There Are No Rest Dayz

Today was an interesting day to say the least. Morgan and Co. started everyone’s day off well, due to waking us up with pancakes- all hot and ready, but they didn’t stop there. Chocolate chips, bananas, strawberries, and blue berries were among the mix-ins available. After that we went hard on the chores, with the junior guides crushing all the jobs; mixing groups in order to achieve maximum efficiency. Also, due to our dishes being covered in some mystery black stuff ruining clothes, the dishes crew was sporting some super cute trash suits. The beast today was gear though. After a mishap with the rope and rope bag combinations (basically the rope bags are numbered and we have a master list to go along with said rope bags that tells the rope lengths), but the ropes got separated from their rope bags, so Sam and Dominic ended up having to re-measure the lengths of the ropes. Then the usual mystery of ‘who forgot they had draws in their bag’ went on for a while, until Maddawg’s group took control and just went through everyone’s bag to find the missing draws.

 

Finally when chores were done and the barn was clean, the cards came out, and once one deck is out, everything else is then dropped and people began to call next game. The regular game is called 13, and has become so popular with everyone, that there are usually five games going on at once (again thank you to the Osborne’s for supplying the cards!), accounting for 20 people.  I think the one thing that has collectively gotten us as a group closer, is talking strategy for this game. I also think the one thing that has caused the most fights, is talking strategy for this game. It has also evolved from a 4 player game-every man for himself, to playing with two decks- working with a teammate. It has legitimate rules, and lots of team strategy; it’s rather impressive of them to come up with this in my opinion.

 

Eventually, Kyle lost enough times to get frustrated enough to get us all to load up, and head in to Winchester. Our first choice of what to do while in town, with cell phone service finally working; where Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is available at our fingertips, was to leave our phones in the van, and play Ultimate Frisbee. This went on directly after lunch, so we played until everyone got to the point of vomiting.  At Starbucks afterwards, a vote was then taken. A vote that would haunt us even more than we could ever have imagined. The vote was whether or not to go see a movie. With barely majority, it was decided we were going to the movies. I chose to see Wolverine with the older guys and guides;  a lot of people went to see Grown Ups 2; the littler kids saw Smurfs 2, and the extra manly men (Dominic and Carson) saw The Conjuring.  Starting with me and my disappointing movie; roughly a minute and thirty seconds in, I was struggling to stay awake. The CGI was terrible, the only thing I could see as appealing was that Hugh Jackman was shirtless for 75% of the movie. The credits really couldn’t role fast enough. Grown Ups 2 apparently went out in the middle and straight stopped working, moreover it was reported as just not funny (Lindsay here acting as a guest blogger. Today I fell victim to the cinematic travesty that is “Grown-Ups 2”, and I can honestly say that it was the worst movie I’ve seen in my long 22 years of existence. For realz). The Conjuring is the scariest movie ever. When I saw it I spent a good two thirds of the time hiding behind my girlfriend, so the fact that Carson and Dominic were both trying to seem tough (I.E. not hiding behind each other) is astounding to me. Smurfs 2 was apparently cute. That was the only good review I’ve heard. At least the awfulness of all the movies gave us a comforting feeling that we weren’t the only miserable ones; giving us all something to bond over. Wally World came next, where I didn’t see as funny a note propaganda as last time, but some classic Ale8 and candy browsing.

 

Let it be known that I am normally the one advocating lots of sports playing, and I’m normally game for anything, but these kids are killing me. We get back to the barn, and I can barely walk, but these kids all head down to the field to play MORE Ultimate. I just can’t keep up! My whole body is ridiculously sore; feeling as if all ACL’s are torn, and that I could use a new hip or two. They were so into the game that they waited for like 20 minutes to come eat dinner! Morgan and Co. continued to amaze, mixing Kraft and Anne’s mac and cheese for a delicious summer trip original. We have now retreated into the barn, where if available, I would be taking an ice bath, but cards have commenced, and chess class with Kyle has begun. Tomorrow is a big day, bringing the whole group to Military, so we’re going to bed early tonight to get up bright and early to beat everyone else to the wall!

