This Weekend- Pic Heavy

Location: CranHill Ranch (Rodney, MI)

Goals: Praise God, Hang out, Play Games....Survival.

Participants: 9 Middle Schoolers, 2 Adult Leaders

Theme: "Go" and "Hold Up! Wait a minute, put a little love in it!"

One of my favorite moments: When the lead singer of the band, in an effort to get the kids up and moving said: "I wanna see you dancing around, jumping up and down, and throwing chairs if you have to!" Which was followed by horrified looks on the face of every single youth leader there who was thinking: "Don't TEMPT them!" ...because we knew- they just might do it.

This was the second straight weekend of doing nothing other than hanging out with kids...whew! But I'm not complaining, I have an awesome job if a long day means: waking up surrounded by 7 sleepy girls (they're cute when their sleepy :), walking through beautiful surroundings to a hot breakfast, and spending the rest of the day until about 12:30am doing things like praise and worship, Bible Study, snow tubing, ice climbing, snow shoeing, trail riding, truth or dare and our very own "American Idol- TCC Edition." Though by Monday morning I may be tired, behind on housework, sore and posess a little less patience than I would have hoped, I miss the kids already...

First pic: We were all being bad youth leaders the first night and laughing at our kids who were stuck waiting in the hall to get into our first session. What you can't see are the thirty other leaders milling around on this side of the doors sipping coffee and enjoying a few last minutes of relative peace before the 100 or so kids pour in those double doors. The second pic: Lead singer of "Alive," the praise and worship band for the weekend.

The weather may have been cold but we didn't hear too much complaining!

Waiting for our turn to go ice climbing: (left to right) John, Josh, Kathryn, Jessica R., Christine, Amanda, Tyler, Jessica L., Rachel.

Jessica L. climbing the ice wall and Tyler- who got all the way to the top!

Warming up before going riding by the moose in the barn store. He and I go way back.

Though he looks a little non-committal to my kisses.

Side bar: Though the weekend was a success because the kids had a great time, a personal success for me was that I was allowed by the new barn manager Amy to act like a wrangler for an hour and tack up horses, help kids get on, and ride my favorite horse in the entire world- Scout -as a "lead rider." I have to say this is the best thing she could have done for me as I've found that after nearly 4 years has passed since working at the Ranch and riding regularly, my confidence has wavered a bit. Getting on Scout though, for lack of a better term, was like coming home. If I could just fit him in my trunk an keep him in my back yard (and Amy would let me!) I would take that horse home in a heartbeat. I like to think he remembers me as when I walked up to him and said: "Hi Scooter! Do you remember me?!" He promptly gave me a "horsey hug"- headbutting my chest and rubbing his face up and down my arm- something he did constantly when he was my wrangler horse in '05.

I introduced the kids to "hot tubs" from my wrangler days. This rectangular furniture fits together perfectly to make one big bucket seat for everyone to pile into.

"American Idol - TCC Edition:" Amanda and Ivy act as backup singers for Rachel and John singing his solo...

John and Tyler aren't afraid to get cozy- squished into the smallest chair to avoid being surrounded by girls in a "hot tub."

The 2 Jessicas with Ivy looking on in the background. Jessica, Kathryn, Amanda and John making faces for the camera.

Tyler as a rather convincing "Simon Cowell" judging the singers (he has a lot of practice in sarcasm:). I was Paula- all I had to do was stand up every time someone sang and clap exaggeratedly.

And I leave you with these:

This is a certain type of picture where one lets one's jowls hang as loose as possible and shakes their head while someone else snaps a picture. It didn't work so well and Josh and I ended up looking like we'd just crawled out of our beds after a terrible night's sleep- perhaps under a rock.

It was funny though. (and yes, this was at the end of the weekend)

Now if I were able to get this picture from the front it would have been perfect.