Do You Know?

How does one recover from a youth retreat? Is there anyone out there with the wisdom of one thousand monks that can answer this thought provoking question?

Last weekend Jason and I took our youth group on the Church of God State youth retreat at the YMCA of the Rockies. Beautiful location.

I got no sleep.

Among the highlights of this very sleep deprived trip:

1. Amy's brother Ryan dared her to eat a piece of bread soaked in hot sauce.

2. Jason started to get a cold which grew increasingly worse, eventually rendering him unable to speak by the end of the trip.

3. I got an infection in my wisdom tooth which caused me so much pain I was taking about 5 ibuprofen every few hours to keep from punching something. Or someone.

4. During free time I got to take a couple of girls on a hike. It was freezing outside but the view was worth it. Eventually we got to a point of the hike where we couldn't go any further because we couldn't see which way the trail lead. The ground was covered in snow. This highlight has pictures to accompany it:

We decided to take the hike to Bible Point.

I even had a little map to follow and didn't get us lost! Oh the wildlife we saw.

One deer.

One rabbit. One mouse. And one Sasquatch footprint.

Along the way we also came across a dilapidated bird house with an interesting message:

Awesome views:

Now, because the girls did not come prepared to hike in snow (go figure) I had one hiking in converse, and Vicki and I were hiking in tennis shoes. Vicki and Savannah could not seem to keep from falling. I, on the other hand, did very well despite the circumstances. On the way down the mountain they asked me to simulate a fall. For memories sake.

My butt was frozen after this shot. Better a numb butt than numb feet.

Jason took the rest of the crew swimming. Yes. inside! Geez.

5. Bonding

The girls and I had some great discussions. I hope they took some lessons home with them to build a foundation on. We talked about the importance of obeying parents without attitude. We talked about boys. And I taught them all how to perfect the messy bun.

2 of our boys stayed mesmerized by video games.

I put this guy in timeout for being anti-social. (not really!)

We still haven't recovered. I get my 2 bottom wisdom teeth extracted next Friday.

All in a day's work.

Being Thankful

I love Thanksgiving. Not as much as I love Christmas, but who doesn't love food?

I would love to hear a story of a family Thanksgiving that something didn't go wrong..

Are you with me?

We had planned on eating at 1:30. We ate at 2:30. Is there any family out there that plans on eating at a certain time and actually does? Send me a comment. I want to know.

We had a problem turkey.

I do deserve to be proud over that nice looking green bean casserole though, don't I?

In the meantime, I discovered that Jenessa and I had the same pair of socks on, only reversed. Obviously that was an important picture moment.

Jason mashed our potatoes:

And Dawson kept us entertained:

Soon the table was set and I snuck a roll with butter because I was starved.

We put all the food on the table. I loved that feeling. Back when I lived in Indiana we used to have my whole extended on my mom's side have Thanksgiving together and we had to get in line for the food set out like a smorgasbord. Nice, but not homey. I like homey.

I like to eat. Before: Clean Plate

After:

Yeah, I know how to clean a plate!

Grammy G had a little story to read to us about corn and Dawson got to interact by holding up a piece of candy corn and then eating it. I don't like that profile shot of my nose.

Dawson made that hat in daycare.

And we all know what happens once the triptophan kicks in:

Yay.

Yes, this is the new and improved me. I gave the blog a facelift. I nipped and tucked. The blog screamed and begged for anesthesia. I gave it a shot of Christmas spirit and Voila!

Soon, I'll be back to my regularly scheduled program. Which was really not regularly scheduled at all, now was it?

This is what you get, don't throw your fit!

That is the chant that Dawson came home with from daycare this week. Man I love his dayare. How did they know that he throws a fit when he doesn't get what he wants? It's almost like they live with me. Now, on to more important stuff like my massive bicep in the picture to the right. Yeah, I know you were all checking that out. This was the first time Dawson had ever fallen asleep in a chair. Not that I was squishing him or anything. He looks perfectly comfortable. I, on the other hand, had a butt digging into my hip bone, and my red pants were screaming for oxygen. But Dawson sure looked cute all curled up. I'm not quite sure why I have a look of absolute disgust on my face. It's not like I was able to use Dawson for an arm rest or anything. I kinda feel bad for having Jason take this picture now. Poor Dawson, he probably woke up with a headache and a pain in his neck. Oh well, I still think he looks cute.
Moving on.
Jason and I recently discovered something that Dawson does when he colors and we got video of it to share with all of you. Happy Day.

A Boy and His Pumpkin