Sports on sports on sports

Day two of climbing is now in the books. Today was a bit later of start than yesterday;  waiting until about 9:30 to wake up and not getting to the wall until about 11. Against my best wishes, waking the kids up was rather unexciting. Kyle didn’t even take apart one bed! Thanks to Carson and Sam though, we got to the climbing area. Without them orchestrating rope and draw division, we would not have gotten to the wall until 5 o clock!

 

My group today went to the Motherlode, with most of them being their first time to ever go. Starting from the most devastating part of the day: Ellen was unfortunately put on injured reserve- retreating to the bench with a re-hurt shoulder. She believes it was because Tuna Town was too real, however the routes below that weren’t real enough, quite the conundrum. It feels better now, and with a rest day tomorrow she’ll be good to go. Sam, Erica, and newly acquired Natalie worked on Chainsaw Massacre (5.12a); posing a huge jump for most of them. Natalie ended up sending it second go- sitting at the chains debating whether or not to fall or to go for the clip. With elbows to the sky, she reached for rope, with me nervously watching her belayer, bracing myself for a biiiiiiiig fall. Thankfully she clipped the chains, and sent! Sam and Erica both made high points with every run, and for Erica it was the first time she saw chains of a 12a outside! Nerr got on Tune Town (12d), and 45 minutes later, and approximately 10 million tears later, she was down. Then after some convincing, Ner decided to give it one more run. She proceeded to get four bolts higher than her previous attempt, making leaps and bounds in terms of mental climbing ability. It’s a process, however she’s now taking the necessary steps towards her goal! As for Dominic, he made a new high point on Omaha Beach (5.14a), while I fell five moves away from the Madness (13c), a route I had done when I was 13; trying to repeat for the first time since then. Lindsay had an eye opening day. Without climbing for large periods of time, strength may stay, but endurance quickly evades you…..

 

Over at the Gallery with Franny, Kyle, and Morgan there were a few highlights. David tore it up, flashing a 10c, 11a, 8, 10b, and another 10b. Wesley was put into a fun situation today. He was told he was going to learn to lead-a process he was hoping to avoid for years to come. Thanks to the teachings of Franny, Wesley led not only his first route ever, but his first route outdoors, rocking a 5.8. Maxime lead a 10b after not leading for a full year. Grace “It’s Not Delivery” not only learned how to lead today, but also sent a 10b on lead! Jan, according to Maddawg, did everything: all but one of the 10bs. Lauren also wasn’t messing around, sending the 10c, 11a, 8, and 10b-flashing all three. Kaylie today kept up yesterday’s success, leading/ sending the 8, and top roped a 10b and 11a. Rachel today continued to crush, sending the 8, 10b, and other 10b, all after taking some big falls on some big walls; something that usually scares people out of the crag! Jess had a solid day, sending a 10b, 8, and another 10b. 2 Chainzzzz had some classic 2  Chainz freak outs, but kept it together to do both 10bs. Ashton had some more tears today, but sucked up enough to do both 10b’s. Grace used her lankiness to her advantage to lead climb the 11; putting it in the record books as her highest outdoor ascent! Maddawg was herself- ridiculously positive, sending the 11, 8, and 10b! Carson and Maddawg teamed up to keep the kids psyched; using their climbing to set the tone and both having the exact same climbing days.

