:)

I'll start from this weekend and then move backwards through the week so I don't forget anything.

This weekend was a good friend of mine's birthday so a big group of about 12 people went to go camping in Stehekin. Best weekend ever! We left the village on the early bus at 10:45. The boat ride was only an hour and a lot of fun. We played cards. There was another person who knows how to play euchre, so we taught everyone. When we got to stehekin we brought all of our stuff up to the ranger station/visitors area to get a permit for camping. The ranger invited us to a potluck within 15 minutes of being in Stehekin!! Judy Clark welcomed us off the boat (she has a strong relationship with Holden). We brought all of our stuff up to camp then went down to get lunch at the restaurant. I got a veggie burger and a coke (this weekend was about food mostly). As soon as we were done eating we went to the small general store where we all bought things we can't get in the village (ie. chips, beer, ect). By the time we got out of the store it started pooring down rain!! We waited out the storm a little and then headed up to our camp site. We set up our tents and set up everything we needed. It started pooring again. We waiting out the storm again, this time in our tents, and then just kind of hung around until it was time to make our 7:00 dinner reservations at the same restaurant (the only restaurant in the town). The potluck started at 7:30 and since we didn't know anyone but ourselves in the village, we decided to go late to limit the awkwardness. The time came, we ate. I had a grilled cheese and french fries! Mmmmm. Good times were had.

After dinner, we headed straight to the potluck. It was full of people our age, we didn't realize there were 20 somethings in Stehekin. We had a good time. I guess it's a stehekin tradition to have your toe nails painted when you first arrive; it's a sort of welcoming ceremony. We participated. We hung around with the locals for a while until it was nice and dark. Then we decided to head back up to camp to have a bon fire. We had a bon fire, roasted marsh mellows and enjoyed each others company for a while. We also sang happy birthday a few times to Hannah at midnight after a fairly intense countdown. After we let the fire burn out, we decided to go down to the dock to watch the stars. We did that for probably an hour until we were all falling asleep. We brushed our teeth, cleaned up, and went to bed after a long stream of goodnights yelled from the 5 different tents we brought for 12 people.

The morning was pretty much a dead race to the bathrooms because they were so far away that nobody went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and going around the camp wasn't going to happen because it was a pretty hopping camp site. We cleaned up our tents and trash and everything and went down to the visitors center to store our stuff until it was time for the boat to leave. We dropped our stuff and walked to the bike rental place to get pikes to go to the bakery. We did. It was beautiful and warm and a gorgeous ride. The word "Euphoric" was passed around a lot. We went to the bakery, got food (I got a cinimon roll and I got a cheap day-old blackberry scone to take back to the village and supplument the oat meal) and hung around until it was time to get our bikes back. On the bike ride back we all sang "American Pie" really lowdly as we road around the lake in the sunshine. It was really great how aware we all were that we were having a great time.

When we got back, we grabbed our stuff, put it by the boat and hung out around the porch of the restaurant we had been hanging around. We played cards and talked about everything. Once it was lunchtime we ate lunch (I got a basket of fries and a cocoa-cola. I also had a drink of Hannah's chocolate milk! By the time lunch was over and we had hung around outside some more it was time to board the boat and get back to the village. On the boat ride back we played Euchre and talked to Lee Klueth and his gang from Trinity. I didn't see him because he was behind a poll until I heard, "Hey! Cross girl!!" He asked me about the graduation card he sent me (I took a picture of it and put it up here a while ago, it just has a picture of his face on it). I told him it was awesome and I posted it on my blog. He got a kick out of that. We talked about hiking in, they hiked in to Stehekin and were boating in. I talked about my hike in from Trinity. We swapped stories and chatted for a while. When we got off the boat we had to say goodbye to our good friend Aaron who has been here for a month and a half (this trip was half happy birthday and half goodbye Aaron). He stayed on the boat. We had a massive group-hug that freaked out all the people on the boat and stepped onto the dock. I guess Aaron graduated with me from PLU but neither of us had ever seen the other. I hate how often people leave here.

On the bus ride up the mountain into the village we all pretty much dosed. This was the best weekend I've had in a loong time. Also, I'll never eat again...seriously.

I feel really refreshed being back in the village now. I also feel like a big part of it based on how many people have come up to me and asked how my weekend away was. It was great! When I got back, I checked my e-mail. Someone sent me a picture of my and the rootbeer float from the parade on the 4th of July. Here it is!

Last week has pretty much been hanging out on different porches. That pretty much fills my day. Hopefully the story of my weekend is enough to satisfy you until I can get pictures from Jubilee of my ice cream creations from the auction!

<3 Amy