The Longest Day of My Life

Alright, in this post, I really want the ski-trip to be the centerpoint and ending, so here is what happened on the other days this weekend, not including Thursday (which is the ending).

On Wednesday, Barak & Amanda, along with Jeriah, came to pick up Andrew, Anna (who came with us), and myself, but they didn't arrive at our house until late, so we didn't arrive at their house until even later (well, of course).

Tickle wars on Wednesday ;)


The group picture (I hate how my head just sticks out) :)


On Friday, we (Levi, Ele, Andrew and I) went to the Robinson's house to fix a furnace. Before we left, Ele had heated some hot chocolate for all of us. I put way too much chocolate in it, and it made it bitter. I didn't even want to drink it. As we were driving, I kept spilling it on my jeans, so Levi said to pour it out the window. I didn't want to, as it was a tiny slot I had to pour it out of, but I did it anyway. When we got out, we saw an entire line of chocolate spread accross the van, and big globs of it on the door. ;)

As it turned out, all that needed to be done to fix it was to "push the red button, Digger." ;) Yes, we needed to push a red button. But, we stayed there for a while, and had hot chocolate and cookies. The older people were talking politics, so I went (somewhat with Levi) and played with/talked to their youngest sisters. I am really glad to have met them all.

Also on Friday, we went to a Johnson's birthday event. Firstly, we stopped at Culver's for dinner, and it was my first time ever going there (now only Panera Bread is left...). Then we went ice skating. Just so everyone knows, I am an awful skater. I caught onto skiing fairly quickly, but after my 5th time ice skating, I'm officially the worst skater ever. :D

We then went to the Johnson's house, and played several games (Moods, Catch Phrase, Ticket to Ride, Pictionary, and so on). On my only time to draw for Pictionary, I got like the hardest word to explain – "Pastry". Besides the fact I hardly know what it is, it is too general of a word. However, I began drawing a donut/bagel, and a stick-person eating it. Though I cannot understand him, Levi, out of the blue, guessed a Pastry! I was so excited! And we ended up winning off mine! Pretty good for my first time ever playing the game, eh? :D

On Saturday, we went to Matt's house, oh which Levi had just met. We had went to his house on Friday, but we had to cut our visit short because of the Johnson's party. We played a really good game of Acquire, which fastly has become my favorite boardgame. Also, we played one of the best ever games of foosball, that was hilarious. ;) We later video chatted with the Marshalls, via Skype, and they gave us a video tour of their new house in Texas. In was really cool, as we had 15+ people crowded around a little computer monitor. ;) After that, we had a birthday party for Anna's Mom, and a dinner, then packed up and left. Levi and I tried to scheme out a way for us to stay until church the next day. For example, we tried to find people in Michigan who had recently died because of the bad weather (and we found many). But it didn't work out, and we made it home safely.

Playing Acquire at Matt's house:


Huddling around the computer:


Hello, Ele :D


Now, here is what he did on Thursday, our phenomenal ski-trip.

The Ski-Trip
We woke up at 4:30am, dressed, ate and so on, then packed up the van for our trip to the Heyworth's workplace, which was an hour north of us. Levi, Andrew and I sat together, squished in the back, and really squished. That is, I was squished. ;) We promised ourselves that we would go into their van, and not be stuck in ours the entire trip. :D Well, we did make it out, and I'm really glad we did. For the next few hours, we had a great time of teasing Rachel, taking pictures and having camera-flash wars, to name just a few things. :D

Rachel – Andrew and Levi (not I of course) were teasing her for most of the trip ;)


Hannah and Ele:


Leah, Abigail and a few others:


Now within 20 minutes of Caberfae, we stopped at McDonald's for a second breakfast. After chatting over coffee and hot cocoa, we rejoined our course and made it to Caberfae by the time it was light out. It was really strange, we woke up to darkness, and then it became light out. So after awhile, it seemed like I had been up for several days (especially because I got 1+ hours of sleep the night before).

At the ski lodge:


It was really cold out, like in the 0s at midday (I think):


After suiting-up, Levi took me up the ski-lift for the first time. He was my instructor at Boyne (last Winter). At that time, we took it way too slowly, and I didn't get off the main little hill until after lunchtime (I wasn't very good). This time, however, he took me up the main hill and let me figure it all out on my own. I'm so glad he did, I learned much faster that way.

For the next few hours, we skied. During this time, I went on both black diamonds. One of them, the South Peak, we took the easiest way down. Still, I managed to get my skis caught ontop of each other and nearly fell over, and even while nearing the trees! But, I made it out without falling. The second was the main part of the North Peak, which, when on top of the mountain, you could see for miles in every direction. Especially at nighttime, when the show was falling hard, you couldn't see the bottom of the mountain – everything was pure white. It was so beautiful. I'm really glad I went up there as well.

All day, from lunch, to chatting with people on the ski lifts (which I really liked), to having everyone sing my theme song (Oh, J.J.!), was awesome. As I write this, it has been several days since the trip, so I don't remember most everything. Just know, nearly every moment of the ski-trip was amazing – it was memories that I will never forget, at least I never wish to.

I really liked this picture: Ele is irritating Hannah, Charity is fixing her hair and Rachel is watching Mr. Heyworth yawn ;)


The group photo:


The snowy weather:


On the way home, as people were singing songs all around me, I fell asleep for several minutes. But, before I did that, I turned on the 'record voice' feature of my Mp3 player. It recorded 25+ minutes of the people who were sitting around me. ;) So, if you sat anywhere near me, I know exactly what you were talking about. :) As we drove home on Saturday, I listened to the entire recording, but it was largely static (but not all).

We stopped at Pizza Hut for dinner. Before eating, I played Dutch Blitz, and I did awful. But it was my first time playing and learning it. We also watched an old TV show, but the sound was off, so Levi acted out what they were saying on the TV. We had lots of fun with that. ;) After eating, we decided to go home in separate vans. So we said goodbye to the Heyworths and Coopers, and left.

A few posts back, I wrote one entitled ...And A Happy New Year!, of which I listed some of the most memorable things of 2008. Well, even though I haven't done much this year, yet, this is by far the most amazing experience. I can hardly imagine much of anything being better than our ski-trip. Then again,

"...with God all things are possible." – Matthew 19:26

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God bless, J.J.