 

The team’s athleticism continued when we got to the infamous Miguel’s for the first time. After  eating pizza, we all got as close as possible to throwing it back up with games of Knock Out, basketball, and Ultimate Frisbee. Thankfully the place was mostly empty, so we had the room to take over and be as loud as we wanted! Knock Out was highly competitive, reminding me how out of shape I truly was. Only to highlight that fact (Sup its Maddawg.  It should be noted that Tiny is currently walking around the barn in severe pain from a sudden Charlie horse that apparently won’t go away. He just asked Maxime to chop his leg off so it must be pretty bad) the irony of what just happened… anyway, like I was saying, after Knock Out making me feel bad about my laziness, a very intense basketball game started to push my physical bounds. Maddawg and I fought hard, but Franny, Delivery, Kyle, and Wesley were too much for us-with them winning 12-10. Maddawg and I got redemption in Ultimate shortly after; winning 5-2. Our team was blessed with Sam (a superhuman athlete and a guy who would make Lebron James look like a baby). The dream team also included Carson, Lindsay, David, Rachel, Maxime, and Lauren. The kids proved to us that they are not human, returning from playing ultimate Frisbee-an activity making me think I was for definite going to vomit, to play more Frisbee. We have since hit the showers, and gone straight to cards.

 

For blogging purposes I hope that tomorrow is high activity so this keeps being easy to do! So far the kids have been 4 for 4 on giving me lots to write about!

 

Day of Firsts!

This morning we woke up around 8:30 and proceeded to wake the kids up with surprisingly fairly little fighting. Only Ashton, Ellen, Jess, Lauren, Nerr, Rachel, Maddawg and Sam were the only ones to give us lip. Luckily for Sam he is bigger and stronger than I am, so he got left alone, but for everyone else, not so luckily. Rachel received a good pillow beating, Lauren got her feet tickled, Nerr and Maddawg got their sleeping bags taken away and turned into capes, and Jess and Ellen got their bunk bed disassembled. Again Sam was left alone out of fear. These are reasons I don’t need coffee- my want for annoying tired children outweighs my tiredness, thus making me have full alertness and forcing me to wake up. After what some might call a rude awakening we went through the usual breakfast lunch making routine getting us out of camp in an unusual timely fashion

 

Heading to the wall today I was a bit nervous. Going with me today were all the kids who were going to have firsts. Meaning, all the kids who it was either their first time outside, or their first time leading outside. With that knowledge, I was stressing the amount of crying and rock kicking that, to me, was inevitably going to ensue and that I was going to get to deal with. However, it was quite the opposite. My group went to the Shire, a line of 5.7,8,9, and 10. We walked up, and among the first people to call dibs on stringing routes was Rachel. Rachel started private lessons with me about three months ago, and when she started with me, she could barely climb white routes. Needless to say I was a bit nervous, and asked if she would rather top rope it. She basically just replied, “Nah, I’m going to lead it”, so while she didn’t end up stringing it, she did flash the first route outside she got on, on lead. She then proceeded to flash the two others; leaving the ten for later. All three routes she crushed with unwavering confidence, speed, and poise. That was the first time I had ever seen anyone climb outside for the first time with such confidence. That is, until I watched the rest of the day unfold. 2 Chainz was at it again today, flashing his first two lead routes outisde, narrating his entire way up the wall:

“2 Chainz you got this?” “Duhhhhhhhhhh!”

“What?! Why’d you take??” “Super pumped brooooo”

“2 Chainz got dat 2 Chainz!!”

Those were just some of my favorites of the day. He took his first couple big outside falls on his third route, pulling right back up, giving full effort fall after fall, and most importantly, all with a smile on his face. Kaylie was next, with ambitions to lead; again making me very nervous. She proceeded to flash all three routes with ease. The top rope tough guys then stepped in, a trio comprised of It’s not delivery, Maxime, and Wesley, who went on a rampage and annihilated the wall, eager to learn to lead. Ashton was the only one brave enough to get on the ten; Dominic scared everyone after he got off by saying he was pumped on it, therefore deeming it in the kids mind as impossible. She got on it, and despite all the tears, she pushed through. Maddawg was Maddawg; incredibly positive, describing every route as “ amazing” or “incredible” and volunteering to belay everyone. She would be belaying someone, and someone would yell asking for a belay, and all you would hear is Maddawg saying “got it!” all while climbing every single route. After this glorious display of rock climbing by the young bucks, it was the old guys’ time to show them a thing or two. Lindsay and I went up Amarillo Sunset 5.11b, a route with just gigantic moves for every move. For me and my long arms, the moves weren’t too bad, however Lindsay’s tiny little T rex arms proved to be an issue. She has already done the route, so she wasn’t that upset about it. 2 Chainz then called me out and said I couldn’t do it in my Chacos, therefore sending me up the route a second time. After the greatest fight of my life, I sent.

