This year for our youth group winter retreat we headed up to Leavenworth to the Youth Dynamics Camp.
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We had quite a lot of people...I think it was 23 in total. We took 4 vehicles...the church van with a Uhaul for all the food, instruments, luggage and bedding. I drove Owen's Aspen, Christian and Sarah took their van and then Jacob and Jessica took there car.
A van full of crazy kids! This was after we had driven from the church to Monroe and we stopped at Burger King and all the kids got crowns!
When we first got to the cabin Pastor Tim was having some difficulty backing up the van with the Uhaul so instead of unpacking the kids just jumped right into having fun. The cabin we stayed in had a pretty cool layout. The floors were all staggered from each other. When we walked in we were on the ground level. You could go down about 8 steps to the walk out basement which is where all the gaming tables were.
They had pool and air hockey in the main recreation room. There was also a laundry room and a huge bunk room that consisted of 3 different sleeping spaces and a full bathroom. That whole area was taken over by Christian and Sarah so they could have separate spaces for the kids to sleep. On paper it seemed like a good idea, but we didn't really think through how the actual layout would work in real life. The girls bunk room ended up be directly over their space and lets just say the girls were a bit loud and that became an issue!
There were 3 rooms on the ground level where we walked in. Russell had one to himself, I shared a room with Ella, Caitlynn and June and Jacob & Jessica and their son Caleb had the third room. There was also a bathroom on this floor that was only for the girls.
Once we got the van and trailer backed in it was time to unload all the goodies.
From that ground level you could go up 8 steps to the main living space. That's where the kitchen, dining/worship area was. There was also another huge bunk room which is where the rest of the girls were and another bedroom where Pastor & Melody were and they had their own private bathroom. This is where we went wrong. I should have just stayed in that main room with all the girls...we could have just moved some mattresses around and had some girls sleep on a mattress on the floor so then there would have been a leader in that room to help them refrain from being too loud. I was more worried about Ella actually getting a good night sleep since she's prone to migraines so I wanted the room she was in to be a little bit more chill. I could have had her sleep in the room she was in by herself or with June and Caitlynn, but since she is the only girl there that has a boyfriend in attendance it didn't seem like a good idea for there to not be a leader wherever she was. Not that I think her or Justine would actually do anything inappropriate it's just better to have there be absolutely no doubt.
From the main living space if you went up another 8 steps that led to the guys floors. There were 3 bunk rooms and the guys bathroom was up there. We should have probably had Russell sleep upstairs with the guys as well so there could have been a leader up there to help them settle down, but since Russ is still in his early 20's I'm not sure he would have been able to get them to settle down since they all think of him as a friend.
After carrying everything in and getting settled we had some time until our first service since they had to set up all the equipment.
The youth had fun hanging out and playing games together...even though Josiah looks like he's in pain here I think he was having a good time.
We have a couple girls that don't come to our youth group, because they live to far away, but they always come with us for camp. It was so fun to get to see them again!
My bunkmates! We slept great the whole trip!
We had 3 little ones with us on this trip. Christian and Sarah's two kids...Winnie and Wesley and Jacob and Jessica's son Caleb. We loved having the kids there!
Best Buds!
This was my second time getting to go to camp with the kids, but my first time going with Owen. He didn't come to summer camp since he was working. Also according to him camp isn't really his thing. He did play a crucial role at winter camp though...he was the tech guy making sure all the slides changed for us during worship or whenever someone was preaching. He did a great job!
Pastor Tim & Melody came along and I was so happy they did. Pastor came with the youth last year for summer camp and it was the best thing ever. This time we had the joy of having Melody there too! They handled all the food and boy did we eat well! Pastor also preached one night which was awesome. We have so many people at our church that pour into the lives of our youth it's just awesome!
The three kids were hanging out watching their parents practice and get ready for worship. You can see Winnie she's in the middle of clapping her hands. They were being such cute encouragers!!
Some of them were even giving fist bumps or high fives!
First night during service!
Since we had a bit of a delay with getting the trailer unpacked, service started later so that meant that lights out was later as well. After service, Russell split everyone into two teams by having them pick out a bandana. They got points by winning games, stealing each others flag or finding mini ducks outside. The ducks were the most fun and they were so cute. Justine made out like a bandit the first morning with the ducks.
The next morning after breakfast...which was made to order eggs, chicken sausage and all sorts of other yummies...we launched right into our next service.
