Week 8: Restless and Bitter-Sweet-Ness

Week 8 was a week I will surely remember for the rest of my life. Sadly, I took no pictures of my 1st and 2nd graders this week...I'm bummed, but I was just so busy, I just forgot on Friday. However, I feel that this week was not only about the kids, but about my staff. We had some wonderful bonding time this week. Its hard to believe how much time we finely found to spend together. I'll start with Girls' Appreciation night.

We held a boys appreciation night a week prior. It was filled with nachos, root beer floats, candy, smang jugs (inside joke), affirmation, airsofting the girl counselors, back massages and the A*Team at Rafiki's house. It was a wonderful night. The boys threw us one too that I will surely remember forever. We had celebration rotation theme. There were 4 stations: Spike and Hooligan mixed us drinks (complete with them only wearing aprons, pants and funny chef hats...it was hilarious.), Boonis, Amp and Ollie did our nails and gave us back rubs at the next station (the nails weren't salon style...but its the thought that counts and I LOVED). Frogger and Rafiki "read our palms" while giving us hand massages and finally Breck and Avalanche sang us love songs. The night continued on at Rafiki's house where the boys actually made us dessert. Then they took us outside under the stars where each guy chose one girl to write a letter too and to affirm them. It was the sweetest thing that anyone has ever done for me. We then danced the night away under the stars. My dear friend Avalanche affirmed me and wrote me the sweetest letter I've ever received from a guy friend. And I mean that full heartedly. His letter moved me to tears. It seriously meant the world to me.
The next night was staffirmation night/Ollie's 20th birthday where as a group, we gathered at Joe and Heidi's house. It was a night filled with love and appreciation for everyone.

And yesterday was probably the hardest/funnest day ever up here. The night prior we did a day camp sleepover where we all watched Zoolander at day camp and fell asleep. The next day I got up and did the Redwood Canopy tour with Christian, her family and Rachel (my roomie). We then ate a wonderful brunch at Caf Brazil. Once I got back, I made yummy cream puffs with Toaster and Avalanche, went shopping with them, Rolo and Mowgli, then got ready for staff banquet where the theme was Cubano at Mt. Hermono. There was dancing, food and wonderful memories of the summer. At 10:45 we headed up to Rafiki's house to watch Braveheart. Yeah...I know....crazy since it was a 3 hour movie....it ended at 2:15. It was so funny seeing how into it Amp and some of the other boys were. It was worth it.

Waking up this morning was bittersweet. I had the best breakfast at Toaster's house, but it was the final good-bye to Avalanche. Out of all the guy counselors here, I felt the closest to him. Saying good-bye was super hard and I don't know if or when I'll ever see him again...he had been a huge encouragement to me this whole summer and his passion for the LORD I will never forget. I miss him dearly already.

To sum up this week, I'd say it was a restless week because we were up late all week. God has been moving still amidst the hours of the night. Late nights, fun talks and quality time. Week 8 was a blast. Yet so bittersweet.