Ketchup

It has been a little while since I've posted. I'll try to ketchup on some stories of things that have been going on here! Get it? Ketchup? Catch up? .....yeeeeah. :) I mainly have pictures to share, so I'll just tell stories to go along with those!

The weekend before last was the Strawberry Days Festival. I have mentioned that a few times before. The start of the festival is the big parade. Honestly, I thought our float was kind of lame... especially compared to the kinds of floats we always made in high school and college. But anyway, regardless of what I thought, we got 2nd place! I have no idea how, but I was glad we did. We had to try to mesh the theme of Strawberry Days (Alice in Wonderland) and our VBS (Power Lab). So anyway... that is why you see Alice characters along with beakers and stuff.


Matt caught me having a blast before the parade! Haha
(notice the super cool shirts that we got to wear every day of VBS....)

Justin, our associate minister, dressed as the mad scientist for VBS...


After the parade, Matt and I walked around town to check out the booths set up for the festival. We spent way too much for some corndogs and bought some Strawberry Jam and Strawberry Salsa. Yes, strawberry salsa. It is surprisingly good! I mailed some jam and salsa to my parents so if you want some you'll have to harass them for it! :)

We took a couple of pictures in the office later that day...


And of course, the goofy one!


We also had VBS last week. I just copied and pasted Matt's explanation of it from the updates that he sents his family... it is pretty funny. You can tell that VBS is not his kind of thing! :)

"This past week was crazy; unfortunately, it was Vacation Bible School...ugh. I work better with teenagers and older...I don't have the patience for little kids. If I may remind you, last summer while doing CTW at Park Avenue, similar to VBS, I was in charge of teaching the Bible class. One day I made a little boy move because he was hitting the kid next to him. He tried to stay where he was--when I picked him up to move him, he began crying. I told him he was acting like a big baby and asked him if that's what he was...he said no and stopped crying. As I said, I don't have the patience! Anyways, I was put in charge of my own group, about 6-8 of them. The first day was terrible. I had 3 boys that I was ready to pick up and throw across the room. Luckily, for the next 3 days, I had an older lady helping me. She had the mom experience and look, so they obeyed a little better. Thankfully, we made it through the stupid kids songs, messy snacks and crafts, crying, running, yelling...you know, all the things little kids tend to do."

This picture was from sometime last week. Someone had told us that it is so dry here that sometimes the rain stops before it even hits the ground. Sure enough, as you can see here, the rain just seems to stop in the air! We just got a few sprinkles and that was it. Those of you who know me, know that I LOVE storms. That is one thing I miss being up here! It never storms!!! I"m still waiting on at least ONE good storm here, but I'm not sure I'm going to get one! :)

That same day, we stopped by the Hotel Colorado. You can click on the link to read more about it and some of it's history if you want. Some of it is pretty interesting. We walked in and wandered around the lobby for a while looking at things. We went up a couple flights of stairs and looked around some more then headed back. It is a pretty cool hotel! (Pretty expensive, too, I believe!)


Then we decided to be silly (imagine that) and try to make this really weird noise. It was hard to do because we had a hard time keeping a straight face! Then, we started getting choked a little! :) But here is a lovely video montage for you all. (it is kind of loud...annoying...obnoxious... so you might want to make sure your volume isn't up super high!) :)

Because I am feeling extremely lazy today for some reason, I am going to paste more of Matt's update. He tells a little bit about our weekend...

"This past Saturday, we were planning to go to an area wide event called One Homeless Night. Many youth groups in the area were getting together to spend the night in a field. We were responsible for bringing our own sack lunch and bedding (which was cardboard boxes). However, none of our kids signed up to go, big surprise, so instead, Lauren and I went to Grand Junction (about an hour and a half west of Glenwood on the Utah border) to go eat and see a movie, and get outside of this town! I believe Lauren said, "TAKE ME ON A DATE!" When I asked her where she wanted to go eat, she said, "A&W." Thank goodness for cheap girls! ;) (i resent that remark!) After eating, we went to the theater and saw Get Smart (a modern day movie based off the older tv show). We both thought it was pretty funny; I would suggest seeing it if you haven't.

