{"id":109,"date":"2004-05-08T21:21:00","date_gmt":"2004-05-08T21:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/?p=13"},"modified":"2008-07-08T22:35:46","modified_gmt":"2008-07-09T03:35:46","slug":"the-big-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/2004\/the-big-events\/","title":{"rendered":"YMCA 2004 Guides and Princesses Outing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow, what a weekend Reiley and I had just last, at the YMCA 2004 Spring Outing<\/slash>. All I can do is try to document all the great fun…<\/p>\n


\n\"The<\/a>
\n\"Turtle<\/a>
\n\"Reiley<\/a>
\n\"Rain<\/a>
\n
\n\"Now<\/a>
\n\"The<\/a>
\n<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of the tribe decided to caravan across the state from Raleigh to the camp, which is just shy of the coast, where the Neuse river dumps into the Atlantic Ocean. When we first converged in Raleigh, we found that every single dad had fully loaded the minivan – we were just about 300% overprepared. But that was OK with us.<\/p>\n

Halfway there, we stopped at the Neuse Sports Shop and made turkey and duck sounds with the hunter’s gear there. Reiley and I agreed that if any animals showed up, we would simply give out hugs. :P<\/p>\n

We arrived around 5pm at the sprawling camp, to find that our cabin was right next to a lake full of turtles. Reiley got the camera out and played turtle paparazzi.<\/p>\n

We cooked out – we had a full feast for everyone. The dads all agreed it was the best meal of the weekend. Then we took a stroll across the whole camp – we found fields, tennis courts, basketball courts, an archery range, the mess hall, and a beautiful shoreline along the Neuse river that was close enough to the Atlantic that we could see it. A beautiful, wind-swept, living shore full of driftwood and seaweed.<\/p>\n

That night we had an ice cream social at the mess hall, which brought home for the first time just how big the event was. A thousand or more, all sitting down to eat at the same time, amazing. And the tofutti we brought was actually not completely melted – more the consistency of toothpaste, yum! But with all the toppings they had, piled high, Reiley loved it.<\/p>\n

Saturday was the “big day”. The camp leaders decided to go with an open schedule, so it was up to us to decide what we wanted to do. Having gone out on the soccer coach’s boat the weekend before, catching a ride on the camp’s boat, the JoyBoy II, was first on Reiley’s list. Tom and Kimberly joined us. We were impressed – it was a lot bigger than the coach’s ski boat! Afterwards, we searched for shark’s teeth in the huge pile of sand dredged from the bottom of the Neuse – Reiley has an expert eye – she picked out more than two dozen total. We saw a great snake show – with plenty of hands-on action with live “domesticated” snakes, including a huge python. Rei and I held it up near its head, which was bigger than my hand. A bit later, we swam the turbo slide. Reiley’s eyes were big as saucers after she popped up after plunging into the frigid water. I was right there to catch her and tell her how brave she was. We swam, and she watched me swing off the rope swing diving headfirst into the water. Later, she had a great time learning to shoot bow and arrow – she wasn’t phased by the rain and we kept at it until they shut down. She did great, too – two bullseyes in one round of 6 arrows! The rain came, off and on, and we ran lots of races to find cover. The girls found fun inside the cabin, playing out Cinderella stories with gowns made from bedsheets. I taught Reiley how to juggle – she’s a natural! At the end of the day, the campfire was moved indoors – we sang songs, watched a fun skit, and heard a spooky ghost story that had us laughing with fright. We headed back to the cabins, and after a quick shower, we finally collapsed in bed.<\/p>\n

With the rain still hovering and coming down off and on, a lot of folks headed back Sunday morning after the church service. Reiley was still determined to find the biggest shark tooth yet, and I told her we’d give it a shot, on the beach, one more time, as long as the rain held off – we were down to our last dry clothes! Somehow, miraculously, we headed to the beach, with umbrellas, in the rain, with Chief Blowing Rock and Diamond Eyes, and right when we got there, God put the rain away and set out the sun. It was beautiful. And we found our beach shark’s teeth!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9M0Zg-1L","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":162,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/2006\/guides-and-princesses-graduation\/","url_meta":{"origin":109,"position":0},"title":"Guides and Princesses Graduation","author":"m","date":"April 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Reiley finished her last YMCA Princesses' Spring Outing with a bang - more specifically a splash. We cooked brats and soydogs over the grill, had the Friday night ice cream social, woke up to reveille, missed ALL of our scheduled activities, but did what we wanted on our own time,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Daily Life"","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/daily-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":256,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/2007\/beatnik-day-for-reiley-and-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":109,"position":1},"title":"Beatnik day for Reiley and me","author":"m","date":"October 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Reiley and I had a fun day yesterday. Wrenny headed over to Grammy's for a sleepover, and mom painted most of the day. So Reiley and I had some adventures! We started off playing a big game of Age Of Empires ]I[ with the Warchiefs expansion, she and I facing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Daily Life"","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/daily-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1442,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/2011\/reiley-throws-a-bash\/","url_meta":{"origin":109,"position":2},"title":"Reiley throws a bash","author":"m","date":"September 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Reiley had a very belated birthday party this weekend - 24 people total including Wren and Olivia - all playing Just Dance at the same time, whoop. A really nice group of kids - they rode horses, we had a bonfire, pizza, ping pong, basketball, all under a heavy mist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Daily Life"","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/daily-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":111,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/2004\/time-flies\/","url_meta":{"origin":109,"position":3},"title":"“Let me explain. No, there is too much. Lemme sum up…”","author":"m","date":"June 11, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Must... blog... more... often... Reiley turns 8 - now quit growing up so fast! Andrea turns 36 - I mean 29! Happy birthday, boo! Reiley has sleepover - all-night-craziness ensues... 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I was so intimidated and worried about it being too rough - I geared us up with baggy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All My Rowdy Friends"","block_context":{"text":"All My Rowdy Friends","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/all-my-rowdy-friends\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black River Paintball","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thedigitalmachine.com\/images\/blog\/2012\/brpaintball.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":102,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/2004\/the-crudeness-continues\/","url_meta":{"origin":109,"position":5},"title":"Birds, Bees, Boogers","author":"m","date":"February 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Andrea and I were joking with the girls that when they were born, Mommy pulled something out of her nose, and it was Reiley, who's really a booger. And Wrenny was throwup. Then we said, \"No, you guys know where you really came from\". 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