Hokay! So this should cover most of last week--today (6/2/13) marks the start of Week 1, so I'm going to try to do weekly recaps instead of doing one every 3-4 days. I think that'll make things a bit easier...or at least a bit more concise. But first, some personal recapping stuff.
In the evenings--well, Sunday and Wednesday evenings, basically--we all break off into small groups after staff meetings/devotional time and do some talking, encouraging, etc. Our group has only met twice, and I can already tell that everyone is getting more comfortable with each other and it is AWESOME. Also, last week I was struggling with some stuff, mostly along the lines of jealousy (basically, I have a tendency to get jealous over people and my relationships with said people and thinking that they're better friends with other people and it's really puerile and stupid, but there you have it) and dealing with the effects of crush-ism (I mean seriously, I've only known these people for 2 weeks--this is not the time or place to 'get a crush', and the phrase itself makes me irritated so I'm stopping there). Anyway, both situations seem to have resolved after a lot of soul-searching and praying about it. Now the trick is to stay out of the sticky webs of jealousy and crush-ism combined...but I digress.
Most of the following covers 2-3 days. There are some events that I didn't bring my camera or only took a couple of pictures, but I'll try to mention them at some point too. 80-some-odd pictures after the break!
Last Thursday, I think, we all went up to High Meadow and had lunch before doing 'The Olympics'. It was a long, tough walk, but I can feel myself getting stronger and more used to the altitude as time goes on. The food was AMAZING (burgers, regular and spicy buffalo hot dogs, etc--there was even dessert), and one of the dogs kept guard over the kids' table. It was pretty adorable.
Darren has denied it, but his mouth really is that big. (It's from all that talking.)
This was taken pre-epic-pinecone fight. I had turned my back on the group in order to take a picture of Longs, and someone said my name. I turned around, but no one would fess up, so I turned back to get the picture. Then someone (I suspect Darren, but it might have been Cody) threw a pinecone, and it was ON. We all were at it for at least 20 minutes.
Ah yes, there's the picture...I got Longs too, but liked this one better.
A lot from this point on were taken by Darren. I'm telling ya, that boy borrows my camera a lot more than I realize sometimes.
Oh yes, the seed-spitting...we had raisins, and we were serious about it. The redhead was one of my roommates that left yesterday, and she'll be back in August. YEEE.
Yeah...lots of silly faces here. I almost got the farthest one! Luke was the only one to beat me!
And now for the opposite team--Tess got the farthest one for them. I was very proud of her. :P
Meh. Fence-sitters. O.e
Emily B! She hasn't been using the brace for the past couple of days, but her leg still hurts. Apparently she stretched all four ligaments equally, but didn't snap any of them. It'll take a while for it to heal, obviously, but it's doing so much better. Also, she's my prayer partner for when people come so we can pray over cabins--I'm super excited about that. Gah. :D
The two champions, pitted against each other.... (See what I did there? Pitted? Seeds are pits? *slaps knee* Okay, I'm stopping now.)
Oh yes, and Jake had to prove his prowess...
...by taking out a couple of innocent bystanders!
Or did he? XD
Okay, moving on. Luke tried to give Tess some advise, I think...but she didn't take very kindly to it.
Egg-tossing...
Me and Darren's little brother Daris...I'm working on my salute, by the way. I know it's lousy, but meh.
There were some good catches...
...some weird pictures...
...and some spectacular breaks. It was awesome.
Taking a knee before heading out...
And this is the next day with lots of snow and craziness! It was SO cold--I think most of the snow was blowing off of Longs, because it would be clear, and then Longs would be obscured by a billowing cloud of white. Of course, it was the same day that we were learning rock wall and horse safety...which is all awesome, but man, was it cold and windy.
It couldn't decide whether it wanted to snow, rain, blow, or sleet this one day...it was CRAZY.
Trying to get a snowflakes picture...not sure how well it worked, but there you have it.
There's our brave boss crew lady Amber, suited up and ready to climb! We spent the morning working on knots, safety, how to put on/check harnesses, etc before heading out to the climbing wall. The lady who taught us the safety stuff is a former staff member, actually, who has since gone on to be a professional climber. She was really, really cool.
There she is on the left! Super cool lady.
We all figured that if we huddle together, it would be easier to stay warm...at least, that's what we told ourselves. I'm not exactly sure how well it worked, but oh well.
