller” …which is a generic version of Mountain Dew, picked up a Piggly Wiggly Shirt and even rode the kids Merry Go Round! (Well, the teens rode the merry go round, I just laughed and took pictures.)
It was such a fun-filled day. We are planning on leaving around 9:30 or 10 tomorrow, so I am sure you will all here lots more from us when we get home. Thanks for praying for our successful trip, and please continue to hold us in your prayers as we journey home. We miss you and are excited to come back to our families and the St. Michael Community.