Blissful Chaos: DK 2009

Alright, finally caught up enough to end the suspense over DK. First, what on earth is DK? Well, normally it's called DU which stands for "Destination Unknown." It's an annual weekend retreat with the youth group where the teens are given a list of items to pack...but they are NOT told where they're going.

So they load up in the bus and vans and head off without any clue where in the world they're going. Last year they went to Seattle, the year before that they headed to the Oregon coast, and before that they spent the weekend living on river boats. The destination of the trip changes every year.

Even the parents aren't told where their children are headed until after they all load up and leave. Then a representative is left with a letter for parents explaining where they just sent their children off to for the weekend. The suspense of the unknown location is a fun twist on this trip every year.

This year was even more special for us because IK and EJ are both in the youth group now, and SD and I were picked by our youth pastor to be chaperones for the trip, so in a way it was a really fun family vacation that kind of made up for missing Family Camp earlier this summer. The only thing that would've made it better is if we could've also brought LA and KW with us.

Of course this year the trip was changed slightly and called "DK - Destination Known" because we were required to have signed parent release forms by the company we used to go white water rafting! So the trip location was actually known for a change and the plans were to spend a weekend of camping with a full day of white water rafting up in Riggins, ID which is touted to be some of the THE best rapids in the west.

There was an amazing view when we finally arrived at the camp site, directly on the beach, roughly a 3 hour drive away. The weather had been in the high 90's for several weeks and then all of a sudden the day we left the weather made the most bizarre change and became awful, cold, and really rainy!

We weren't too optimistic about rafting in this much colder weather, as it kept raining off and on the first night we were there.

But fortunately, the second day started off very cloudy and overcast, but as the day went on it cleared up and became really sunny again!

The purpose of the trip was simple: a relaxing time to get away, have fun, and connect with students. We had a couple of times where the youth pastor would gather everyone together and share a story or reflect on a topic, but otherwise the majority of the weekend agenda was free. The teens spent time hiking up the side of the mountain and picking yummy wild blackberries.

Finding interesting wild life, such as this slug named Charlie. Notice the hand just below the branch to give you a better size reference...Charlie was HUGE slug!!!

Time for fishing...

Finding sand everywhere!

Soccer game right on the beach...

Reading, drawing by the water...

Swimming...

Volleyball...

Playing in the sand...

Sleeping in tents, or under the stars...

Golf, anyone?

And of course, lots of yummy food!

My trainer, Swede, was also one of the chaperones, so on Sat. before the rafting began we even had time for a strength training session on the beach...and it was really TOUGH in the sand! Several students actually chimed in with me, but most of them quit shortly into the workout. At the end, only 4 of us remained: myself, IK, and 2 of the girls. I felt really proud of myself for beating all those teens! Ha!

When it was time to go rafting we loaded up in 5 different boats with roughly 11-12 people in each raft. After raining the whole day before the water was pretty cold and once we started through the rapids everyone was FREEZING!!! I had permanent goosebumps all over my body, and my teeth were chattering so hard I was biting the insides of my cheeks. It was cold!

Here you can see SD and I along with EJ (protected in the middle with the bright yellow vest on) managed to get into the same raft. IK was with a bunch of friends on another raft.

Despite the cold, the rafting was a TON of fun! We had a blast throwing people into the water, shooting water guns at other rafts, and playing pirates as the people in our raft would swim over and take over other rafts throwing all the passengers into the water. When we stopped for lunch everyone was still really cold and I honestly wasn't looking forward to getting back in the raft for the second half of the ride. But it was right at that time when the sun FINALLY decided to show up and the rest of the rafting was WAY more enjoyable! We all took turns riding the bull, I paddled most of the time, but here's my turn sitting at the front.