Part 1 of the 2nd best summer :)

Camp Hope 2010?

Absolutely awesome.

The forest, Clover Field, old friends, new friends, silly songs, and skits... Super-Mario Dodge Ball, the "Mud Puddle"/pool, playing Spoons, and snack time... Deep conversations with girl friends, good laughs with guy friends, and inside jokes with my brother-- "BOOLAH! It saves chickens!" & "You just got hammed!" hahaha. Yes, definitely good times.

This year I knew would be different...But in a good kinda way. From the start I made up my mind it would, if nothing else, definitely top camp of '09. To be honest though, it kind of HAD to- I mean, last year I had heat exhaustion, some sort of flu-like thing going on, and a blister on my foot that was about an inch long (thanks to some foot doctor who lied to me :-P ). I figure it can't get too much worse than that, so things were likely to be quite a bit better. Plus, this year I was bringing my brother! In the past I would not have seen myself saying that with such enthusiasm, but as he's gotten farther into his teen years we've gotten to be practically inseparable, so I was happy to have him along for the trip.

So, it all started out Tuesday morning with getting up at 5:45 to get ready, eat breakfast, and wait for Dexter. Yes- this year Dexter Jones was our ride to Ruben's place in Pullman. That entire experience was most interesting, and possibly one of the most memorable experiences of my teen years. When he first showed up, my first thought was "Hi Dexter!" quickly followed by "We are seriously all riding with ALL our luggage in THAT??" when I saw his tiny little car. The trunk appeared half full already with his and Laurel's luggage. We were seriously going to fit Nathaniel and I's suitcases, pillows, sleeping bags, backpacks, lunches, AND my guitar in that thing? I was 95% sure at that point the guitar was staying home. Shockingly though, Dexter made everything (even my guitar!) fit. It was amazing- both the packing job and the fact that his trunk didn't explode or something.

As if all that wouldn't have been memorable on it's own, we then headed out on the hour-long drive to Pullman. Now THAT was an adventure! For both us and the guy behind us too, probably. Partway there, Dexter demonstrated for us the advantages of having two easily accessible horn buttons (you don't have to take a break in between each honk!). Then after that he did Brian Regan's comedy about having a short in the horn... with real-life sound effects. *HONK!* "GO! Go my favorite spots team!!" *HONK! HONK!* "They scored another goal-unit!" *HONNNNNKKK!!* "Beat the opponent soundly!"

Once we got to Ruben’s place, we transferred our luggage into his (thankfully, much larger) van and headed out yet again; this time for 6 hours to Camp Hope! One of the first things done on that trip was describing to Ruben our recent drive. Being a police officer, Ruben then informed Dexter that it is illegal to honk his car horn just for fun and amusement. Fail.

Later as we were nearing Spokane, we ended up behind a familiar-looking blue van that Nathaniel and I decided looked incredibly similar to the one belonging to our friend David’s family. We followed it for about half an hour, and I spent the entire time staring at it, becoming more and more positive that it really could be the Sewards. Finally, Ruben passed it up, and guess what? It actually WAS the Sewards! In fact, David was the one driving. We managed to get his attention, and afterwards Laurel and I spent quite a while laughing over the incredibly shocked expression on his face when he saw that it was us. Who’d have thought you’d run into friends in the middle of nowhere?! It was hilarious.