The Ultimate Adventure

Yesterday I got back from a crazy trip to the Grand Canyon with the youth group I am a leader at. 6 other leaders and I took 31 students on a 35 hour (round trip) road trip to see this huge hole in the ground. I went into the trip almost wondering why I signed up to drive so long to stay for 24 hours. The car ride was half the fun though. I took my ipod, 4 books, and my journal to keep me occupied in the car. Little did I know that I wouldn't open my books once. I have never listened to more music in that amount of time in my life. We slept a lil but the car rides turned into a kaleidoscope of music, everything from Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" to Chris Brown's "Forever" and everything in between. Almost every kid in the cars I rode in had ipods and we would take turn swapping them out tolisten to different music selections. We rode in 4 vans and so on the ride home my van decided to do an hour long dance off that ended in the parking lot of our destination to conclude the trip. I didn't know that those white kids had so many danceable songs. Music was a huge theme for this trip. It was played, danced to, disected, made fun of, and screamed over the walkie talkies. Once we got to the Grand Canyon, the theme changed to God's creation as the kids, and leaders, were amazed at how big our God is. We pulled up and went down to the look out point and everyone just soaked it in. Pictures do not do it justice. The ground actually had quite a bit of snow on it from the snow the week before and everyone had a blast playing in the snow. Yes, we are from south Texas. Camping in 20 something degree weather was definitely part of the great adventure. We pitched tents in the none snowy parts and froze to death, or at least I did. I had four layers of clothes on, a good sleeping bag, and a blanket and still moved to the van at 1am after zero sleep. The van proved to be only a tiny big warmer and my toes were numb all night. In total I got about an hour worth of sleep and was literally excited when the 5am wake up call came to go see the sunrise. We had 15 minutes to be in the vans and let's just say that was not graceful. We zipped off to the bus stop and watched the bus zip by realizing the actual bus stop was a several hundred feet further. We all took off running and definitely got our blood pumping even though it was pitch black outside. We made it to the bus and saw the most amazing sunrise. I didn't have my camera and I was a little glad because it would not have done it justice. We headed back to camp and got to chill there for a while, playing in the snow and relaxing in the fellowship. We packed up the vans and headed to the hiking trails. I wasn't sure what we were hiking and could not have been more thrilled to see the trail actually led into the Grand Canyon. That was definitely my favorite part of the trip. Something about danger that can be beat gets me excited. We hiked a trail that was maybe a foot and half wide with a drop off the side of the canyon the only other space. Walking over snow, ice, mud, dirt, and rocks, we hiked this trail for a few hours. The group could definitely sense the danger of the trail because if one were to fall there was only one place to fall, down. I still think the youth pastor had guts to take 6-11th graders on this trail but the kids had a blast. There were several times when I would slip or one of my girls would slip a little when my heart felt like it stopped beating. No one came close to actually falling off but something about being that close to the edge and loose rocks under your feet gets your heart racing. My girls and I had trouble talking about anything but death on that hike because it was on our minds as we hiked that steep canyon. It definitely got everyone thinking. We walked away with a greater sense of how great our God and His creation is. The trip was exhausting with little sleep all the way around but the conversations made the trip. Those kids mean the world to me and I am sorry I selfishly asked why I signed up to go at the begining. It isn't about what you are doing, it's about who you are doing it with. I didn't care if I didn't sleep well or had a back ache or a sunburn, I was glad to spend time with those students and I loved the conversations in the car. I learned a lot about some kids I didn't know so well, and even kids I knew pretty well. That was my biggest take away: the students.