Last days in CO/Road tripping with Pops August 17, 2008

My Dad flew in on Wednesday night into Denver. He wanted to help me drive back home, so.. we slept at camp Wed night. Thursday morning I showed him around camp and I packed up the last few things, including my sweet mountain bike that I bought from camp that I’m really excited about. So that was cool for him to get to see where and what I had been doing all summer. I wish I could have sent him down the zipline or something, but.. oh well. We had already turned in our keys to our boss.

Dad and I with the T-Rex!

crazy dinos

I had wanted to do something cool/fun with my Dad in CO before we headed home so I had researched a couple of kinda typical tourist attractions and asked him what he wanted to do. He decided he wanted to go to a dinosaur museum in Woodland Park. I was not surprised. He’s always been fascinated with these creatures. So we headed of to Woodland Park and checked our their Dinosaur Resource Museum. It was pretty interesting. They had life size replicas of about 30 different dinosaurs.

probably fav pic of daddio ever! ha

We probably spent about 2 hrs there, 1 hour was a little tour, the other hour we just walked around and read about everything. I had thought he would have liked to go up Pike’s Peak, you can either drive up the Pike’s Peak road up to the summit, or take a COG Railroad, which goes on the inside of the mt and there is a tour guide that explains all kinds of historical things like where the old wagon trails used to be and an old hotel along that old route. I’ve done them both and hiked it twice. So I suggested we do that too. Before that though, we went and had buffalo burgers at a restaurant called CO Wines, and of course he had some CO wine. I tried his… yuck.. I just don’t like alcohol. I’ve come to that conclusion. After lunch we were going to do the COG railroad, but they had stopped sending trains up for the day, so.. then he suggested we go to Garden of the Gods… I was like ok, sure. I was kind of surprised because every other time we’ve done road trips it’s like he gets there then we take off and don’t really do anything fun. So I was excited he wanted to play tourist. Well we got on the highway the wrong way and ended up trying to turn around at a place called Manitou Cliff Dwellings.. then he decided he wanted to check that out too. It was pretty interesting. Some Indians built their homes into the side of a cliff.

the cliff dwellings that are centuries old...pretty cool

this was the little opening you had to climb up to to get to the 2nd story bedroom

Dad scoping out the area

You could walk around in it and they had plaques describing what the rooms were used for and everything. It’s been there forever. They had pictures from like the 1800’s when people would go and visit in horse and buggies and it looked pretty much the same as it does now. It was pretty cool. We stayed there and walked around. Apparently they have Indians do dances and used to have them making things, but I guess since it’s the end of the summer, there was nothing like that going on that day. We then drove through Garden of the Gods, which he wasn’t that impressed with. We did get to see some rock climbers though, which was cool because he’s never seen me climb, so now he has an idea of what its like. I had thought we would have left after that, but it was about 6pm and he wanted to see Pikes’ Peak, so he suggested we sleep in the Springs and then wake up early, catch the first train up to Pike’s and then head home. So we got a hotel room. Well, I got sick and threw up twice in the night and in the morning it was raining and cold, so… we didn’t end up going to Pike’s. I was bummed because it is cool and he seemed like he really wanted to see it. Hopefully some day. So we took off about noon, I still wasn’t feeling well. So he drove all day. As the day went on I felt a little better, but still not myself. I drank a sprite, water, and vitamin water all day and slept off and on. We stopped in Texas at the nicest hotel I think I’ve ever been to. It had high, soft, fluffy beds with soft and hard pillows and like a down blanket with another blanket on top of that instead of the nasty bedspreads most hotels have that never get washed. It had granite counter tops, huge bathroom with the curved shower bar, and little kitchen area with disposable plates and silverware, microwave, fridge, sink.. it was really nice. It was just a Holiday Inn Express, but super nice. So I slept great and woke up feeling much better thankfully.

