Youth Adventures

We have some really awesome youth leaders in our ward right now who are up for some hardcore adventuring. First up, the young women headed to NYC for a day trip! I got to tag along since I'm the 2nd counselor, but I claim no credit for any of this. 

We all met at the church at 6 am to carpool on the drive. Then it was onto the ferry with a bunch of crazy girls:

Guess who forgot to take off her mask for the photo?

First stop was Ground Zero:

Looking at the memorial

The Survivor's Tree.

It was the only tree that survived the attacks.

It was horribly damaged, but they managed to revive it and replant it.

A beautiful symbol.

We visited the 9-11 Memorial Museum, which was new to me. I feel like it was a really different experience for me than for the girls. It felt very personal to me. Some things were still kind of raw, which surprised me after all these years. But to the girls it was just historical--like visiting Pearl Harbor. A tragedy, but not one that shaped their lives in any way. Kind of a surreal divide.

A fire truck that was damaged while helping rescue people on 9/11

We spent quite a bit of time in the museum before we headed out for a LOT of walking around the city. It was probably too much walking and not enough enjoying, but they all survived! It's hard to not want to see everything when you only have one day in the city. 

Us in front of a famous old church that I can't remember the name of...

Lunch at Chinatown.

I'm still dreaming about those dumplings:

And what's a visit to NYC without a subway ride??

Me, Emma and Anna

We made a quick, whirlwind tour of Central Park:

Julia, me, Elise, Emma, Summer, Anna, Brie and Tessa

Possibly the highlight of the entire trip for the girls:

Feeding all the squirrels in Central Park

From Central Park we walked to the NYC temple and snapped a quick picture inside:

It was at this point that a few of the girls were starting to really complain about the walking.

We still had a lot of walking to do, so we bribed them with an ice cream stop:

Then it was on to the Public Library, which was STUNNING inside:

And, finally, Times Square!

I wasn't sure some of the girls were going to make it.

They could barely limp into FAO Schwartz.

But then they discovered the huge piano and suddenly their feet felt much better:

We literally had to drag these girls away from the piano when it was time to go.

Then DELICIOUS, GIANT pizza in Times Square!

We way overestimated how much pizza we would need.

We all stuffed ourselves and still had to carry an entire pizza home.

Final subway ride back to the Staten Island Ferry:

We ended up with a subway car all to ourselves.

The girls had a fabulous time racing back and forth, playing the recorder, and trying not to fall.

Except Elise.

Elise was done with everything:

Elise is one of my favorites.

We miscalculated the ferry times and had to wait extra long for the next one.

By the time we made it on, the girls were a little (lot) crazy:

There was a lot of singing at the top of their lungs.

And if memory serves me correctly, "My Heart Will Go On" was included.

We ended up getting home WAY later than we planned, but it was worth it. We really pushed the girls and they lived up to the challenge. Hopefully it was a day full of great memories for all of them. I'm glad I got the chance to go with them!

That same weekend the young men also planned an adventure. Sadly, only a few boys were able to attend. Seth was one of them. 

They biked from Harper's Ferry all the way to just outside DC. It was a total of 50 miles. They got to camp for a night mid-ride, which is always a highlight. It was definitely a challenge: Seth came home with something like 250 Active Minutes from his Fitbit that day. 

They ended the trip having a blast on the Billy Goat Trail outside DC. Despite the whining that the bike ride wasn't nearly as easy as their leaders led them to believe, I could tell Seth was proud of himself and had a great time. I'm so grateful for the youth program and the ways it encourages all the youth to stretch themselves!