Awesome summer!

So far my summer has been super! I've hit the halfway point (well, now just past it) of my summer living on top of the mountain, and it's been going really well up there. I miss all of my friends and especially my family, but it's amazing how much I miss the mountain now that I'm not there for the weekend. This past week (starting on the 11th) we had really little kids, 3rd through 5th graders, up as campers, so they left on Thursday morning, and I get off until tomorrow at 10 am. Fortunately though, I will be a unit leader this coming week, so I am not absolutely obligated to offer activities in the afternoon, AAAANNNNNDDDD I get an extra 1/2 hour of sleep every day! I don't have to be at my first meeting until 7:30 instead of 7 on Monday morning.
Anywho, it's been a blast working up there. It's amazing how fast the summer is going by, especially since I function on "mountain time" and have no idea what's happening in the surrounding world. We don't have TV there, so my only link is the internet, which I never think to check for news, so I've been getting all caught up this weekend. The junior high kids we had the week before this one that just ended were really awesome, but these little kids absolutely take the cake! They were soooooo adorable! Monday I lead an activity with them making spirit sticks. That was in the afternoon block. Monday morning, Joel, Ashley and I worked with them on unit challenges, name games and stuff like that. That was fun. Tuesday we did a 1/2 day hike on a trail called Lost Pond trail, which was only a little over a mile, something like 1.1 miles or close to that. That afternoon, Nick and I lead a game called Golden Child, which is a kickball variation, but you can score like 80 runs in a single "inning." It's craziness I tell you. I also did some tie dying with Ashley, and made a couple of shirts while in the process of helping out. Wednesday we did some more unit challenges with the cabin we worked with, and they went really, really well. That afternoon I lead decorating for the Agape meal (our last dinner together), which was great, because half way through, Nick and all the kids that were playing with the parachutes for an activity came running into the Spirit Lodge and started "making jello" with the parachutes, trapping myself and all 10 of my kids under the parachutes with them... it was hysterically fun!!!
So, now I'm at Johns house, I got a long weekend, which was much needed, and I think, well deserved for the whole staff. I got off the mountain at 1 on Thursday afternoon and was in Laconia to meet John at 3:30. We went from there to my parents house, so it was great to spend time with all of them. I was feeling really homesick, so I'm glad I got to be home for a couple of days. Now I am getting some quality "me and John time," which was also much needed, and also well deserved. I'll be kind of sad to go back to the mountain tomorrow, but at the same time, I do kind of miss it when I'm not there. Plus, we'll have campers coming up tomorrow, so I won't have time to breath, let alone think about other places I could be or would want to be.
Okay, I'm done now... Hopefully I'll see a bunch of you next weekend at the big wedding (finally!!! We've only been watching this evolve for HOW long?!?!?) and if not then, then hopefully when I come off the mountain at the end of the summer. If you want to see some photos of what I've been up to this summer, drop me an e-mail and I'll send you the link to my online photo album!
Peace!!!