Yesterday after church, Lauren and I decided to go to the Adventure Park. We rode a tram that took us by cable up the side of a mountain. At the top they have some rides, including the Swing Shot which swings you out over the edge of Glenwood Canyon--1300 feet to the canyon floor. To give you an idea of how far that is, the Empire State Building is 1250 feet tall. Also at the top is a restaurant that sits on the edge of the mountain with a great view of Mt. Sopris and Glenwood Springs. We also took a tour into the caverns that take you deep inside the mountain. We had a great time! Unfortunately, we forgot our cameras. We do plan to go back up to the restaurant sometime though, so we will take pictures then."

So there you have it! That about catches you up on what is going on here! We are working on lining up some events for the next few weeks, and working on a big "End of Summer" event.

I convinced Matt to let me video him playing some of his songs. The only reason he agreed to it is because a church in Austin asked him for some videos of him playing. Here are links to watch them on Youtube...

More Than This:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjfb7uOLZTU

Fall Down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezw1BBG9JJM

Filthy Self:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Wp4UhmBR0

And I may get in trouble from my mother for this one... but here it is anyway. You have to watch through it then you'll see what I mean...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJIm_0G4Saw

Here are some videos that mom sent me the other day of Elijah and Judah! I can't wait to see them in August!

That's all for now!

Jimmy Needham

Tonight was the God Rally! Again, none of the kids came with us, but Matt and I still went. We got to see one of my favorite Christian artists, Jimmy Needham. After he played, we went over to his merchandise booth and got to talk to him! Of course, I had NO clue what to say (even after Matt told me PLENTY of ways I could start up a conversation with him). So, all I ended up saying to him was, "Can I get a picture with you?" Haha! So anyway, here is my picture with Jimmy Needham! I will post more later.

Matt Singing/Dancing

On Friday Matt and I went back to White House Pizza in Carbondale. On the way there we put in a Colbie Caillat CD. I listened to this CD a LOT last summer so Matt knows most of the songs. There is one in particular that he would always act really goofy and sing during the chorus. Well, he still does it! :) I caught him for just a few seconds before he saw the camera, then he immediately stops, smiles, then tries to play it off! He tried to say I couldn't put it on my blog, but he knows it is too funny to keep to ourselves so he gave me permission! :) Enjoy!

Upcoming Events

We have a lot of events coming up here! Matt and I made a flyer/brochure type thing today with a list of all of the upcoming events (to go along with the ones on the BOARD) so that EVERYONE knows about them! Here is the cover I made for it: (fyi: "GYG" is "Glenwood Youth Group")


Here are some of the events we have coming up:

Saturday, June 21st
STRAWBERRY DAYS FESTIVAL
A huge festival in Glenwood Springs. It is apparently a really big deal around here. The church has a float in the parade so we will be doing that in the morning.

Saturday, June 21st
GOD RALLY
This is a big FREE outdoor Christian concert in Rifle (30 min away). We are going to head down there late afternoon/early evening and check out some of the artists. One of my favorite Christian artists is going to be there so I'm excited to check him out. (YOU can check him out if you want! Click here.)

Monday, June 23rd - Thursday, June 26th
VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL
Need I say more? Busy, busy, busy!!

Wednesday, June 25th

ICE CREAM SOCIAL

We are going to have the youth group kids sit down and visit with other people from the congregation... while eating ice cream! We want to especially get them talking with some of the elderly people in the congregation. We are probably going to provide some discussion questions for them to get them going. Hopefully we have a good turnout for this one... if not, more ice cream for us! :)

Friday, June 28th

ONE HOMELESS NIGHT

The Feed My Sheep program in Glenwood Springs is putting on “One Homeless Night”. Feed My Sheep is a program that helps to take care of the homeless population here. They feed them, help them with clothes and supplies when needed. For "One Homeless Night" we will stay the night outside in a field behind a community church here. We will leave the building sometime on Friday evening and come straight from there to church on Sunday morning. We are required to bring our own sack lunch and materials and supplies to build our own shelter (or we can bring a tent). Admission is to donate some canned goods to the program. The whole thing is just to kind of raise awareness, but we are also having a big night of praise and worship while we're there. Hopefully it will be fun, and hopefully our kids will take it seriously.

Sunday, June 29th

PARENTS MEETING

Matt and I are going to have a meeting with the parents. Scary, I know! :) We are just going to sit down and talk with them and see what kinds of things they want to see happen with their children and the youth group as a whole this summer. We are also going to stress that we need their help and their support. Pray that this goes well!