There's one of my former roommates in the center--her name is Killeen, and she left Saturday morning. Sigh. On the right is Moriah, the other full-time housekeeper. I'm glad that I have one person to work with through October, because it would get stressful if we were made to switch it up all the time. O.e
Lindsey (Darron's older brother's girlfriend--she left yesterday) and Jeaner, who is now in housekeeping with us (at least until July-ish). People keep leaving me! It's making me sad! D:
Ahem. Back to the rock wall. Everyone was supposed to climb at least once and practice belaying twice. I don't really like belaying, I find, because I can't keep up fast enough and I get a lot more slack in my rope than I would like. >.<
Moar snow!
Oh gosh--this is the other Molly, and she is SO tiny. She's maybe 5', probably closer to 4'10", and she tried to put on the child's harness just to see if it would fit. If her torso had been shorter it probably would have. XD She's the leader of my small group and is just really awesome.
The last time I was on a climbing wall was age 12 or so, and I couldn't make it all the way up. I made it this time, but I could feel myself starting to panic a little bit about 1/3 of the way up, so I told the people belaying to pretend that I was the timid guest and to encourage me up. No one was the wiser...even when I told them back on the ground they had a hard time believing that I was terrified. XD
And then there's the other Molly, who climbs like a monkey...
Belaying is srs bsns, folks.
Okay, so Andrew (the guy in green) had little Molly as his belayer, and he told her that when he was at the top he was going to pretend to fall 'for practice'. Little Molly was tethered to the tree for this, and it's a good thing she was, because...
...while she did really well on the way up...
...after she was locked down and he 'fell'...
...it literally picked her up off her feet and suspended her between the belaying brake and the tree tether. It was HYSTERICAL.
I believe this is Katie, trying to climb without her hands. She only touched the wall a few times with her hands--for a 35-foot climb, I thought that was pretty impressive!
Andrew tried to do the same thing, but no dice.
To the horses! This horse is Magi, a Missouri Fox Trotter that I had the privilege to ride for a few minutes. Also, Emily! Walking! And riding! Have I mentioned that I'm excited yet? :D
Compared to all the quarter horses, Magi had this really great build with super long legs and I may or may not have been coveting this horse a little bit. I've always wanted to ride a Fox Trotter, and it was awesome to be able to do that (even if it was 10 minutes at the walk and he was a bit sluggish).
Our brave photographer! I didn't see this, but apparently her horse was kicking at everyone and they had to give her a new one. After watching this little paint at liberty around other horses, I'd believe it...she had her ears pinned back and was rolling her eyes at everyone. (The horse, not the photographer)
TESS!
For our group we had horse orientation and safety stuff--I learned a bit about true Western riding, actually. I usually ride my horse with a mostly slack rein with some contact on the bit, and they ride totally slack with only the occasional contact. I don't think I'll ever get used to a curb bit, though. It seems very stiff and awkward in comparison to my trusty snaffle.
Group pictures! This was after going to another camp down the road for supper--it was a kid's camp, so there was a lot of silly stuff and much in the way of...how do I say it...club-like music? There was free-style dancing for a while, and I felt so old and awkward because I hate freestyle. Give me swing, give me two-step, choreography, line dancing, ANYTHING but freestyle. But otherwise it was good.
Yeah, most of these are pretty silly...but das okay, right? XD
Roommates picture! Both of the gingers are gone now, but they should be back in August. I can't wait, because they were both pretty awesome gals.
Yeah, I don't think Killeen or I got the memo, because the picture just went downhill from here...
So yeah. XD
Les gingers!
And the last group picture--I'm not sure why I'm in front here, except for the others were like 'JUMP IN! JUMP IN!' and in the heat of the moment I ended up sitting on people. ^^;
This week is going to be awesome, by the by. I've ordered an iPod dock so we housekeeping ladies can have music, breakfast is in 10 minutes, and I'm really looking forward to the first round of testimonies after breakfast. Little Molly goes first. Apparently each week, 3 times a week, one of us stands up and gives our 'testimony', which I'm still kinda fuzzy about whether that's a short life story or more of a Christian walk story. I dunno. I'll find out as time goes on, I'm sure.
I'll try to be back with weekly recaps as time permits!
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