We drove the rest of the way home, and arrived to a not too muggy, but wet La home about 9pm. I pretty much immediately began unpacking the car and trying to organize my room, which was and still is a bit of a disaster because I had to move out my rent house before I went to CO for the summer, but I couldnt really move into my room at my Dad’s because my brother was living there are the time. So.. needless to say I’ve got some work ahead of me. I stayed up til 3am cleaning, organizing, going through my closet and getting rid of some clothes, and taking a glorious bath! i finally felt really clean! and didnt have to walk back in the dirt to my bed after bathing! and i washed and washed laundry! in hot water… and separated loads…for free!!! it was incredbile. i’ve never enjoyed laundry so much before so.. i will continue to move in and get ready for school! to begin, Aug 25th, hopefully find a job and visit with family and friends. im off to baton rouge for the next couple of days to see my sis and her husband and their new house and all the cousins out there too! cant wait

Utaw August 17, 2008

After camp there were 6 of us adventure staff who were going to be at camp/not going home right away. We tossed around quite a few ideas of what we should do… then we finally decided to go camping in Utah at Canyonlands National Park. It was really fun and relaxing. We took our time getting there. We left Monday morning and arrived there that evening. We stopped at the CO National Monument on the way, which is in Grand Junction, CO I think. It was pretty amazing as well. Really funny.. there was this couch and loveseat in the middle of the monument…pretty comfy too! Completely against the Leave No Trace (LNT) principles, but had a great view. (more pics on facebook, check them out.)

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051235&l=d3f5c&id=68602654

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051231&l=1113d&id=68602654

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051280&l=105b5&id=68602654

crazy couch in the middle of the co natl monument

When we got to our campsite we cooked up some Zatarain’s jambalaya, pretty yummy! Really good for camping or backpacking. We slept in our tents, the weather was really nice. Not too hot or cold. The next day we went down to the visitor center of the park and found about a creek about 30 min away with a nice little hike, so we went there. It was really fun because it was pretty warm out. We took our time and played around in the creek. At the end of the hike was this really cool land bridge. It was way above our heads so you couldn’t really get to it and I don’t think you were supposed to walk on it anyway, but it was really cool looking. And there was the this little spring that came out of the rock which was the source for the creek. It was so tiny.

really cool land bridge

amazing little creek

And there was poison ivy everywhere!!! And it was huge, like in trees! I’ve never seen so much of it or seen it so big before. I was a little paranoid, but thankfully I did not catch it. We went into the town of Moab after our hike. We went to the Peace Tree Leaf, this cute little juice bar, ice cream, café place. I would like to own a place like it one day. I got a parsley, carrot, apple, beet juice. It was yummy. I know.. you probably think I’m crazy, but.. it grows on you. And its so good for you too. We walked around the town a bit and went into the shops. It was so crazy because literally every person we passed spoke another language! A lot of French people were there. It was really strange because Moab is in the middle of the desert and in the middle of NOWHERE, so these people weren’t just stopping through. Then we went back to our campsite. It was so beautiful just hiking around and looking at all the canyons. It just stretched for miles and miles. It was only like 7 hours from the Rockies of CO, yet looked completely different. What an amazing and diverse world we live in. What a great Creator we have. We slept another night and then in the morning on our way out we stopped at Mesa Arch. It was beautiful. The miles of canyons reminded me of star wars or some type of space movie.

beautiful canyons that stretched for miles! this was the view through the mesa arch

It was nice camping without having to worry about little teenagers and just hanging out and eating whenever we wanted and it was just really relaxed. We drove back and made it back pretty quickly.

me, madison, chad and abi at mesa arch

camp is…. over August 11, 2008

Camp is over! So strange.  We had a good, pretty full week at camp the last week.  Nothing out of the ordinary happened, but it was good.  The Narrow Way adventure staff slowly departed.. it was a slow and painful death.  One of our guys left a couple of weeks ago, then one of the girls left last week, and two girls left yesterday, and two guys left this morning.  There are only 2 girls, myself and one guy left now.  Really strange to not see each other now since we’ve been together since May 15th!  Thankfully a lot of them are from the south, so we’re hopefully going to have a reunion/backpacking trip in some neutral state.  Our little group is going to go to the Canyonlands in Utah!, for a couple days of camping.. A little adventure for fun, without little middle schoolers , before I go back to Louisiana.

