This has been a busy year. I'm sure that I've probably described many vacations since the start of the year, with the exception of the one I just got back from. Be warned: for me, this will count as a long post.
You all heard of the Double H trip I'm sure. I still don't have pictures by the way. The Monday of the week after we got back, we went on a rather short notice trip to Stillwater, having the primary purpose of Mom's trips with Grammy, reaching to the far reaches of OK and almost into the next state for quilting materials and such. Mom tells me they had lots of fun, got lots of material, and gave up after the second day.
This was the same week the the Reformed Presbyterian Church was having VBS and I was of course volunteered to help with the management and proceedings (it actually was fun). Starting Tuesday, I was to help all week with watching and directing a small group of young men (approximately 7-12 or so) through the various activities that were planned for them. I was also helping with the skit Logan had come up with, a "Cowboy's Progress", a spinoff of Pilgrims Progress. And we were pretty good actors too.
Also during that seemingly short week, the teenagers in the Church would go out into the community during the afternoon to ask questions and hand out pamphlets (that's such a strange word). I was invited to join them, which I did of course.
Well we were gonna stay there until Saturday, and leave early morning. CHANGE OF PLANS. While the rest of my family (Mom, Lillian, Annalee, and Mary) went home, I stayed in Stillwater with the expressed reason of staying and doing the exact same thing over again for another week, only this time in Enid.
inserted: I am doing this post over the period of several days, do not mind the disjointedness of it.
Perhaps I should mention the facilities? Well I will, wether or not you like it or not. In Stillwater, the Salvation Army was kind enough to let us (them? How do I describe the people from the church with myself included? Another random thing to ponder) use their chapel building. It was a good building yes and worked quite well for the VBS purposes. There was a place for running around and screaming and shouting like the small folk there liked to do, there happened to be appropriate places for everything (everything being the rest of the things that I care not to describe at this moment), with slight improvisation, and of course the stage and chapel made a good place to act in.
In Enid, we were at the YMCA. If we were inside, we were most likely to be in the downstairs exercise room. (side note: F.B., there were about 20 people on average during the week) not quite so versatile a room as the chapel at the Salvation Army building, but it worked. And did I mention that it makes a terrible stage? I had to improvise several times. (side note: I was playing Christian the Cowboy all week in Enid) "The Y" being what it was made it great for the activities section of the schedule, having at least two accessible places to play dodgeball or other games and an indoor pool (BTW we swam in it Thursday).
I feel strongly that in my description of said week I must include something about lodgings. In Stillwater, my family stayed in the N's house (my cousins to those who are ignorant). If you don't already know, it's a really cool house and I really liked staying there all week. In Enid, the group of people helping VBS stayed at the W's house, another really cool house, and another great place to stay all week.
On Tuesday of the second week, Mr.W took a select group of people to the Air Force base in town to show them the flight simulators, as well as to set this group of people up in scenarios and see if they could avoid crashing. We did not manage to carpet bomb Enid, sadly (F.B.). It was only an unarmed T-6 that was being simulated. I was in that first group. Another group went Thursday night.
Sadly enough, the week had to end and on Friday night most of the helpers went back to Stillwater. Two guests remained in the W house, myself and David H (fun guy). Daisy and Stupendous had already left, attending the N's trip to Colorado.
Saturday the second week was an all day trip to Carl Blackwell lake (is that right? The one right outside Stillwater) for the W's and David and a few friends and myself (alright, who wants to be on the list now??). They had a rental boat and some water skis (a kneeboard came along later). I hope I needn't describe this small outing in great detail? It was fun. So there.
Well, my extended period of time away from home soon came to a close. I was going to Dallas on Sunday after church with one of the W girls, where I would be met by Mom, who would take me home (you want long sentence? That's nothing). End of Story, goodbye.
Plus some pictures from my good cousin ERN.