Wednesday, July 2nd

FAMILY NIGHT
The first Wednesday of each month we have "Family Night". John plans something that involves the whole church working together. It is really just a good time of fellowship with everyone together. Afterwards, Matt is playing and singing! We are going to try to spread the word and get the youth group kids to invite their friends!

Wednesday, July 9nd
BBQ @ OPEN GATE ASSISTED LIVING

There is an assisted living place here with only 13 residents. We are going to go put on a BBQ for them. We are going to have the youth group help cook and serve, then we are supposed to ENTERTAIN! We are still looking for some ideas for this - so please help me out! The residents range in age from 53-93. They have a game called "Remember When" that they like to play. Basically we just read "stats" from certain years, like "Remember when movie tickets were $0.50" and they just go from there. It is more of a conversation starter than a game, really. I think Matt is going to learn some oldies and play them on guitar and sing. I think they would enjoy that. But anyway, we definitely need some ideas! So let me know!


So that is all of the things that are coming up in the next couple of weeks. We are also in the process of trying to plan an "End of Summer" retreat or youth rally or something along those lines. We are still very much in the brainstorming stage, but hopefully we can come up with something soon. Ok, thats all for now! :)

Haircuts

Matt has been talking lately about how he needed to get his hair cut. However, everywhere around here is so expensive!! Diana told him that she had all of the clippers and that she would be happy to do it for him. But then, we started talking about it and realized that maybe I should learn how to cut his hair! It would save a lot of money in the long run! SO, I cut Matt's hair yesterday. I don't know that I have EVER seen him so nervous in my life!! It took me a lot longer than it should, considering how easy of a cut it is, but I eventually got it! I had to redo some parts that weren't even, and I cut his sideburns a little shorter than he prefers - but it turned out just fine! I'm sure after a couple more times I'll get the hang of it! Here are his "Before & After" pictures. It doesn't look like THAT much of a change, but it is much shorter now. (The first picture was still when he was really nervous! Haha!)

Then, after we got him all cleaned up, he said, "Want me to cut your hair now?" We joked about it for a while then I said, "Actually, you can if you want..." John and Diana thought I was absolutely insane for letting him cut my hair, but I wasn't too concerned about it. I didn't take a "Before" picture, but here is the after. (the picture is fuzzy, but you get the point!)


So now, if we both get to the point where we are really good at cutting each other's hair, we will save a LOT of money in the long run! :) Well, that was our adventure for Monday...

"Maybe he doesn't know there's a board..."

On Friday we had a group from Denver come to Glenwood Springs for a hiking/rafting trip. They stayed the night at our building, so we planned to have them here and eat, play games and have a devotional with them. Matt and I had been telling the youth group about this since we got here. Want to take a stab at how many showed up? Try none! However, I have to give PARTIAL credit to one guy who showed up for about 30 minutes. He had just gotten off work and was pretty tired. He made an effort, so I'll give him that. Needless to say, Matt and I were pretty bummed about it and, honestly, it was pretty embarrasing. Still, WE had a good time playing games and hanging out with the Denver group. Hopefully, next time we have something like that, people will show up.

Saturday morning we came back up to the building for a short VBS workday. Matt and I just worked on painting a giant sign the whole time, so it wasn't too bad. We had one thing that happened there, that is funny now, but was VERY frustrating at the time! When we got there some people started asking, "How did last night go? Did a lot of the kids show up?" We told them that nobody came and I think it was clear that we were pretty bummed about it. Then, one of the ladies there, from across the room, says real loudly, "Well my son never knows about anything! He always wonders why nobody ever invites him to anything and why he never knows what is going on!" It was frustrating already, but I calmly said, "Well we have been announcing this since we got here... for about three weeks." She said, "Well he doesn't come to class on Wednesday's so maybe that is why he never hears about things." Trying very hard, I again remained calm and said, "Well we announce it every class, and it is up on the board in there." THEN, this is the good part, she says, "Oh. Well maybe he doesn't know there is a board." .....THERE IS A GIANT WHITE DRY ERASE BOARD ON THE WALL IN THE YOUTH ROOM! Hahaha!! Matt and I were pretty frustrated during the conversation, but we couldn't help but laugh about it later. Every class period, Sunday AND Wednesday, we write the announcements on the board, then go over ALL of them before each class. Anyway, we got a good laugh out of it. During Sunday morning class Matt announced, "Just so you all know, we have all of the announcements up here on the BOARD behind me." SO, now they ALL know about the board in the room, so they have no excuses unless they just never come to class! :)

