S.N.O.W. Winter Youth Retreat: Day 3

The 3rd day at Lion's Ridge was definitely my favorite. It started out with the usual breakfast followed by clean up then devotions. Nick (not pastor Nick, but one of the counselors) gave a devotion about teamwork and how necessary it was for us to work together, spiritually and in every day situations. After devotions, we set out for out outside activity of the day - TUBING! I've never tubed in the winter so I was nervously excited for this. All of us getting ready was a bit of madness but we had a nice open area to get dressed to brave the outdoors.

I didn't have my camera with me during this time so I don't have many pictures to show. The hill we tubed down is the really steep hill shown in the previous post (the one we snowshoed down) Tubing was the most terrifying experience I think I have yet experienced. I did not want to go by myself so I went with a friend, Kayla. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. We started out and quickly gained a LOT of speed. It seemed to last forever, and if you can't tell from the picture, the hill was very long. About halfway down the tube flipped around so not only were we speeding down at who knows how fast, but we were backwards! not being able to see a thing. We were surrounded by trees and I was terrified we were going to veer off track and run into one. We made it down safely and trudged back up to try again. We went down once or twice more, then figured we'd try one last time before heading in for lunch. So, off Kayla and I go, doing the usual flipping around and going unbelievably fast. Little did we know that pastor Nick and a few other people at the bottom were building a jump (building being the key word, they were not finished) I can't help but laugh when I think about what they must've thought to see us two little girls flying down the hill headed straight for the jump in progress. So, we hit the NOT finished jump (it was lumpy and about.. 3 feet or so high) and FLEW in the air, off the tube, my back was arched and when I came in contact with the ground I whiplashed my head as well as my whole body. Kayla face planted in the snow. It was very painful yet so FUN. It's an indescribable experience. Pastor Nick took this picture right after we partly recovered. We're still covered in snow in too much pain to look quite normal :)

That afternoon 5 of us girls went tubing again, on a littler hill. It was a really fun, relaxing afternoon. That night, being our last, was also very relaxed. We didn't have a night activity planned, so we settled for playing games and hanging out around the fire.

Kayla and I laying on the couch, still not quite recovered from the days escapades.

We had lots of fun playing Apples to Apples.

Our whole group gathered around the fire telling jokes.

We played sardines then ended the night by playing countless rounds of the game Mafia. It was so much fun and a perfect way to spend our last night at Lion's Ridge.

S.N.O.W. Winter Youth Retreat: Day 2

Here's a picture of the lodge I forgot to add to the previous post. Pretty neat, eh?!

The view out of the windows was incredible. Waking up and looking out to THIS automatically made your day amazing.

After breakfast, we would have a devotion and some time to read the bible and pray. My friend Missy gave a devotion on loving one another, then we dove in and did some studying of our own. Then we broke into groups of two and would pray for specific things in each other's lives. It was a good relationship building/spiritually growing time.

The lodge had cupboards stocked full of board games and PUZZLES! (my favorite!) Jessica, Alex, and I completed this after devotions. We started the night before. We all have our hands on the puzzle, claiming our handiwork, I guess ? :)

We had different outdoor activities for each day, and this day's activity was snowshoeing. I didn't think much of it when I first heard we would be doing this, but it ending up being a really incredible experience. It was hard to get used to at first. I've never skied so had no previous experience manuevering around with the poles and things on my feet. In this picture is myself, Kayla behind me and Uranna behind her.

This crazy steep hill was interesting to go down. 

We stopped quite frequently to take breaks. I've heard snowshoeing is one of the best workouts you can get. Now I can vouch for the fact, that it really is! 

It started snowing about halfway through. We didn't know what we were in for, but along we trudged. 

It turned into a full blown blizzard after a bit. The wind picked up as well as the snow falling. Thankfully the weather was nice (30-40 degrees) or else we really would have been in trouble.

Eventually it all got to be too much. I plopped down and stayed there for quite a while :) The sleeting snow and wind whipping you in the face got to you after a while.

My happy spirit still stayed in contact though :) It was all apart of the adventure!

After an hour and a half, we did make it back to the lodge alive! Thank goodness. Our group got split up and it was pretty scary at times but the experience as a whole was really awesome. If you live somewhere near this kind of scenery, I definitely recommend buying snowshoes and trying it out for yourself!

Our activity for that night was a trip to Chico Hot Springs, located about an hr away in Pray, Montana. 

Don't let the towns name fool you into thinking this place was.. er, holy (ha) it certainly wasn't. The whole place was like an open bar. Everyone was drinking, carrying around their bottles while wading in the pool. PDA was plenty. Although I was one of the oldest kids on the trip, I was one of least comfortable. I was freaked out the whole time and was horrified that our youth group was in such a place. My youth pastor wasn't aware that it was that kind of atmosphere so he was as taken aback as us. We got out of there pretty quick, but not without paying a (large) price. The boys went back to get their stuff from the locker room and found out not everything was there. An ipod touch was stole, $20-$30, a hat, and my youth pastors video camera. We were all so bummed it kind of ruined the rest of that night. 

