S'more Sisters

So we met up early Friday morning in the Wegman's parking lot.  We had four women, two men, and ten girls, and we had to figure out how to fit everyone into as few vehicles as possible.  Fortunately Br. Bowes had brought his trailer, and Br. Sellers was driving his Forerunner.  I could fit all the girls into the van, no sweat.  And then Johanna decided her stuff wouldn't fit in the cars we had, so she drove her Prius, too.  Three vehicles (four if you count the trailer?) for sixteen people?  That's not bad!

The drive to West Virginia was easy peasy.  I stopped at the Welcome Center just to use the bathrooms, and we managed to not hit any construction, so that was great!

Marianne, Sabrina, Kendra, Luci, Violet, Ember, Lilyann, Jadyn, McKinley, and Julia.  I seriously love these girls!

When we got to Ace, we had time to kill, so everyone ate the lunches they'd packed and we hung out for a bit.  There was a stage where the girls goofed around:

Kendra and Luci swing dancing

Then everyone changed into their swimsuits and we got checked in!  The rafting was the same that we did two years ago, except it was just the half day tour, so we covered the same ground, but didn't stop for lunch or to jump off the big rock.  Here's the professional (but watermarked) pictures that the company takes for you:

Here we all are, ready to go!  Back row, l-r: Nat, Violet, Marianne, Jadyn, Kendra, McKinley, Perry; Front row: Anita, Missy, Lilyann, Ember, Johanna, Julia, me, Sabrina, Luci

All but two of the girls were in one raft together, leaving all the grown ups to be in the other raft.  When we did this two years ago, we gave the youth options for "spicy" or "mild" whitewater rafting, but the way it worked this time, there was only the spicy version available.  Ace had assured us that this was still fine for beginners and I wasn't worried at all.  But at the same time, I didn't want to exactly advertise that we would be doing the tougher rapids.  The nice thing is that we were on the lower river, which sounds easier than the upper river, even if it isn't.  So that worked in my favor.  But still, I tried to keep it on the down-low that this was what we were doing.  I think it worked-- no one complained afterwards and everyone (as you will see) had a great time!

Notice Kendra up front?  She is ALWAYS grinning the biggest grin ever-- she is having the time of her life!

And now here's my group:

I'm in the back wearing a yellow helmet and you can't really see me.  But everyone mostly looks terrified...  I've never been in a group of people so scared of the rapids before!

But let's get back to Kendra's happy group!

Here's my group again-- notice, I am ALSO having the time of my life!

So yes, the rafting was SO fun!  A few people managed to fall out of their rafts, but we always got them back without any trouble.  One of the rafts with people we didn't know had EVERYONE fall out and then it somehow flipped over, too!  All those people had to crowd into another raft while their guide worked to flip it back over (which is no small feat in a deep river!).  I was glad that didn't happen to us-- we might have ended up with some unhappy parents...

Once we were done, it was hard keeping the girls together.  They all wanted to wander off and shower, but I knew if I let them do that, we would NEVER be able to organize all our stuff and get camp set up in any decent way.  So I insisted we set up our campsite first, and THEN everyone was allowed to shower.  This worked great (except for a couple leaders who wouldn't listen to me and still wandered away to get dressed and then didn't make their way to our campsite for an hour???), especially since it turned out that there were pretty nice showers near our campsite.  

We got the tents up (I managed to do mine without help from Kendra or Craig!) and then got dinner all laid out.  We weren't exactly sure how late that would be, and since there were a lot of predictions for thunder storms (which hit for about ten minutes right as we began rafting and that was the last of it!), so I didn't want to take the time to build a fire and wait for hot coals before we tried to cook for so many people.  So we had a cold dinner of pulled pork and chicken salad sandwiches.  Wendy had prepared most of it and it was ALL delicious.  While we were eating, the men did manage to build a fire, in spite of the general swampy conditions of the area (I wouldn't have guessed you could have so many puddles on top of a mountain!!!), so after they were done eating real food, the girls got to work roasting s'mores and then anything else they could think of (such as leftover croissants, watermelon, and gummy worms)!

We had our fireside, led by the two dads with their daughters (which I thought was sweet).  And then I finally got to go take a shower.  By that time, the girls could all inform me which were the better showers (or at least which ones didn't drain well and were to be avoided), so I really won out by waiting!  Then I read my scriptures and wrote in my journal and enjoyed being in my tent where there were no gnats to fly into my eyes.  And then finally Missy and I turned in for the night!  The girls stayed up until about 3am or something.  At some point, I thought about shouting (nicely) at them to go to sleep already, but I could also hear other groups still making noise, so I figured it really didn't matter.  I guess I slept?  Eventually?

In the morning we had breakfast, and then devotional (which I had asked to lead), and then I let the girls all wander off for their own personal spiritual time.  Once that time was up, they packed up lunches for themselves and we began taking our tents down.

As you can see, it was a gorgeous morning!

We loaded everything back into the cars, parked them by the main lobby, and went hiking-- Finn's Falls or bust!  The hike was listed as "expert" which made me slightly nervous, but it was fine-- very shaded, but also incredibly muddy.  You had to pick your way very carefully so as not to slip.  I had a deer following parallel to me for a bit of the way, so that was cool.

My newest hiking buddy

It was only about a mile to the falls, and then the girls probably spent about an hour splashing around in the water and having a great time while I took way too many pictures...

Luci found a prime viewing spot.  And I got sunscreen on my camera lens, so everything looks like it's soft-focused now...

Most of the girls figured out how to climb down to the water, something I did not want to attempt in my crocs...

As impressive as the falls were, looking away and downriver also just made my heart soar.  Isn't this gorgeous?  West Virginia isn't lying when they claim to be "wild and wonderful"!

Kendra in the water!

Jadyn and Kendra behind the falls

Then they all managed to cross behind the waterfall, which got everyone very excited

Strong girls!

Kendra and McKinley

Marianne took my phone so she could get this shot of Luci-- I love how she captured the bright green leaves in the foreground!

And then, just as I was thinking we should be heading back, we figured out that the trail continued up above the falls, and there was a nice flat spot where you could sit, so we were BACK to playing in the water!

I could get to this easily, and it felt so nice to put my feet in the cold water!

So that was a lot more fun than I had even expected-- I was really glad that we picked the hike over Ace's lame-o water park!

The hike back was fine-- uphill, but still in the shade.  And for some reason I find mud easier to handle when you're going uphill than downhill?  So that worked out.  Then the girls all had to change out of their swimsuits and I sat eating my lunch while I waited for them.  It was sort of taking a long time, until I figured out two of the girls were just hiding in the (air conditioned) gift shop until everyone else was done.  But we didn't know that, so we were waiting on them.  {Eye roll}  The joys of a big group of teenagers!  Once we finally rounded them up, we were free to drive home!

The drive was mercifully uneventful (I did manage to stop for gas at a place that only had a one-stall bathroom for girls.  After waiting in line for ten minutes, I finally just used the men's room and told the other girls to follow my lead.  Ugh).  And we arrived home to an empty house, which was weird!  While we'd been gone, Craig's family had slowly been trickling in to Virginia and they were out seeing the goats at Yoder's-- but I guess that's a story for a different blog post!

I was SO RELIEVED that my campout went well!  I was (and am still) grateful to the other grown ups who helped make it possible, and I was equally happy the next day when they released me as YWs president.  It has been a WILD two years, and I was glad I could go out on a high note!

S'more Sisters Forever!