Girls Just Wanna Have Fun... In Knitted Bikinis?

This weekend was our Youth Group's annual trip up to Sierra Summit. It's a two day trip filled with snowboarding, fellowship, and a barrel of laughs! The kids all meet up at the church Saturday night (really late... usually around 10:30pm) and spend the night there. Then they wake up at 3:30am to be on the road by 4am Sunday morning. It's about a 5-6 hour drive up to Sierra Summit. The kids get there around 10 and snowboard all day Sunday. Then they spend the night in the lodge and snowboard all Monday and drive back home Monday night. I have gone the last couple of years but, because of work, I wasn't able to go up with them. Long story short (pretty much we don't remember who's idea it was... no one wanted to take the blame for it), Me, Amber, Cory and Kate all decided it would be super fun to barge up to the mountain to snowboard for the day.

Our day began bright (well... it was actually really dark) and early at around 3:30 (well... Kate got up the earliest I think... my alarm didn't go off so I got up at about 3:47 and got to Amber's house at about 3:55). We left Amber's house slightly after 4am and were all ready for a long but fun drive. Amber took the first leg of the trip and while the other two sat in the back sleeping, Amber and I chatted about school, work, family, friends, and my upcoming trip to Germany (yeah! 3 more weeks). We stopped for gas and food (and bathroom... four girls in a car for 2 and a half hours with no bathroom... yeah) about 2 and a half hours in and then Amber and I switched off driving. We finally made it up the mountain around 9 am. We got out to the lifts and the deck around 9:30 where we met up with Ryan, Alexa, and Freddy. I opted out of snowboarding this time around (I have tried it once and really sucked at it! I would be willing to try it again, but I think I need a couple of days to try it out... not just one barge...) so I held down the home-base on the deck and hung out with kids when they came down to rest.

The day went really well and Praise God there were no major injuries (4 years of doing this and God has kept us all intact!). The weather was starting to turn a little (clouds were sort of rolling in and it snowed on and off all day; the smartest comment of the day was probably "Hey, snowflakes really look like snowflakes!" Leave it to High School girls...), but it was really a beautiful day to be up at the snow! In the afternoon we had a stunt competition for a sweat Truth Soul Armor backpack that Cory donated to the church. The stunts made for some really Sick photos and you should definitely check them out! Amber and Alexa tried the box for the first time and totally rocked it! I should have taken more videos of the stunts, but I was able to catch one particular stunt that will leave us laughing for the next few months.

Freddy was trying to clear the barrel and well... it didn't exactly go as he had hoped...

The drive back was probably the most hilarious 5 hours I have spent in a long time! We were all so delirious from being up since 4 am that anything and everything was worth a painful belly laugh (probably the only example that I can share would be Cory's great grandmother knitted a bikini for her sister... We called Cory's sister to see if we could stop by on our way back and see this Knitted concoction, but she didn't know where it was... We seriously did not stop laughing!). Anyway, the day was an absolute blast and despite being way wiped out and starting school today (I will probably write about that tomorrow after I start the bulk of my classes. I only had Math today and that was so much fun! Maybe it's still lack of sleep or me starting to get sick, but I got so excited after my Calculus class that I was scared of myself... Math is so cool... and I am such a Nerd...), I have to say it was absolutely worth it! Thank you Amber for letting us drive your car up there and for listening to me always! Thank you Kate for coming along! I have really enjoyed getting to know you through all of our little trips together and you really make things special (Mendota? "It's cause Men-Dota go there" HAHAHA Classic!)! Thank you Cory for being you! Thank you for your stories about Knitted bikinis and for your openness and your brutal and sometimes disgusting honesty ("Hey Michaela you're doing great! Now don't kill us!", "I make no promises Cory!" SOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!) Thanks for a great road trip girls! This one is definitely gonna be in my memories for years to come and I look forward to more in our future!