advanced rock week! oh yea August 11, 2008

yea, im one belayer with attitude.. and this is Riley, one of my campers

My last week of campers, Advanced Rock Week was GREAT! There were only 2 girls and 2 boys. Monday we went climbing at a place not far from camp called Bucksnort. It was really nice. We started climbing early, to beat the storms and blistering hot rocks… the kids all climbed I think like 4 different routes, and I got to climb one giant crack climb. It was so good to climb on rock again. So fun too. We had lunch on a huge boulder in the river, then after that all went wading in the river. It was so nice. There were these huge boulders that were just like laying on top of the river, which created these sweet cave like over head things. Hard to explain, but really cool. And then there was this waterfall. The whole water area is called the Hillbilly Waterpark. You can slide down some of the smooth rocks into the little waterfall. We didn’t because none of us had suits on or knew how deep the water was. But it was really cool. Then on Tuesday we left to go to Eleven Mile Canyon, out in Divide. We got a great campsite that was pretty much nestled amongst some boulders, and we got to climb there until Thursday afternoon. It was beautiful and not too hot. It was sunny and warm, and the kids got to climb a lot and I got to climb at least once everyday.

my girls and i acting silly

On Tuesday I got to a multi-pitch, where, you basically have two different ropes that you have to tie into. The first pitch was like a 5.8, which is the rating of the hardness of the climb. 5.5 is easiest, 5.12c is the hardest I think. So, it wasn’t too hard, then once we finished that climb you clipped into the anchors on the rock with a carabiner and rope type thing and tied into a different rope to do the next climb which was like a 5.7 I think. So you’re just hanging out about 150’ above the ground on the rock before you do the next climb. It was cool. I also learned how to clean a climb, which you just take out the carabiners you put at the top for the rope to go through for you to climb with. Sorry if this is really confusing, but anyways, I learned a lot and the campers were really chill and great. They had all been here before. I got ot lead the trip with my co-counselor, Travis Rickards. He’s pretty much good at anything outdoorsy he tries, so.. but he was funny and fun too. We got to play in the river on Wednesday night too, but it was freezing, so we didn’t last too long. On Friday we drove out to Golden and climbed there. I got to leadclimb for the first time, a 5.6 climb, so that was SWEET!!!

here i am lead climbing

Basically you have to climb up the route with the rope and the person on the ground is belaying you (keeping you safe). Because you don’t have a rope coming from the anchors at the top, so.. (top roping). You have to use carabiners and clip into bolts along the route and then put the rope through those carabiners. If you were to fall, you would fall to wherever your last bolt was. Thankfully I did not fall! I kinda almost did, but caught myself. We then had ice cream and slacklined in the park. So that was a lot of fun. Good last week of campers.

here’s the links to lots more fun pics:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050283&l=21da4&id=68602654

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050286&l=314ae&id=68602654

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050322&l=9bb78&id=68602654

the end is near July 23, 2008

So I only have 2 1/2 more weeks of camp left! Kinda crazy, but I am a little ready to go home and see all my family, etc. That will be nice. My last day is Aug 9th. I found out i get to take a trip out next week and its ALL rockclimbing all week!!! yes! i am so thrilled.. and we do multi-pitch climbs and its at this really pretty place called eleven mile canyon and maybe one day at garden of the gods even! they are high schoolers, and we will only have 6 campers! 2 girls, and 4 boys. so, im’ pumped about that. anyways.. keep praying everyone stays strong and healthy and safe and we glorify the Lord with all that we do and say! love ya’ll.

dominique

pictures!!!hooray July 23, 2008

this is Sean, he was so precious!

so i got my camera back! yea. so great. i sure did not like not being able to take pics. so.. here’s the pics from my last group of campers

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049336&l=0378a&id=68602654

My A-5ers on their way up Mt. Bierdstadt, a 14000' mt!

Group number #2 of my campers- A-5 July 16, 2008

Last week I had my second group of campers for the summer. They were middle schoolers, and we did a camp called A-5, which basically stands for five different adventures. Everyday we did a different activity but then would come back to camp and sleep there. Middle schoolers are definitely Different from high schoolers. They required a lot more attention and asked a million trillion questions everyday all about the same stuff. But for the most part they were pretty fun. They also didnt go as deep as the high schoolers in devos and what not, but it was still good. Its cool to think that we hopefully helped shape their young years which will greatly influence their up coming high school years. Some of them talked about becoming more “spiritual”, so… they are at a very moldable age. Ben, a great guy, was my co-counselor. We both got frustrated at a times, but for the most part I think we handled it well.