 

The other group went to a wall called The Rival wall, a wall with four hard 10’s up an 80 foot vertical/slab face. amErica and Nerr tore it up, sending a 10c and a 10d. Their day was a bit uneasy though, due to Ellen vomiting. David then also strung his first route outside;, totally calm and collected the whole way up. Aside from the climbing aspect, they all had a great day. Grace got a well interrupted nap in-ending with Franny pouring water on her. Carson keeps continuing to emerge as a prominent leader; a sight fun to see for us as the guides. Lauren had a good day; making fun of Franny in between getting on all the climbs. Jan started with me, but after sending everything, went to Alex and did all those routes too. Dominic took Sam to go train at Shady grove, running laps on a bunch of routes.

 

Back at the barn, Morgan and Co. continued their excellence in the kitchen, while the kids were playing sports and cards. They almost got angry that dinner was ready. Now, chores have been done and the sports games have begun. Can’t wait for hopefully another great day tomorrow!

On a scale from 1-10, I’d rate this trip 2 Chainz

Short trip 2013 is finally underway! For those of you who don’t know; Tiny (myself) is now blogging, and full disclosure, I’m not super great at grammar and such, but I am good at accurately (with some exaggeration) depicting our daily shenanigans. My number is 972.571.4787 and my email is kyle.francis.1@att.net so if you have any questions or comments please feel free to shoot me a text or an email.

 

Yesterday we all arrived at exposure around 8 am, and I think to everyone’s pleasant surprise, we were all reunited with Maxime; a treat we have been deprived of for a full year- entirely too long if you ask me. It took us all of about an hour to get packed up and out of the parking lot. It then took us all of about ten seconds of driving to realize that second breakfast was going to have to be a thing- there was pretty much no way around that. So after our superstitious stop so Kyle could pack (an event he could for whatever reason not do at any time beforehand like a normal person….) we were off to the closest donut store (check instagram). Being an hour behind schedule is all too familiar for this team, so in usual fashion, we made zero efforts to go faster; a decision that soon came to haunt us all as drivers….. This drive was rather historic though if you ask me. Nerrr and Rachel thought ahead (or more likely Leslie thought ahead). and went ahead and brought not only one deck of cards, but three. Each.  The card game “War” has been a game that has seemed to have survived the ages and continued to be fun. Fun until you reach the point of realizing that it’s impossible to win. You just keep trading back and forth between who has slightly more cards. However, this historic drive resulted in the first War victor I have ever witnessed. I saw Grace Embry lose two times in a row to Erica, a feat I had previously deemed impossible.  I think my favorite part of the drives was watching the transitions. The first hour is generally high energy with everyone talking- to having to go to the bathroom- to be hungry- to text bombing wars- to finally stopping for lunch. After lunch though is yet another process to go through. Its starts roughly thirty minutes after loading back up. The one person who forgot to pee.  Then the next 200 miles consists of incessant whining and asking when we’re going to stop. After dinner, everyone  finally tuckers out, and sleeping spots begin to emerge. After taking our dear sweet time, at roughly five in the morning, we arrive at our cabin in the Red River Gorge. Bunks are quickly claimed, and everyone passes out.

 

This morning was a rather beautifully productive scene- the likes of which I have never seen. I have to say, this group of kids is a good one. I’ve never seen the first day go so smoothly, with everyone so eager and willing to get things done in a quick and efficient manner. After groups were assigned, it was like watching poetry in motion, or a bunch of moving parts working together in perfect harmony. Thanks to me, the master list of the rope lengths and conditions was lost, so we got to spend a lot of our time running ropes; using a 48 inch wide crash pad as a measuring tool to figure out the lengths of the ropes to create a new master list. With Durant as our life line, we figured out the conversion factor for feet to meters.

