Adventures in Youth-ing

One of the things that excited me about being called to YWs is that now I get to go along with Craig when he goes camping with the youth!  So last weekend was our first big campout.  Or rather, it was my first big campout.  With a bunch of teenagers.  Fun!  The plan was to have the kids and a few grown ups hike up Crabtree Falls while a few other grown ups drove to the top and got a fire going and dinner cooking.  We would leave the van at the bottom and get it after the hike.  

My friend Megan had very graciously offered to take Colton and Camille, so that was nice.  It meant I didn't have to worry about my little kids slowing everyone down.  And Megan's husband, Scott, and her two oldest boys were camping with us, so she didn't have any more kids than usual! 😂

And Colton and Camille were thrilled to get to spend a night with their friends!

As I was running around trying to get us all packed up, I tried to grab my backpack off a shelf, which made my small weight roll off the shelf and... land right onto my big toe.  I was lucky it was only a 2.5 lb weight and not my 10 pounder.  But still.  It hurt like crazy.

I took this a couple days later after the bruising had set in.  The blue on my toenail is just old nail polish, but the stuff that looks like dirt is all bruising.

Ow.

I wasn't too sure I'd be able to hike on that.  So I wore flipflops and brought my tennis shoes along and figured I'd see how they felt once we got there.

We met up with everyone and caravanned to the bottom of the falls.  I'd hiked this once before, but it was in January with my kids.  That hike had been great, but there had been a few icy patches that freaked everyone out (especially since Colton slipped on the ice and hit his head, poor kid).  So I was looking forward to doing it in the spring!  

As it worked out, I tried on my tennis shoes and wearing them didn't hurt my toe any more than my flipflops had, so I decided to go for it.  And I was so glad I did!  We've been having a very cool spring, and that made for a perfect all-uphill hike!  And you can stop every now and then and look at the waterfall and catch your breath, so that was great.  We took lots of pictures...

I get so excited when I find wild rhododendrons!

We got to the top lookout spot right at sunset!  How perfect is that?

After that, the trail continued for another mile or so, but it was pretty flat, so that was easy.  What was less easy is that it was now getting dark fast and a few of the kids (mostly Ryder) were very tired.  Trying to urge them to keep moving so we could get to our campsite before it was completely dark was making me nervous, but we made it.  Phew!  Br. Herring was there waiting for us with his truck and he drove us the 5-10 minutes of ROUGH road through a river to where we were making camp.

Hail the conquering heroes!

Scott had burgers just about ready for everyone, and he began feeding us while Craig and Tony went to get the van.  Unfortunately, that drive was NOT five minutes as everyone had assured us, but more like 35-40 minutes!!!  And then the van couldn't make it on the rougher roads all the way to where we were staying (it could barely make it to the top trailhead!), so Craig had to transfer all our gear into Tony's truck.  It took him a long time to get it all done, and the rest of us were starting to wonder if something had gone very wrong.  We were just about to send Scott out to look for them when we saw their headlights approaching.  Such a relief!  But that's how we ended up not even setting up our tent until 10pm.  And THEN we made dessert in the Dutch ovens.

It was midnight before we finally went to bed.

Oh, and there were no bathrooms at this place.  That killed me a little.

But it's hard to beat sitting around a campfire!

Despite it being the quietest night of camping I've ever experienced-- there was NO NOISE, not even any bugs chirping!-- we all slept pretty terribly.  We were on a hill and trying not to roll down it.  I was freezing.  Ryder had to go to the bathroom at about 4 in the morning, and then I had to, too.  (I did hear an owl hoot a few times then, so that was pretty cool!). So yeah, everyone was pretty tired in the morning.  We cooked breakfast and packed up and headed home.

I got a text at some point assuring me that Colton and Camille had had a GREAT time with their friends-- they look cozy and happy! 

Normally I would have napped all afternoon after a night like that, but I'd signed me and the older kids up to do another wedding that afternoon, so we showered and headed to Montalto!  This was a huge, 240-guest affair that needed all hands on deck.  We worked a good 8 hours, mostly on our feet the whole time.  It was exhausting.  Fortunately we got to go home after dinner.  If we would have been needed until the very end, I might have cried.

Craig wasn't resting on his laurels, either.  As soon as we were home he headed right back out to pick up Colton and Camille from the Huffs, and then worked all morning and afternoon getting the camping gear cleaned and put away, and then finished the chicken coop so he could move the chickens out into it (which was a huge relief since they were starting to make the whole house stink!).  He also spent a good chunk of time cleaning black paint off the stairs to the basement after Colton and Camille spilled it everywhere.  Poor Craig!

We all slept really well that night.