Pine Cove

Last Wednesday I headed off to Pine Cove with our high school for our back-to-school retreat. It was three days of heat, camp food and so much fun :)

They broke the 130 students into 12 teams and assigned each chaperone to a group - this is my group coming up with their team name, "White Lightning", and team cheer... yelling white lightning really really fast and loud - they were a creative group. The second pic is of another team presenting their name/cheer: Most of the trip consisted of team competitions including pillow fight basketball (where three guys tried to score as many baskets as possible with a volleyball while 6 girls got to smack them around with pillows), ultimate keep away and the biggest game of dodge ball EVER:

I was in charge of a cabin of 9 freshman girls who, amazingly, weren't tired at all when we finally got back to our cabin around 12:30 a.m. :) They giggled and talked and did each other's hair with a bump-it until WAY past when I was awake: (side note on the picture on the above right - I have no idea what that nasty stain was on the bunk above my bed... I tried really hard not to think about it. ha!)

We ended and began every day with a worship service and speaker and I think this was the best part of the trip - there is NOTHING like being amidst a big group of students who are worshiping wholeheartedly - amazing! Our theme for the year is "In His Steps" and it was great to see the speakers incorporate this into their testimonies and messages.

After our morning service on Thursday we had a bunch of free time and I hung out at the pool with my freshman girls and watched the older boys jump/dive/belly flop/be generally stupid on the diving boards:

Thursday night after our service we had several team competitions including a latex glove popping competition, seeing how many marshmallows we could shove in our mouths and a talent portion:

And it wouldn't be camp without the camp food:

On Friday two of my girls asked if they could borrow my camera and of course I obliged... when I uploaded my pics yesterday this is what I saw:

goofy pictures of themselves and them a bunch of "stalkeresque" pics of two students talking at a picnic table... probably a budding 14 year old romance. hehehe

Anyway, I came back exhausted, bruised (thanks to being a teacher in a dodge ball game) and full of greasy food, but also with deeper and more meaningful relationships with my students, a renewed excitement about the school year and fantastic memories. Can't wait 'til next year!