Kayaking Class

I finally got this dang thing to work. Everytime i tried to post and wait for the pictures to upload it would then give me an error. Oh well. We continued kayaking class for the three days after my birthday. I was totally excited because it is always something i wanted to do...wear a skirt and get in a little boat and go down some huge rapids. We went down many of the same rapids that we did with rafting excpet this time we actually got some sun which was amazing.
We were too far away from the rapids with the camera to get any good shots but this is me eddying back into the third set of rapids on triple set on the Clark Fork River. It was a ton of funa nd very challenging. The waves continued to change so i either got smakced in the face, launched over the top, or tossed upside down, it was soo sweet!

This is the green team after we ate lunch. Alot of this year has been abotu building healthy relationships and what it is like to live in community with that love that God fills us up with. Kayaking is a very individual sport and it forces the student to take responsibilty of whatever happens to them going down the rapids. The teacher can show you how to roll, paddle, and navigate the rapids but when the currents gets you and you start floatin in there is prettty much nothing they can do. If the see you are about to flip and you cant perform your roll to upright yourself they must wait till you float down through the rapids and then at the other side help you back in your boat. We talked about how God is like this and how He gives us everything we need to handle tough situations. We see how His strength is made perfect in our weakness. So we are goin through hard times and cry out for help, but He is often times not a God of the eleven o'clock hour who is gonna swoop down to rescue you. Often times we have to completely die to ourselves and then after 12 and into the next day He will be there for us and let us know He was there. Hopefully we take advantage of those times and learn quickly from trials. Count them as joy!
Even though it was sunny it was still cold. For one half day we went to a local hot springs with our kayaks and practiced in the warm water. This is a picture of me upside down in position one of the roll before you snap back up. It was nice but i still wasnt vey good at it till the end of the day. I actually left my bathing suit at camp so i had to borrow one from the lobby where the had a box of old ones. Then when we were getting back on the bus someone said whose bathing suit is this under the seat...ohhh those are mine.

Birthday Party

Happy Birthday to me! This is pretty much a good activity for a birthday.

Thanks Mama and Dad for sending me a party in a box. There was like 2 pounds of confetti and we threw it on the floor and all over our selves, then slid on our stomachs on the wood floor.
What else would we do now but line dance!
And then some more dancing. At the end of the night my shirt was totally covered in sweat and my legs were sore.
We put the pinata up outside and it took several good beatings before buckmaster busted it open and everyone dived ontop of the candy. My intern Jules birthday was the next day so we had a comined party. Everyone had a blast and told me my parents were awesome and to thank them for everything. Thank all you guys for your cards and letters, it made for a really sweet day.

Rock Climbing Class

I was really looking forward to rock climbing class sense i have never donw any real climbinging before, outside, on real rock. This was the first day with Tim Kickert just showing us some basic technique
We learned all about tying knots and equiptment. Also how belay people, and set up our own top rope anchors. This means that we could go anywhere and i could set us up and get climbing.

Climbing is a individual challenge. You want to be able to climb a really fun route but eventually you dont want to be able climb everything you get on you want a challenge. So you pick a hard route and you keep failing and thats not fun either. Its like you gotta push yourself to do things you dont think you can do and sometimes youll get it and sometimes you dont, thats when learning takes place.
This is what we climbed on the last day. Its what is called a multi pitch climb meaning that you climb all the way to the top of one rope, then you transfer to another rope that is set up because it is so high. This one was about 120 feet high. We set up a loop so you climbed up the two ropes and then belayed down three ropes to do it all over again.