Sunday, February 24, 2008

1st Youth Trip of 2008

I originally wrote this post on Sunday, February 24th. I didn't realize it didn't go through until today.

I have taken several youth trips in my life, but yesterday was one I'll never forget. Every trip is memorable, but you always remember certain things about each one. We took the 6th grade - 12th grade to Ober Gatlinburg on a day trip. There were only 13 youth, and 8 adults. We were scheduled to leave from the church at 10am, but if you've ever been around a church youth group you know that schedules are made to be flexible! After waiting on a late arrival we left about 10:30. It took us about 1 1/2 hours to get to Gatlinburg. I had a fabulous time on the drive just listening to the young people interact. It always makes me feel young again!

As we arrived in Gatlinburg, it was very dark and gloomy. It looked like it was going to rain, but we were determined to not let it deter us! We all left the parking garage headed for the Tram station laughing and joking about how it looked like something from a horror film. On the tram ride to the top of the mountain it felt like we were literally just floating in the clouds. You could barely see the tops of the trees through the clouds. Very frightening!
We arrived at Ober Gatlinburg around 1pm. We all basically ran to the nearest food vendor. Well, with the exception of 2 people, and of course they were my son & his girlfriend. We didn't miss them until we arrived at the food vendor, and started counting off. My son is a very reliable child. He very rarely gets in trouble, and he is the one missing!! I could have killed him. We finally found them and they were by the skating rink just watching! He said they weren't hungry yet...I said, I don't remember asking if you were hungry! I guess I shouldn't have said that, huh? So, shake it off...We get everyone together and we eat. Then we split up into groups. Some went straight to the arcades, others went to the chairlift, and still others went ice skating! I will upload pictures of the ice skating later. It was truly an adventure!
The kids all seemed to have a good time, and on the way home starting asking when the next field trip would be. Of course, my husband responded by saying "Who am I picking up for Sunday School in the morning?" BTW, the next field trip is scheduled for the summer. We are going to take them to Pigeon Forge, and we hope to make it an entire weekend trip! Let's pray we can raise enough money.

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