good times with good hearts

we had a great weekend. the good ol' not-so-trusty campus view bus pulled out of the parking lot around 5:30 friday afternoon headed for sky valley. the kids seemed like a pretty tight-knit group, and they weren't so anxious to listen to what we adults had to say. but they were all pretty well-behaved. we arrived at the cosgrove's amazing cabin (i use that term loosely because it was 3 stories. the only thing "cabin" about it was that it was made out of wood.) and ping pong and pool games ensued. after some fresh air bar-b-que, more games, and a few of us watching madagascar, midnight had rolled around and then came the challenge of getting 16 teenage boys to go to sleep. i tried guilt ("remember guys, we're concentrating on putting others' needs before our own this weekend, and most of us are trying to sleep"). the chaperone sleeping on the other couch threatened. i fell asleep then got rudely awoken, stumbled over kids to get to the noisemakers and was a little mean ("in case you haven't noticed, no one is laughing at you anymore because it's annoying and we're trying to sleep"). if nothing else, it was effective.

got up pretty early saturday to take a shower before getting everybody up. the sun on the valley was gorgeous

and the kids were pretty good about getting up and putting away their sleeping stuff. we drove to joe's country cookin' and had an amazing breakfast (huge portions, cheap). finally got to cataloochee at around noon, and after the usual headaches of getting skis and lift tickets, me and a kid who had skied a lot before headed for an intermediate slope to warm up while everyone else took lessons. we did it a few times, then headed for the top of the mountain to hit the black diamond. the slope itself wasn't sso bad, it was the idiots who had no business being on it falling all around us. there was the occasional "i know what i'm doing and will fly by you" person, but most were "i have no idea how to stop, i'll try not to hit you on my way down." the most fun i had during the day was teaching other people how to ski and reassuring them and taking them to the intermediate slopes. there were lots of great stories from the beginners of them struggling and finally getting it, as well as the embarrassing ones of getting run over by the lift and falling when getting off of it.

we ate dinner at a little family-run sports grill on the way back to the cabin. after being on the road about an hour, the kids started singing worship songs. my voice lasted through about 2, and it was fun to just listen the rest of the time. it's good for the soul.

it wasn't too hard to get them to go to bed last night, although i'm not sure we succeeded in getting them all to take showers.

it was a really inspiring weekend with a bunch of good kids that i didn't know before we left. i'm gonna ask a few of them to work at camp. they've got good work ethic, but more importantly good hearts.

now to do some homework i've been putting off too long. tomorrow i start student teaching.