The first day we hiked a 14er, which is a 14000′ mountain… um yea. well. we almost hiked it… but…it was drizzling on us and dreary the whole time until about 13000′ and then it started SNOWING on us! yea on the 7th of july! the kids were freezing and so we kinda unanimously decided that we wanted to head back down. ben and i really wanted to finish and a couple kids did, but for most part they were miserable. we could have def made it if it hadnt been snowing.oh well. Tuesday we did our high rappel on camp. the kids really enjoyed that. you go backwards down about a 150′cliff. it’s got the best view on camp. the hike up to it is a little steep but not unbearable. Wednesday we went kayaking at Lake dillon again. the weather was beautiful for it, nice and sunny and warm. we played swedish fish tag with them and they had a lot of fun that day too. On Thursday we went mt biking, which i was really kinda anxious about. The first 1/2 mi of our trail one of the girls’ backs was really hurting, so i turned around and we walked back to the trailhead site and played games with one other hurt girl and the rest of the group finished the trail with Ben leading. they went around once more and then we had lunch. Ben was going to lead one more time around after lunch but then his back started hurting. i was not too excited about leading since there were a bunch of daring young middle school boys who would want to go faster than me and I was still a little scared about crashing again. but they were all kinda tuckered out from already doing the trail twice, and i never crashed, so it was really good. friday we went rafting with noah’s ark and it was great! the river has dropped some, but it was still great. overall it was a good week, tiring and sometimes seemed long, but good. i am back at camp this week, running the adventure activities and stuff. tomorrow we have the morning off. i am SO excited because we are going horse back riding! i’ve been wanting to go all summer. we have like 25 horses here at camp and tmw we finally get to go.. and on a fun, non-trail staff ride. and then after that we’re going to paint pottery in our little pottery shop. im stoked about that too! so.. yea. sorry no pics yet. i did borrow my friends camera and got a few pics, but havent loaded them yet. good news though!!! my camera will be fixed for free. took me a while to get it sent off and the warranty found etc since i’m out of state, but my good ole sis saved the day again and helped me out. they got the warranty today and i should be getting my camera back in the next week or so. thank you jesus!

oh, i did post a few pics of the different adventure activities and random stuff on facebook, so… take a peek.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049044&l=363fb&id=68602654

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049067&l=028e1&id=68602654

well, til next time… adieu!

dominique

sweet R&R and good friends July 6, 2008

(disclaimer) last week while rafting my camera unfortunately got wet! so i am hoping that it gets fixed soon. i sent it off, but until then.. no exciting pics ;(

This past week was a little bit different because our main camp was close for the 4th of July holiday. Because of this, we didnt have any activities to run on camp, so… the adventure staff that was not leading our adventures trips worked it out so that half of us would stay on camp and work the meals for the groups here, and then the other half could have that half of the week off and then we would switch. While we were at camp it was still relaxing because we didnt have all that much to do. We had some free time, so that was nice. Then i had off the wed-fri night, so i went down to denver and saw two of my friends, alisa and amy, that i worked with at quaker ridge camp in woodland park, co, a few years back. i drove down to fairplay to stay with my old bosses from the bakery, the macfadyen’s and their four kids for the night. we went down to this really neat place called kite lake that was still mostly frozen and full of beautiful aqua looking snow. it also had 3 trailheads to fourteeners (14,000 ft mts that people climb, also called peak climbs). we didnt really hike but it was really beautiful. and we saw some old mine shafts on the drive up too which were really cool and interesting to think about how they did that back then. we played charades and i had my own room and bathroom downstairs at their cabin, which was super nice. then michelle, amanda and i went down to a little mt. town, alma and shopped around a bit a store called the motherlode and sat at a coffee shop for a bit. we then went to a goat farm with about 30 of the biggest goats i have ever seen. they were nubians, and they all had LONG ears. it was funny. we had some delicious fresh goat cheese and i bought some wonderful goat soap. the people had 10 cats in their house (2 of which were sphinx’s, which are hairless cats… weird and kinda gross looking!), 2 big dogs, and 3 baby goats in their house!! little crazy so that was a really nice, fun relaxing time with their family. so sweet to let me stay with them and hang out. i then drove down to buena vista and went stay with two friends from camp, bekah and kim, at kim’s really! rustic, hardcore cabin that her grandparents live in during the summer its only water was from a hose that ran from the creek near by, there was an outhouse, electricity only by a generator, which we couldnt get to work so we just did without it and used a kerosene lamp and our headlamps. and the shower was a garden sprayer and you would put a make shift curtain around you in the woods! i didnt take a shower but the cabin was amazing. her grandparents bought it from a mining co years ago, 40 acres, and now it’s surrounded by nat’l forest! they are the only people who own land out there. its secluded and so cool. i felt like i was back in time or in some little magazine or something. the kitchen was little and cute and there were two loft sleeping places with cots, like 3 wood burning stoves, a little table and a seating area. i LOVED it. so so cozy and quaint. then i drove back to camp and later that night 3 of my co-workers/friends drove down to golden to watch the 4th fireworks. we were decked out in patriotic attire. we watched fireworks from the side of lookout mt. and it was really neat because you could see so far out and we were above the fireworks. they were far away so it was little bursts of color everywhere plus all the lights of denver and all the surrounding cities. we sand patriotic songs as well. it was quite fun. then today, sat, we went to golden again and hung out in a park and slacklined, which is basically like tight roping across webbing, and were going to tube down the river but it was kinda rainy and overcast so decided to wait on that. we got to play some sand volleyball with a couple from golden and it was really fun. i hadnt done that in a long time and i loved it.

