PART 2: the wordy stuff :) it's long

okay, y'all knew it would come sometime! it's time for the wordy stories from j-tree!
i'll try to keep it interesting :)
so we left thursday night and headed off to joshua tree. we arrived later that night in somewhat chilly weather, but it was beautiful... the moon was full this weekend so we could see without even having to use a flashlight.
friday was filled to the brim with hiking and walking for me, but in a totally fun and awesome way. mr. becksvoort and i were in charge of taking each group (three total) on a hike in rattle snake canyon. it's about a mile to the canyon, and then probably half a mile in to the canyon (with a decent elevation gain). the first hike out was an interesting one. i was leading the hike, and once we got to the canyon and on the trail, we came to a spot with some boulders in our way. second guessing myself, i thought that this was the wrong trail and we radioed for some info on where the real trail was. we found what we thought would be the trail and improvised. after a short hike up this "trail," we stopped and mr. bex gave a quick talk about us living our lives in a way that we prove the Living Water in us like a tree proves that there is water nearby... really cool analogy.
the second group was my favorite. you know why? with this group, once we got to the canyon, we decided to go back to the first trail i went to and thought we should just keep going over the boulders... and you know what??? it was the right trail! this hike was amazing, and when we finally found the spot we were trying to get to, everybody was really excited... it made me excited just to see others be so happy. we hung out in the caves for a while and checked out the springs coming from the rocks and then headed back down. mr. bex and i were just so stoked that we found the place!
the third group was pretty much the same (except for a little less energy since they were the last group, and they weren't quite as thrilled as the second group). so we figured that we did at least 5 miles of walking that day! i was SO stinkin sore, but it felt so good because it was soreness from hiking around and rock scrambling, stuff i love to do. plus the day held some pretty awesome weather for hiking.
it did get a bit chilly at night, but i had plenty of layers to keep me warm and i brought along my little fleece blanket with polar bears on it :) i love fleece. plus i had a tent buddy this time :)
so the next morning i woke up before the sunrise to help set up at the amphitheatre for one of our MIGZ stations (MIGZ standing for "multi-intelligence games-zzz... it's the big race that the students compete in). i was really excited to set-up because i didn't teach systems on this trip (which i usually do because i love systems... i know, weird) because i wanted to lead the hikes, so this allowed me to get to set up a system. there's nothing like setting up a system on top of a rock while the sun rises and the moon sets.
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anyway, since this is getting long, i will tell the rest of the story another time... i need to get to the gym before it gets too late!

hooroo