Tin Cup Challenge

Well, my blog has been acting funny, so that's why I haven't written in a while.
Here's a brief update before I explode:

Last weekend, on Sunday, Ronnie and I went and hiked Hell's Half Acre, outside Idaho Falls, with Erin, who we work with at TVCS. It is a giant lava field, thought to be a relatively recent eruption. Scientists think it erupted in 3250 BC, and it is actually 68,760 acres. It was pretty gnarly. We started in the middle of the day, and it was already very hot. I only had maybe half a water bottle of water left, and we didn't think we would do the whole thing. In the end, we might have gotten a little carried away with ourselves, and we hiked all the way to the center of eruption, which is basically just a big area where it looks like an explosion may have happened a very very very very very long time ago. Not all that impressive. I got very very dehydrated, but somehow, we made it. It was pretty cool - the lava field was very rough walking. It almost took an hour to travel a mile. It was also covered in Mariposa Lilies and beautiful Prickly Pear cactus, which were blossoming in bright yellow and red. After we survived that, we went to Idaho Falls, and met Erin's friend Sam, who is a barley farmer. Her wasn't what I thought a barley farmer from Idaho would be like... very attractive, but also very boring. We went to some hot springs with him, and that was really cool. Apparently it is kind of a quintessential Idaho experience. We were going to see a lava cave, but we didn't have time. We didn't get back home until 12. In the morning, I got up really early in order to catch the carpool to Jackson, where I would be working for the next week.

I loved working in Jackson! I was doing a day program called Tents, Trails and Canoes, with 5th and 6th graders. We went hiking, camping one night, canoeing, and had tons of fun! I loved getting to know all of them. There were some kids that were kind of difficult to get them to follow directions, listen, or pay attention, but overall it was a really great experience. I learned so much from watching Selena, the lead instructor, and just talking with the kids. I wish that I could just do that all summer!!

Today, Saturday, I woke up at 5am, and got my relay marathon team up! We went and ran in the Tin Cup Challenge, a bunch of races and a fair kind of thing to raise money for all the non-profits in the valley. It was really fun. I love racing! It was much much smaller than the last relay marathon I ran in, though, in Cape Cod. There might have been a total of 20 people doing the marathon or the relay marathon! I got to stand on the actual start line at 6:30 am, and start us off! :)

Anyway, now I'm back in Victor.I think I'm going to walk into town, and see if I can get a second-hand rain coat. Mine got stolen at String Lake, when I was loading up the canoes.