We did a personality test using the DISC method. Not surprising at all I got the C - Compliant and Analytical.
We then did a Spiritual Gift Assessment which again I got the highest score in Administration....not surprising at all!
After lunch we had loads of free time to go and have fun. Sadly we were there in February so there should have been tons of snow, but as the leader of Youth Dynamics said March Mudness came early. We have had a wet winter, but it's been a warm winter as well which is not conducive to a lot of snow. :(
This was the view from the cabin. That building over there is the gym...which we had access to and was so great for playing games in.
I also brought beads for people to make bracelets and a few cards games for those that maybe wanted to chill in the cabin and hang out for a bit. No one really was making bracelets at first, but then later bunch of people came by. I was the designated bracelet lady that tied all the bracelets so I didn't get any pictures of that.
Russ was in charge of the games and he had them set up in 1 hour increments. The first hour was basketball, then dodgeball, and then spike ball. The fourth hour was supposed to be football outside, but with all the mud they decided to nix that one. I watched basketball for a minute and then went out to see what everyone else was doing.
The basement of the gym had a ping pong tables so I found Owen and Andrew hanging out down there.
There were a few crazy ladies that wanted to see if they could go tubing even though there was barely any snow.
Jake, Jessica and Caleb were hanging out keeping and eye on the girls.
They did manage to have a few successful runs! Caitlynn looks so chill here!
June's hair is completely obstructing her view!
Kylah looks a little worried!
We did have a couple girls ride together and they crashed.
But thankfully they laughed it off!
Caitlynn did twist her ankle, but it wasn't from tubing it was just from walking from the cabin to the gym. I had her elevate her leg so hopefully it wouldn't swell! She sat for a bit and then got up to walk and she felt fine after that.
I had the most fun watching the kids play dodge ball. The Red Team was...R to L - June, Josiah, Zeke, Owen, Justine, Lucas, Jeremiah and Jazzy.
The Blue Team was...R to L - Kylah, Aidry, Stephen in the way back, Jack, Aaron in the back and Andrew. Graham is right up front.
It was all out chaos and it was so much fun! Christian even came over at one point and played with the kids and he is a killer when it comes to dodgeball.
Russ did such a great job planning all the games. The kids had a blast!
After dinner we had another service and then it was time to have some more fun in the gym.
They played musical chairs which is always so hard when you get to the last person since one side of the chair you can't sit on. I really think the best way to play it is with a stool. It came down to Jack and Jeremiah, but Jeremiah ended up winning...mainly because he stole the chair. As you can imagine Jack was a bit salty about it.
That night we had s'mores outside by the gym in the this big firepit they had.
Me and the Storer kids ended up congregating in the main living area...we played Bananagrams and then chatted about all sorts of spiritual and political stuff. After a while more people joined us and it started getting really loud.
The majority of the other teens were at the other table. Jacob and I gave everyone a heads up about lights out. The night before was so bad with teens coming out of there room and making a bunch of noise or even getting into the food in the kitchen we did not want a repeat of that. We gave them until 12:05 and then we said if anyone came out of their room after that they were going to lose the team game for their whole team.
The final morning we had breakfast and then another service. After that they announced the results of the team challenges. Blue team ended up losing so they had to eat a sardine charcuterie snack. They looked gross and smelled gross.
The sardines were on a saltine cracker with a green olive on top.
Most everyone from blue team ate something....a couple people only took a bite or just ate the olive on top. It was hilariously disgusting!
Red was the winning team which meant they won an ice cream party at the next youth group....of course everyone got to eat the ice cream not just the winning team!
After that everyone helped pack up and clean up. We did have a bit more downtime waiting for everything to be loaded into the Uhaul.
Downstairs there was an epic game of air hockey being played. It was Winnie against Caleb. They are so cute. At first everyone was watching from up above and then I ducked down to see things from their perspective and it was even more hilarious. For one Caleb could barely see over the top so we got him a pillow to stand on.
Winnie ended up being the victor during the last game.
Right before heading out it time for a group shot. We had a great time worshiping the Lord, learning about our spiritual gifts, hearing the word from both Christian and Pastor Tim, playing games and eating yummy food...sure there was was drama, but that's teenagers. We all wished it had been longer and we've talked about next year going over President's Day weekend so we could be gone an extra day.
