School Retreat

Once again we used two school days to take our Middle and High school students on a retreat.

This time we went to a different camp that had more updated facilities and was fully staffed.

This was my cabin (with my girls) complete with a bathroom and a shower.

Initially, I thought the bathroom would be great...but I had no idea just how much time teenage girls spend in the bathroom!  Rarely was there a moment when one of my girls wasn't in there primping in front of the mirror or taking their second shower of the day! 
The moment I lost my cool was when it was "clean up the cabin and pack up things on the bus" time and four of my six girls were in the bathroom in front of the mirror doing their hair!

When they weren't in the bathroom though, they took part in team building activities.  The purpose of these activities was to encourage them to communicate and cooperate with each other in any way possible.
Here they are trying to use pipes to roll a ball from one cone to the other without letting it fall to the ground.

In this activity, they all had to stand on the blanket and then turn it over onto the other side without touching any part of their body to the grass.

This game was pretty easy for them.. They had to hold a bar using only their pointer fingers, and then lower it to the ground.

This one, however, they had a lot of trouble with.  They were placed on a balance beam in random order and had to line up in number order (using their birth date) but they could not talk to each other at all.

The final game involved having to balance on a square platform while singing a song.  After each song, the leader would remove a layer and the platform would get smaller.

But they did it...and even more impressive - I think - is they knew the words to the Star Spangled Banner!

My girls also impressed me at the dinner table with their ability to eat food!!!  We ate family style and could go up to the window for seconds if needed...and we most definitely needed them at our table!

 But, then again, who could blame them...the food was fabulous!

And in between there was swimming.

and fun in the game room

and a night time game of basketball

And then, of course there were two Chapels...but no pictures of those.

Great time again!!