tomorrow my next group of campers come! i am leading the trip with a guy named Ben who is also really cool. it is middle schoolers and the trip is called a-5. we do a different activity everyday and then sleep at camp every night. well be mt biking one day, rappelling and rock climbing, climbing a 14er!, rafting, and kayking, so a busy, but hopefully fun week. please pray for our safety and for the kids lives to be changed! thanks so much. hope all is well wherever you are.

dominique

my first group of campers/ H2Go July 6, 2008

So, sorry its kinda been a while. I had my own first group of campers for a trip called H2Go. It was July 23-28. I led the group/trip with my co-counselor, Matt Griffin. We had a great time. Well.. i guess i should just speak for myself. i know i had a great time; i think matt did too. our campers, which were high school age, all arrived on Sunday afternoon. i had 9 girls and matt had 4 boys… yea he had it a little easier. but a lot of the kids already knew each other from school, so that was nice, not as many awkward ice breaker types things that had to be done. we first played games with them and what not to get to know them etc. then on monday morning we left for lake dillon in frisco, co.

we car camped and kayaked there for mon and tues. it was really fun. we had mostly all good weather on monday,few very short random spurts of windiness and teeny bit of rain, but for the most part, sunny and nice. i had never kayaked except for our short 2 hr little demo in staff training only a couple of weeks before. so it was kinda funny that i was leading a trip and trying to teach kids something i barely knew myself.

but each time we went out it seemed to click a little better. and water is kinda my thing, being a lifeguard for 5 stinking years of my life and all.. except the water in co is SOOOOOO cold!!!! straight up 50 degree snow melt. yikes! no swimming here. which is really strange for me because ive always grown up with warm water that you could/would swim in.we had personal devos that each kid did on their own everyday and then every night either matt or i would lead a group devo with everyone contributing. we made delicious hobo dinners (to find out what these amazing things are look at my first blog)on monday night which everyone loved and had camp fire.it was really nice. the kids were well behaved too. matt and i had decided it would be cool to do a sunrise kayak on tues morning, but we didnt tell them anything. so we woke up at 5 am on tues morning and surprisingly non of my girls complained at all. we all got in out kayaks which had frost on them!from the night before. everyone was a wee bit chilly, but we kayaked out to a little island and had granola and gorp as we watched the sun rise over the mountains and lake dillon. it was really beautiful.

kayaking campers (carolyn in middle and matt, co-counselor to right)

here comes the sun...