So after all of that drama, Matt and I drove to Carbondale. It is just about twenty minutes from here. We had heard about a place called White House Pizza that everyone claimed was amazing. We were also going there to see the new Indiana Jones movie. We drove around the block a few times looking for the pizza place (looking for a resturant) then realized it was actually in a big white house! It was funny because Matt said, "Well they should put it in something that doesn't look like a house!" (he was frustrated that the GPS was telling us we were there, but we couldn't find it) I kind of looked at him funny and said, "That's why its called WHITE HOUSE Pizza!" Haha, he just kind of smiled and laughed and said, "Oh..." When we walked in and got seated, a couple next to us leaned over and said, "Where in Texas are you from?" We both had confused looks on our faces because we didn't know HOW they knew we were from Texas!! We answered, then she said, "We saw your license plate when you pulled up." They were from Lousianna and I guess were just visiting on vacation. We talked to them some and told them about what we were doing for the summer and they were just a really nice couple. Later on, the waitress came by to check on us and leaned down and whispered, "Just so you know, that couple picked up your tab." We weren't sure what to do, because we figured their intentions were for us to not know until they had left. At the same time, we hated knowing that they had done such a nice thing, and not to say anything! Plus, their table was right next to ours so we couldn't really discuss it. Before we could really make any decisions, they got up to leave and came over and gave us a box of leftover pizza. We just thanked them and told them how nice it was to meet them, and so on. After they left, the waitress came back and said, "Did you know those people?" We told her we didn't and she just kind of shook her head and said, "Good people..." We agreed. :) The rest of the time we were there, and even after that, Matt and I would just randomly say, "They were nice people." Haha, anyone can make a big impression when they buy college kids a meal! So anyway, we were very thankful for their kind action.

We both really liked the Indiana Jones movie! It, of course, had its cheesy unbelievable scenes, but it wouldn't be Indiana Jones if it didn't! I would recommend seeing it!

I was sick on Sunday with some kind of stomach bug, so I didn't do much. Matt and I just sat around (on opposite sides of the couch, haha) all day watching movies. One of the movies that we watched that I really liked was "Sahara". If you haven't seen it, it is a good one to rent!

I have a few more stories to tell, but one of them requires pictures that I don't have with me right now. I will try to get them at lunch so I can update again. :)

Random

Hey everyone! I don't have any breathtaking pictures to share or amazing stories to share this time... just thought I'd tell a little bit about some random things that are going on here!

Tomorrow night a youth group from Denver is coming to Glenwood to do some hiking and rafting and they are staying the night at our building. We are going to order pizza and have a devo with them, then play some games for a while.

Then, Saturday morning we have a VBS workday... oh how we all love VBS... ..... .....

....

I don't know how much it is everywhere else, but gas here is $4.27!!! I'm not sure how much it is in Aspen, but we've been told it is even higher than that. Luckily, since Matt moved in with John and Diana, he is MUCH closer so we don't have to spend as much on gas.

They opened up a mountain in Aspen yesterday for SKIING because they got more snow the other day. It was pretty chilly here yesterday and I saw snow on the radar in the surrounding areas, but we didn't get any here. It is so crazy that it can still be snowing in June!! One of the families here at the church said that an old couple that has lived here for years said they have seen snow in every month of the year EXCEPT August.

Matt and I have watched a few different movies in the past few days. I'll give my take on them:
- American Gangster - it was long, but it was pretty good. It is a very serious movie. I liked it pretty well, but I wouldn't HIGHLY recommend it, necessarily.
- Cloverfield - don't waste your time! Matt and I both thought it was awful. The parts that were supposed to be scary and intense just made us laugh... don't go see it.
- Bucket List - we both really liked this one! It was funny and entertaining and kind of sad - but very good! Go rent it! (go to redbox and get it for $1 - it just came out there this week)

Coming up soon here is the big Strawberry Days Festival. It is apparently a really big deal here. I'm not really sure yet what all to expect. The church does a float for the parade. Right after the festival is when we start our VBS so we are using our float as "advertisement" for VBS. The whole festival sounds like fun, so I'm looking forward to checking it all out!

