Home Again

Home sweet home and back to boredom and packing until Peru. Youth Conference was amazing so this will be one long post!

Amber, Tonya, and I claimed the front seat of the van and had Mr. and Mrs. Rydman driving which was awesome. Okay, when I say the three of us claimed the seat, I mean Amber claimed the twelve inches by the window, Tonya sprawled herself over most of the rest, and I got about six inches on the edge by the door. I said it was fine because I was turning around constantly taking pictures and talking anyway. This was soon proved wrong as we hit a turn and I flew to the ground, getting stuck half way under the seat and requiring two or three people to get back up. I ended up piling luggage and pillows there and just using the makeshift seat which worked until Bro. Mark almost had to catch me after opening the door behind me. But the ride went well, complete with The Side Effects of Chronic Boredom (including foot wars, and mustaches on some girls) and lots of talking and eating of an entire pack of Oreos.

The motel went rather well though we discovered just how good Bro. Mark is at disappearing and Chris is at climbing hotels. Soon we were back on the road for the rest of the trip to Gatlinburg (where we actually arrived ahead of schedule, a youth group first) to get registered and eat lunch. The hotel was the same one as last year, right by the river, and I roomed with Amber, Tonya, and Julia with a door leading to Mrs. Raab and Anita's room. Bro. Terry and Kristina's youth group joined us under our name so they didn't have to eat Conference food and we made some great friends in that group too. Nicole turned out to be a Tennessee/slightly more tomboyish version of Tonya so those two were fast friends. It was also a good thing that we were on the first floor with bedrooms because otherwise we probably would have had some complaints.

The services went okay, Bro. Steve, Bro. Kenny, and Bro. Eric were the best and we put up with Bro. Sexton. Alright, we doodled and jumped up to leave at the beginning of the invitation due to a miscommunication and eagerness to leave. The testimony time on Thursday went very well and Darla and Harrison got saved while we were there! The music was really bad (repeating the same lines 38 times and only like 5 songs the entire week) and we had a very hard time not laughing the entire time, but it was fun.

Rafting was a blast and no one drowned, always a good sign. Vanna couldn't have lost any more color if she had tried but I think she had fun in the end. Dixie Stampede was good, though I mainly talked and ate, only watching the show occasionally. Mrs. Royce grabbed me and Wes and we went to take my senior pics which was very fun and we found these awesome rings that you can change the stones in. Unfortunately they turned out to be less awesome than we thought because they all have had problems since we got home. While taking the pics, we saw two ducks fighting (very strange sight) and ducklings huddled on the sidewalk, and a lizard that was too fast to catch. There was also a staircase to a platform with no destination on the side of our hotel so Wes and I crossed the river to take some pics on it.

The ride back was fun, Amber taught me Kumihimo, we arm wrestled, tried to sleep, and Bailey tried to convince Wesley that he was Sculley (not sure on name...?) from the X Files. We got back to the church at about 1:00 Saturday morning and didn't get to bed until at least 2:00.

But now it is over and we are stuck in boredom until Peru. But Mom fixed my mp3 player which is awesome, and Colin is liking my computer much more than he probably should... ha ha. Bible Study tonight and laundry to do. My writing completely stopped over the trip so I need to get back to that (which has much rewriting to do already) and my reading didn't happen. It always seems hard to go back to old routines after such fun. We might go to a conference in North Carolina next year instead of Gatlinburg because the music is getting worse and they aren't happy with a couple other things, but it is still a great trip and I can't wait until next year!