 

After the barn chores were finished, we went to eat at a sandwich shop where we all got our fix of Ale8; a taste which has brought us back year after year. Of course we drew names for notes tomorrow, and left for Walmar- the mecca for ridiculous note supplies. Just a few of the items that I saw kids buy were: 15 square feet of bubble wrap, hats, batman underwear, and other ridiculous clothes. All I can say is that tomorrow may be considered October 31st here, and I cannot wait to watch as it all unfolds.

 

Coming back to the barn was arguably the best part of the day. A team wide volleyball/ Nuke’m game started, and Morgan and Co. then made perhaps the best quesadillas in summer trip history. She added an element that Maddawg and Ellen made possible: guacamole. Their genius continued with whole wheat tortillas and taco meat inside. Back to the games though, just like everything that could possibly involve strategy, volleyball was no different. We came up with rotations, setters, spikers and such. This continued into the game of Nuke’m, (Nuke’m is similar to volleyball, except you catch the ball, and then once the ball is caught you can’t move until you throw it) which made it to where the planning in between games and points took longer than the actual game. On my team, Wesley and Grace D. emerged as sleepers, catching everything in sight, and returning it with ferocious speeds that would literally knock Dominic off his feet. Unfortunately for my team, Sam H was not on it-total power house and complete Nuke’m star. Our strategy quickly became just don’t throw it near Sam. Sure enough though, he found a way to always catch it, and always destroy us, starting mainly with me. There were many a game where the final two people were Sam vs David. Often these games went either way though.  David was pretty rock solid, Sam is just twice his size and his arms reach over the net.

 

After dinner, the bottom 10 ish of sound off were hanging around the creek, where Wesley stepped in mud so deep he lost his Chaco inside of the mud. Without a second thought, all of them got on their hands and knees in the mud and dug, and dug……. and dug some more until finally they found his shoe. A terrible situation for all of them, but a great display of team work, yet another reason Hell week is successful!

 

NOTABLE NICK NAMES: some interesting nicknames have come about within the first 48 hours of this trip:

Grace Dijorgio- Grace it’s not delivery, its Digorno –this has stemmed from the ever popular frozen pizza commercials, Origin- Stan B. we call her It’s not Delivery for short (this time when I say we I really mean just me)

Nathan Young- 2 Chainz- named after the rapper. Nathan’s name is derived from when he was on E team, and whenever he did something cool, he would say 2 chainzzzz ( as the activity got less cool the amount of chainz went down to 1.5, 1 and so on…) Origin- Tiny; something I thought I would only say, however he has embraced it. 2 chainz now rates anything people do on a scale from 0-2 chainz. Other interesting news about 2 chainz- after reading the lovely packing list made by the incredible Lori Skarr, which explained that the kids need sports bras, to most this indicates that only girls need to bring sports bras, however, 2 chainz being the over achiever he is, brought what he was told, including but not limited to a sports bra. Upon us discovering this incredible planning faux pas, we obviously made him give us a fashion show. The best part was during the fashion show when Maddawg realized she was also wearing that same sports bra!

 

The end of our day concluded in the barn, with games of 13, Speed, War, as well as Carson teaching Kaylee and Ashton how to play spades. I think they’re preparing to take on me and brother (Franny). Cute.

