Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Middle School Retreat - Day 1

After our five-day Sugarloaf extravaganza... we were not done yet! We still had a Middle School Retreat to get to! Dalton, Quinn, Travis and I left Sugarloaf on Friday morning and drove the 3 hours to Camden, Maine for the 8th annual Middle School Retreat put on by the utterly amazing and fabulous, Rob Benson, of the Maine Sea Coast Mission! This was the first time I have ever gotten to attend the MSR so I was SO excited! The retreat is put on to allow 6th-8th grade students from Monhegan, Isle Au Haut, Matinicus, Cliff, Frenchboro, Swans, and the Cranberry Islands to have the space to learn and work together on team building, self reflection, personal growth, and risk taking. The kids get a chance to catch up with their island friends and make new ones. Overall, it is just a really wonderful and fun time!

We needed to eat... so of course I timed so we just HAD to stop at "Soup for You" in Farmington for lunch! My all time favorite lunch spot! I spent many afternoons in college at this place! Delicious!

We also need a little something sweet to hold us over...

Gelato!!!!

We finally arrived in Camden before dinner time and were so excited to see all our middle school friends!!! Man, I love these kids!

And look who just happened to be in the neighborhood!!!  YAY! It's our favorite high school junior, WOLFIE!!!!

Wolfie, was THIS the picture you did not want me to post????!!!! :)

Some "Ninja Destruction" before dinner!

We played a few name games which was super helpful since there were all kinds of new faces! 

Dinner our first night was spaghetti and salad! Let's hope we have enough to feed a whole lot of hungry middle schoolers!

Load up those plates!

After dinner it was time for more games... "Zip, Zap, Zo" was a pretty popular one!

They we had a name contest. We had two teams. Each team walks around in a circle and a sheet separates the two teams. When the sheet is dropped the two people on opposite teams who are facing each other has to try and say the other person's name the fastest. Who ever "looses" has to go and join the other team!

Action shot! What's your name!!!???

Middle school girls like to wear the same shoes. Three different islands... all the same shoes. 
Pretty impressive.

After dinner and games we headed to our hotel for some pool time and guess who we ran into???!!! Non other than another one of our favorite island families... Nat, Lisa, Fionna, Ryan, AND Lydia!!! How lucky were we!? So fun to see their cute and smiling faces. We have missed them so!

This little middle school fish was happy to be in the water! Quite different than being all bundled up on the ski slopes!

Lots of fun!

And look who decided to join the party!?? It's ANNE!!! Can't keep these kids away from her. Good thing she doesn't mind soggy middle schoolers!

I was given the task of chaperoning some middle school girls at the hotel while Travis was on boy duty. I have to say, it has been a long time since I have spent this much time with adolescent girls... it is pretty  entertaining. Who knew that it was important to wash and straighten your hair at 11:30 at night. They also tried to give me a makeover. That was a no-go.

The best part of the evening was we got the chance to skype our special island friend, Zeke who has been in Boston for the last couple of months getting healthy! We miss his so much and it was so fun to see his bright and shinning face! Such a cutie.

Night one of the MSR = Pure Awesomeness... and it was only going to be better!


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