Rafting Trip

Over the weekend, my youth group embarked on a rafting and camping trip. There was three pairs of sisters: Me and Kristen, Sarah and Macy, and Ashley and Becca; and then there was Alex, Michael Anderson, my little brother Daniel, and this awkward kid named Jim (whom I think was thirteen, or something) that Chris brought along that belonged to his boss. Rink, Kyle, Neb, and Tracy (Neb's wife) came along to supervise.

The ride up sucked just a bit. It was like my own personal hell confined into one car. You see, the Smith sisters, Sarah and Macy, love gum. Not only do they love gum, but they also enjoy popping it. So, us three pairs of sisters, Rink (she is a girl, by the way. And in college, but is our summer intern), and Kyle were all crammed into one SUV.
It was all fun until Macy asked everyone if they would like a piece of gum. Everything went downhill from there. Macy has gotten better about not popping her gum since she graduated, but Sarah, who was sitting between me and Kristen, has not. Long story short, I was condemned to listen to my iPod very loud. So, I busied myself with creating a playlist made out of my loudest, screaming music and blocked the sound with that. Then Rink broke the chips out for everyone to eat. I was then forced to turn my iPod up as loud as it went in order to stay sane. See, despite what others think, I actually don't like listening to my music really loud. It hurts my head.
The boys had gone up earlier with Chris (is it funny that every time I type his name, I accidentally type "Christ"?), and so all of the tents were set up and ready to go for us. The girls all shared my dad's eight person tent, while the boys were placed a good ten feet away from us and the fire pit.
Immediately, Kristen and I pulled our cots out and set them out while ignoring the jabs Chris (not Christ) threw about us being "wimpy campers". Usually, our family would be sleeping in a cosy, cooshy, ugly RV at a KOA somewhere. Cots, to Kristen and I, were a step up from that.
Dinner of quarter pound hamburger patties roasted over the camp fire and bags of chips filled our hungry stomachs as we talked about life around as a group. Kristen, despite being 5"3 and barely a hundred pounds somehow managed to consume an entire pound of beef, which we all thought was pretty funny. Then the boys decided to attack Rink's beautiful, curly brown hair with shaving cream, and so in the middle of the night, a few of us girls got up and popped their tent rods out of the ground and made it fall down on top of them.
In the morning, we had to scurry and put on our clothing and pack everything back up and stick it in one of the cars. An hour later, we were all in our swim suits and non-cotton clothing, ready to raft in the rapids. (Did you catch that alliteration there? I'm awesome.) Because the Smiths, shocker, were already munching on gum, I decided to join the special boat with Daniel, Kristen, Ashley, and Kyle's sister-in-law. You had to be sixteen to be in the boats without a guide sitting and doing all the work for you, or at least fourteen if you'd rafted before. Daniel was twelve, and Ashley was fifteen with no rafting experience, so I joined their boat without question; Kristen following right behind me.
So, the day went pretty smoothly without anyone except Jim falling out of the boat. Because Jim would fall out. There was this one place called Twin Falls where all the water collected in a violent bowl/sink hole thing, and the nose of our raft just happened to get wedged under the water pouring in. Our boat began to fill up with water, and I watched, clinging to the steel frame while my little brother barely managed being sucked out into the pool. We finally broke free, thanks to our fantastic guide, and emerged unharmed.
"I'm surprised you all stayed in!" Bella, our guide, exclaimed afterward. "Props to you guys!"
Other than that and getting splashed continuously by Chris, nothing horrible happened.
Right after we'd finished our seventeen mile course, we changed into dry clothing and headed to the cars we'd be driving home in.
"We have some room in our car if anyone's interested," Neb offered our entire group, but nobody took it.
I turned and opened the door of Kyle's car to see Sarah chomping on an apple, then made a snap decision.
"Neb!" I called, and he turned around. "I think I'll take you up on that offer, if that's alright."
So, I moved all of my things into their car. Daniel also decided the come with us, because he is great friends with Neb and Tracy, and so the car ride was vastly more entertaining than it would have been.
Kristen drove Daniel and I home as soon as we got home from the church where we all met to say goodbye. What did I see? A horse trailer full of office furniture. Was I thoroughly confused? Yes.
"Um," I asked my dad, "What's going on here?"
"Remember that our office moved?" he asked me.
I nodded.
"Well, all the furniture from the old place was up for grabs, so I took the opportunity to take as much as I could and bring it home for all of you."
"Oh," I said, frowning. "I see."
So, now I have an awesome spinny-rolly office chair for my desk and a massive CD case holder on top of my headboard/table thing. I wasn't aware I had so much music until I filled it up!
In the basement, we have a full set of leather waiting room chairs with nowhere to go along with six cork boards with no home. It's like Office Max exploded.