Deep water solo ft. Pink seahorse

If you know Team Texas, than you know it will take more than a little rain to stop us from having a good shenanigan-filled day. With that being said, we weren’t too concerned when we woke up to cloudy skies this morning. We decided we hadn’t been to a Walmart in about a week and needed to settle our anxiety. Therefore, we went to Walmart for supplies aka eggs and tortillas (yay breakfast burritos for dinner!) followed by our daily Dairy Queen run. Then it was time to take action and go deep water soloing in a new location!!
I was far too cold to swim myself, but I watched from a nearby rock (little mermaid style) and it looked SO fun! Shoutout to Brendan and Carson for jumping on a ridiculously tall cliff setting a new Team Texas cliff jump record! Terrifying…but cool. No fear though parents, there were lower options for everyone else! Lolo was scared again today but made a final jump before we packed up and left. Aside from climbing and jumping, it was funny to watch the team float on their new floaties, noodles, and tubes (there was also a giant black blow up whale and pink sea horse). We hiked out in the rain and drove to the town of Beckley for Starbucks. Oh the lengths we will travel for coffee! Worth it right? A new frisbee was purchased and we were psyched for a mini game of Ultimate Frizz. I was disappointed that for the third day in a row, my team was dominated. I’m hoping for redemption when we play next in Atlanta! That’s right, we are driving to Atlanta tomorrow to continue on our journey. We’re gonna give those nationals routes a couple more tries! *~*ExCiTeD*~*

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

Today was so much fun! Exhausting, but fun. We went to the New River Gorge for most of the kid’s first time. The New is a much different climbing style than the Red as well as shorter, with deep water soloing. Gentry warmed up with me on a super cool 5.12 (not sure on the name) that traverses along a juggy ledge up to a crux two draws from the chains. It was so fun! Durant, Andrew, Amy, and Lolo also got on it. After an epic hour of Claire, Lolo, and John trying to stick clip the first draw of another 5.12, it was finally accomplished with only minor losses of tape and time. The picture of Maggie in this post is her cleaning the 5.12! Claire later sent Apollo Creed 5.13a her second go. John, Brendan, and I also gave it solid runs after Dominic and Tiny both flashed! After a little bit of trying hard and real rock climbing we jumped into the river and swam all the way over to easy deep water soloing! It was awesome. We continued our swim further to a super tall cliff with a mini waterfall. What do we do when we find waterfall-cliffs? Jump off of them, of course! I don’t think there is anything more entertaining than watching little girls try to overcome their fear of jumping into water. Specifically, Ellery and Lolo! Everyone made the jump except for those two, who really wanted to do it but couldn’t take that one step! After much convincing and encouragement, I am so very proud to say that both of the girls made the jump in the end!!! Seriously impressive. Speaking of impressive, Gruper successfully made it the 24 hours without sugar! Hopefully the ice cream cake will happen soon.
We checked into a hotel down the road from the New and warmed up with some Mac n cheese for dinner. All that swimming took a lot out of us so it is time to rest up to see what shenanigans tomorrow brings.

Ice Cream Sandwich Cookie Cake

We made it to West Virginia!!! No vans were killed throughout today’s drive. After we picked up the old van we began our journey to meet up with Carson so he can join us at the New!
Not much was done other than drive and play Ultimate Frisbee today. Believe me when I say this was by far the most ultimate of ultimate frisbee games. Exhausted after we searched for some good local flav resturants for dinner. However, we failed and ended up at Five Guys and Dickie’s! We hangout and played some water bottle soccer in the parking lot and then drove back to our hotel for the night. We are about an hour outside of the New and plan to climb/relocate there tomorrow!

**THE CHRIS GRUPER/GIANT ICE CREAM SANDWICH COOKIE CAKE CHALLENGE**
Earlier this evening, it was discovered that Marisa has a birthday coming up. Where there is birthday, there is cake. But here on Team Texas, we don’t settle for just any old “cake.”
We like ice cream.
And cake.
And cookies.
And all of the above items combined and ginormous in size.
So we have decided to take two giant cookie cakes and add gallons of ice cream in between. (The blueprints are in the developing process currently.) Everyone is beyond psyched.
In order for this dream to become a reality Kyle made a little deal with us. Being ridiculous as well as starving for ice cream, we will stop at NOTHING to make this happen. So for the next 24 hours Chris Gruper, the boy that eats sunflower seeds, cookies, skittles, and donuts for all meals is not allowed to consume processed sugar. He has already stocked up on sugar-less juice and cookies. The challenge has only just begun, but we are all here for Chris as he is for us. In the end, we WILL make our ice cream sandwich cookie cake. Wish us (and Gruper) luck.