BUT, for the record, a week after we came home my youth pastor's wife reported the theft and.. long story short, the sheriff department tracked down the thieves and the stolen goods are back in the hands of their owners :)

S.N.O.W. Winter Youth Retreat: Day 1

My youth pastor planned a winter retreat to give us a fun way to start off the new year. Pastor Nick named the trip S.N.O.W retreat - Shout "No Other Way!" We left New Years Day early in the morning. Eleven 7th-12th graders, (me included) 2 chaperones, and my youth pastor and his wife, made up the group. Our destination was Lion's Ridge, located a little bit out of Bozeman, MT. The drive took 7 hrs and on the way up we had a little scavenger hunt. We were split up into 2 teams, and had a list to complete by the time we got there. 

One of the things on the list was take a team picture with us all in the air. This picture being the result.

Once we reached Lion's Ridge, we took a hay ride up the mountain. It took about 15 minutes.

The weather was clear and the scenery breathtaking (because of the beauty but also due to the cold mountain air the higher we got up) 

I absolutely love trees so was excited to be surrounded by huge ones!

Jessica and I on the hay ride. We were trying to get the trees in the picture but just ended up getting snow :)

The inside of the lodge was SO cool. It immediately felt like home. This is the area where we would dish up our food (pot luck style) They also had tea, cider, coffee, and hot chocolate available 24/7, which is what my friend Missy is getting in this picture.

This is one of the corners in the main room. They had windows everywhere and awesome homemade furniture.

The fireplace wasn't quite finished - they needed to put stones where the grey boards are. It was so cozy and nice sitting on these couches. 

Downstairs is where our rooms were located as well as the bathrooms and 'hangout' area. This picture is taken from the girls bedroom door, the boys room is white door by the coaches.

This is where all the girls slept. We all managed to fit in the one room.

The first day was very relaxed, mostly unpacking and getting to know the place. We had a delicious supper and our team cleaned up afterwards (each team got 4 turns the whole trip) We had our first 'service' which was basically Pastor Nick reading us a few verses and telling us what he wanted this trip to be about. He said it was about forming our own 'clique' (the good kind!) and getting closer to one another, forming bonds with people we maybe don't know as well. He said there are times to expand our clique (youth group, inviting people there, ect) and times to protect it (like taking this small group trip)

This is a panoramic picture Pastor Nick took of us all after the service. 3 people got cut out somewhere in the process of taking 3 different pictures but the people shown are left to right: Alex, Grayson, Michael, (behind Grayson) Me, Jessica, Alex, Missy, Nick, Uranna, Kayla, and Lindsey (pastor Nick's wife) Missing are Hailey, John, and Johhny.

Youth group Christmas party

I've been slacking big time in blog-world. I'll backtrack to December. My youth group had it's annual christmas party on December 19th. We had a white elephant gift exchange, which is when everyone brings a wrapped present and everyone gets a turn of choosing a gift. If you would rather have what someone else opened, you can 'steal' it instead of opening one yourself. Then the boys went and did their thing and the girls got to make gingerbread houses. Here's a few pictures. 

This is myself and my friend Kayla. She started coming to youth group last year and is one of the girls that I guess I've 'taken under my wing' 

We split up into teams for making the gingerbread houses. This is one of them -Kayla, Jess, and Lindsey, our youth pastors wife.

My friend Marcy came home from college in time to make it. (in case you're wondering about the santa hats, they gave us all one :)

The gingerbread house came in a kit. It was pretty neat but we mostly just messed around.

myself and Jessica, another one of the younger girls I've gotten quite close to this year.

Marcy, Kayla, and myself

We had lots of good snacks on hand.

Our completed gingerbread house. Tasty, eh?

All 4 gingerbread houses lined up.

We played a few games, ate some more food, and eventually went home. It was overall really fun. 

Life, lately :)

Here's some pictures from the last few weeks.

Youth group has been pretty fun lately. Nick (our youth pastor since May of this year) has been planning a lot of fun things and we've been growing in numbers quite a bit. One week we had arm wrestling tournaments and my friend just so happened to have her camera. In this picture is myself, Sam (a new girl who has started coming in the last few weeks) and Nick, demonstrating the proper 'arm wrestling technique' 

This would be me losing :)

And that's all the youth pictures I have as of now :) 

Kiaran was at our house about 2 weeks ago, and as always whenever a niece or nephew is around, eventually they end up in my room. Our time generally consists of being silly and taking pictures (normally both at once :)

We did manage to take one somewhat normal picture. What a cutie :)

That's it for pictures. I need to get back in the habit of documenting things on camera. Anyways, this week has been pretty eventful. On Tuesday I registered for online college classes for next semester. I'll be doing the classes through Williston State College. I'm taking 12 credits - Intro to Psychology, World Civilization, Music Appreciation, and Intro to Computesr. All of them besides Music Appreciation are required subjects and should be (hopefully) somewhat easy. I'm really excited to start up school again, but the *college* part just feels too weird; I feel way too young to be doing all this! I also got my acceptance letter from North Central University this week, along with 2 scholarships (a Christian Leadership one and the Deans Tuition scholarship) I felt kind of indifferent about that one, but it was still cool to get a real college acceptance letter, but once again, I FEEL TOO YOUNG! This year is definitely the quickest year of my life. I'm guessing this is how it'll be from now on..? Scary thought but I'm very excited for the future! God has been showing me so much and all worry and fear (for the future) is for the most part gone. YES! I'm just excited to see what happens :)