They are also doing a "Jazz in the Park" thing all summer. Matt was so excited to check it out but we found out that it is every Wednesday night at 7:00pm... right when church starts. He was especially sad about missing the guy who played last night because it was someone he had heard of before. We may have to run out there one Wednesday right after church and see if we can catch the end of someone playing. They have it at Two Rivers Park, which is where we went and ate lunch and rode bikes a couple of weeks ago. It is a really neat park.

We went bowling last night after church with the youth group kids. We had two of them show up for class, then three others that met us for the bowling ONLY. One of the kids actually called Matt to see what time class ended (to know when we were going bowling), then showed up at the bowling alley but not class. They must really have their priorities in line! :) We were pretty disappointed in the turnout, or lack thereof, for class because our whole lesson was based on discussion questions. Anyway, that being said, we still had a great time bowling! I stink at it... but it was fun!

Ok, well I think I have shared enough random stories for the day! Matt and I MIGHT do another hike on Saturday after the VBS workday. If we do, I'll be sure to bring my camera! :)

Slideshow - ALL pictures

Here is a slideshow of ALL of the pictures from the hike:

Hanging Lake Trail

This weekend was our first retreat with the youth group. We had some people drop out last minute (meaning, 30 minutes after they were supposed to be at the church building to leave!) so that was kind of a bummer, but we still had a great time! We only had six kids, but it was a great group. We stayed in camper cabins at Glenwood Canyon Resorts about 5-10 minutes from the building. That night we had a campfire and ate hotdogs and smores, played games and had a devotional around the campfire later that night. In the morning, we got up at ate breakfast then drove over to the Hanging Lake Trail. It is absolutely beautiful up there! It was a tough hike, but it was worth it once you get to the top!

Matt took a ton of pictures on the hike and it was hard to eliminate ANY of them! They are completely out of order, but I'll just add captions to the pictures as I go.

This was at the top of one of the waterfalls at hanging lake.


Matt and I posing for a picture. I was all wet because I had just run behind the waterfall!


The two waterfalls at Hanging Lake.


You can see here how clear the water is! Nobody is allowed to swim or fish in the lake, so it is really nice and clear. You could see the very bottom, even twenty feet in front of you!


This is behind the waterfalls. Matt saw the rainbow and caught a picture of it!


We like to call him "Mountain Man Matt".... :)

Taking a picture with the waterfalls in the background.


This is Spouting Rock. It is just an extra two minute hike from Hanging Lake. The waterfall just shoots out from the rocks! It was so cool.


There is a cave-like area behind the waterfall at Spouting Rock. This one was when we were standing underneath/behind it.


Matt and I behind the waterfall!


Stopping for a picture somewhere along the trail.

This is the water again at Hanging Lake. You can see the fish in this one.


One of the Hanging Lake waterfalls...



This is us behind one of the Hanging Lake waterfalls - it was SO COLD!


A shot that Matt took on the way up the trail...

Here is the group heading up the trail!


One of the beautiful waterfalls we saw along the trail...



Here is just a quick video that I shot at Hanging Lake...




Here is a video of the fish...



We had a great time on the retreat! All of the youth told us they enjoyed it and want to do it again sometime (not the same trail, of course). Matt and I were both pleased with the turnout of our first retreat. Hopefully by the end of the summer we can get more people to come! :) (We really have more than that that are regularly involved, but a lot of them had other things going on that weekend.)

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!! :)

Four Wheeling

On Saturday, Matt and I went our four wheeling with some people from church. Greg, one of the elders as well as our "tour guide" had an extra four wheeler that weekend so he invited Matt and I to join them. We drove over to a place called Rabbit Valley just across the border into Utah. We left around 7:30am and got back around 8:00pm. Total, I think we rode about 50 miles. We were tired, dirty, and sunburned but we had a BLAST! We definitely had a lot of fun and the whole being tired and dirty thing was worth it. The land and the scenery out there was absolutely amazing. There were times when we were up so high you could look down and see for miles. We had a really awesome time!

We weren't really sure what to expect so neither one of us brought our camera, but John took a couple of pictures of us on the four wheelers as "proof" that we went! :) Here is Matt in his cool goggles!

Greg has already mentioned possibly taking us on another trip somewhere on the four wheelers. If that is the case, we'll be sure to remember the cameras!!