At least we have donuts

It certainly has been an interesting final stretch of Summer Trip so far…in the past 24 hours we have left Atlanta, killed a van, met the donut God, took over a Home Depot parking lot, and slept in the Hampton Inn of Charlotte, North Carolina. Hard to believe this time yesterday I was in Atlanta.
We began our journey with the intention of going to the New River Gorge and climbing this week. However, shortly after reaching North Carolina the old van died in the midst of our travels. We pulled over on the shoulder and had an epic time pushing it up to the nearest gas station with the other van. Success! Under these circumstances we didn’t have much of a plan, but just down the road from the gas station was a Hampton Inn. How convenient? We stayed in two rooms while getting the van fixed which should be done in about an hour. When we first rolled up to this Hampton Inn, the most glorious thing happened: a Krispy Kreme Donut bus rolled in behind us and gave us SO MANY free donuts!! Imagine that! Bored and left without a plan, we decided to get together a game of Ultimate Frisbee. We drove around the town looking for a location and ended up at the local Home Depot parking lot. The winning team won the last box of glazed Krispy Kremes. Unfortunately, this was not my team.
After we got all worn out we drove back to our hotel and slept. We are going to go to Starbucks here in a bit (typical), pick up the van at 1, and continue onward to the New! Hopefully rock climbing will be in our near future!
I will be sure to keep y’all posted on how all of this plays out and if any major plan changes are made.

Piedmont Park=Total Domination

Today started out like any other day with the kids moving ever so slowly to eat their breakfast and get the hotel rooms cleaned up. 5 hour later, however, it was decided we would go to Piedmont Park and demonstrate our mad volleyball/frisbee/football skills for all of Atlanta to see. Talk about witnessing the fitness.

All fueled up on Jason’s Deli, we drove into the city and finally convinced Kyle to park somewhere that isn’t completely illegal. Miracles happen huh. Claire, KDawg, Rita, Gentry, 8Lyn, and John went on TANDEM bike rides through the park! We asked if they had a 30 person tandem option but unfortunately they did not. Go figure. The little girls played on the playground then joined us over by the volleyball court to play in the sand. Volleyball teams were picked and a tournament was prepared! While two teams played each other, the rest of us passed the time in an intense Ultimate Frisbee competition. It grew so intense that by the time it was my team’s turn to play volleyball (my vball team: Stan, Peyton, Amy, and Marissa) we said we forfeit and proceeded to win our frisbee competition wassuuuupppp! There was more football playing, frisbee throwing, and volleyball spiking until we needed to cool off with some frozen lemonades from Rita’s.

Some interesting Rita orders:

Stan, Dana, and I: Frozen Lemonade+Swedish Fish flavor

Amy: Frozen Lemonade+Blueberry

Rita: Frozen Lemonade+Pear

Durant: Frozen Lemonade+Mango

Ellery, Jessica: Cotton Candy Shaved Ice

Lolo: Frozen Lemonade+Strawberry

and it was delicious!

Everybody was exhausted from spending all day at the park and spent most of the rest of the afternoon playing different card games in the hotel. Franny, Terra, Stan, Chris, Brendan, and I prepared grilled cheeses with tomato soup for dinner. A pretty standard dinner for most, but of course a competition broke out between Franny and Tiny to see who could eat the bigger sandwich-this got somewhat out of hand when Franny choked down a 6 layer grilled cheese (SO MUCH CHEESE) and Tiny understandably quit.

By the way, it is officially Grace’s birthday!!! Happy birthday cutie, we love you! We have a surprise for you tomorrow on your last day in the hotel with us!! So sad some of the kids will be leaving me in the next couple of days what will I do all alone with my other guides? We will be so bored!

Nationals countdown: 3 days!