We then kayaked some more and played game at camp, packed up, and had lunch etc. On Wed we went to Golden, Co and tried to roll white water kayaks in a pond at a park. You basically learn how to flip your self back up right after you’ve flipped over in the river. I kinda got it, but not completely. It was fun and the kids enjoyed it too. And there were these amazing white water Olympic kayakers practicing in the river across from us. It was so cool to watch them. THey were really good. I have videos and pics of them on my facebook. Then on Thursday we went out to Noah’s Ark white water rafting co and rafter on thurs afternoon. It was nice rafting with them b.c they basically did everything for us. We pulled off the river and camped with, and they cooked, cleaned and were kinda entertaining, too. We just sent up our tents and then that was all. The guides were really cool and Matt and I got a little time to hang with them and talk while the kids hung out and played games. The stars were amazing and it was so neat to be able to hear the river as we fell asleep. We got up and had a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and coffee cake… yea we were really roughing it. Then we packed up and rafted for a few more hours. We had a lot of fun; we had splash wars b/w two of our boats and one of our guides was a music theatre major so he sang lion king songs and everything. That was great. On Friday night for our devos we had everyone talk about what they had learned and how they grew etc, and then told the kids if anyone needed to talk with matt or I, we would love to talk to them. On tues night, I had shared my testimony as the devo and told how my Mom passed away in dec 07 and how that had been really hard. After that, one of the girls, Carolyn, told me she was sorry, that her Mom had passed away when she was 10. So I told her I would like to talk to her sometime hopefully during the week. Well, on Friday night, after devos, we talked for about 45 min. We cried and reminiscenced about our moms and the pain from their deaths,etc. It was a great time. At the end of the time I asked her if she had ever accepted Christ as her Savior, and she said no, and I asked if she wanted to and she said yes. It was really, really neat. My bosses wife, Annie, had just asked earlier that week what she could be praying for me about. So I just asked her to pray that I would be approachable to the kids and open and that they would feel comfortable talking to me. And she prayed that I would be able to use my story/testimony. Totally an answer to prayer. It was really encouraging to me because it kinda confirmed that I was where I was supposed to be, and that God did have a purpose in everything for my life, even the really hard and painful things, like losing my mom. I shared I Cor 1:13 with Carolyn. Its always been a meaningful scripture passage, and was really fitting for our conversation.
It says, “And praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our source of every mercy and the God who comforts us. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. So when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your benefit and salvation! For when God comforts us, it is so that we, in turn, can be an encouragment to you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in suffering, you will also share God’s comfort.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. miss and love you guys.

dominique

link to more pics and videos via facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047792&l=e06eb&id=68602654

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047986&l=317a3&id=68602654

first weeks of camp June 18, 2008

so it has been lots of fun this last week and a half. we usually have some type of adventure activity we run for the little kids in regular camp who are either in 3-5 grade or 6-8 grade or sometimes now we have high school groups too. so like this yesterday we set up low rappel and had two different groups come and go through it. it was fun. then in the afternoon after a very quick lunch i had to help run the high ropes course, then after that i had a little group of middle school girls do the low ropes course with me as the facilitator. everyone got through all the activities safely and with good attitudes and pretty quickly. last week wasnt as much the case. we had 3 different campers kinda freak out on us while doing the high ropes and low rappel. the one i had on high ropes was crying and shaking for like 45 min up there. we finally got her calmed down adn on the ground. i felt really bad for her but she was ok.  im going to take pics of all the activities we do and our tower etc and make an album on facebook so everyone can see what im talking about.

we went kayaking this past sat and it was fun. we didnt got for very long. it was supposed to be for training, so we had to practice self rescues, which basically meant we had to know how to get back in our kayaks by ourselves if they were to capsize. so… to practice this we had to go one by one and flip ourselves out of our kayak into 40-50 degree water, then blow up this little paddle float, stick it on our paddle, then use stick out our leg on our paddle and get back in our kayak, then pump out all the water that had gotten in with a little bilge pump. then we paddled back to shore and quickly changed out of our wet clothes to prevent getting hypothermia!  the water was so cold when you first got in it took your breath away. but once you got your breath back it wasnt too bad. and then after we were in dry clothes again it was fine. it was a really sunny nice day actually and it was nice to be in/around water again. i miss the water that is everywhere in la, even if it is brown.  there isnt much water here in co. its very dry, there are rivers though that are beautiful.

so the next day, sunday, i found out that i am taking out my first trip of narrow way expedition (nwe) campers! and its a trip called h2go, so we go kayaking for two days and car camp on lake dillon area, then we got white water rafting with noah’s ark rafting co. for two days and camp with them! i am super excited. i loved rafting and havent been in a while and since we go with a co, we use their guides who pick our camp sites and are kinda in control and they provide the food and all that which ive heard is really good too. so, it should be great. the guy counselor leading the trip with me is matt griffin. he’s really cool, i like him a lot and we should have a good time and work well together.  however, i will have 8 girls! and he’ll have 4 boys! so, please be praying that we will change these campers lives and be good leaders and examples.  also that we have nice warm sunny weather all week!   dont really want to be in the water with snow or rain and windy cold weather.  thanks for your prayers and support. ill be sure to update yall after we go. it’ll be this coming sunday til sat.  well, hope everyone’s summer is going well.

blessings,

dominique