Virginia CollegePlus Gathering

 Where to start, where to start...

 Last week was one of the best weeks I've ever had.  I never ever imagined I would have so much fun.  I was honestly kind of nervous before I went.  But I am ever so glad that I went!

 I flew into Virginia for a CollegePlus student gathering hosted by a CollegePlus family.  By the end of the week, we had about 19 students total - a great sized group!  I stayed from Monday to Saturday - a total of six short days.

 Flying by myself went smoothly, and in fact, my plane landed early on Monday afternoon.  When the "R" family did pick the airport people up, we all hopped into their vehicle and drove to their home where others were already there throwing around a frisbee.

 There was the first five minutes of introductions and unloading, and the gathering had officially started!

 On Monday, it was mostly hanging out.  A group of six of us played Settlers of Catan.  It was very fun and interesting to see the differences in house rules.  After games, everyone started pulling out their instruments.  Oh.my.word.  I told my mom that I am going to take piano lessons next year again.  I used to play, but quit.  Everyone played different instruments and were amazing, and it was so fun to hear the pianists play songs such as: Downton Abbey - The Suite, The Piano Man, Pirates of the Carribean theme song, etc.  We then dove into our Bible study of 1 Thessalonians led by Mr. R.  I believe it was around 2:30 by the time everyone went to bed that night.

 On Tuesday morning we all enjoyed one of my favorite meals of the week: Jenn made delicious baked oatmeal. :)  After that, we all headed out to go on a hike at Great Falls National Park.  It was a beautiful day to hike!  It was sunny and cool - a temperature that was perfect so no one was cold or too hot.  The hike went along the Potomac River.

This was only some of us.

(photo credit: Mr. Joe)

 Jenn led us up the trail to the top where we ate lunch.  We all hiked back down, jumped in the vehicles, and examined our blisters. :)  When we got home, we worked on our skits which were to be performed on Thursday night, listened to more wonderful music and played several games.  Apples to Apples and The Family Game.

my turn judging cards for Apples to Apples

(photo credit: Mr. Joe)

 Wednesday morning brought a windy day, which had been assigned to playing Ultimate Frisbee.  Now, I did not play Ultimate.  I stood watching and shivering and chatting with Emily. :) When we'd all warmed up, we spent the rest of the day playing more games.  Four more drove in on Wednesday afternoon, which was fun.  We played The Character Game, Party Quirks, 2 Truths and a Lie, and card games.  After Bible study, music, and card games, Star Wars Episode I was started, however, I only lasted about 20 minutes (at the most) before I was falling asleep.  :P  But it was 1:30, I think...

 Thursday was Mount Vernon Day.  A great day!  We all made the trek to Mount Vernon and spent half the day there.  We toured the house and the surrounding grounds and spent time in fellowship together.

view from the Mount Vernon mansion of the Potomac River 

the beautiful Mount Vernon home 

our lovely group 

us ladies walked around the grounds of Mount Vernon while everyone

else went down to the farming part of the plantation

Spring was evident with all the lambs running (or laying) around 

beautiful gardens

Cassie and I

  Thursday afternoon was spent preparing for skits and getting all dolled up for Jenn's college graduation ceremony.  The graduation was super fun to watch and afterwards, we performed our skits.  There were four groups, therefore, four skits: CollegePlus-ers Anonymous, Changes to Facebook (a Messy Mondays skit), Phobias Workshop, and The Council (I think...) - a skit from LoTR.  The skits were pretty much epic and will forever be remembered.  We played cards after that, and I turned in early at 1:30.

Changes to Facebook skit

(photo credit: Emily Kn.)

 Friday dawned bright and early and we left for Washington D.C.  We drove a while to the Metro station, hopped on the Metro, made several changes to the day's schedule, and headed out.  We first made our way around the monuments.  Our first set of monuments were: Washington Monument, WWII memorial, and then the Lincoln memorial, where we had lunch.

 We then all walked to the Korean memorial, where we then split up.  Half the group went to the Library of Congress, and the other half went to look at more memorials.  I went with the memorials.

the Korean memorial

the "memorial group" at the FDR memorial 

 the Jefferson memorial

 After the Jefferson memorial, the group split up again; one to go to see the Cyrus Cylinder, and the other to go see the First Ladies' dresses at the American History Museum.  I went for the dresses. :)  Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any pictures. :(   I do have to include this picture of this beautiful Cherry Blossom tree.

 After D.C., we went to dinner at Chipotle (which is WAY to spicy for my taste), and then went to the R family's church's prayer meeting.

 When we got home, time was spent packing as much as possible, and that's when the night began. :P  A group of 7 of us watched Princess Bride which is a favorite of a lot of CPers, so if possible it's a must at gatherings.  The rule was: if you didn't like people quoting during the movie, you weren't allowed to watch it.  Maybe that's why we had such a small group. :P  During the movie, the rest of the group were upstairs swapping SD cards to copy onto their computer.  After Princess Bride, several went to bed.  However, 8 of us made the decision to pull an all-nighter.  :D  We played Apples to Apples (although that didn't last long), and then played The Ungame.  The Ungame was perfect for this group since we were full of caffeine, extremely tired (due to the time being 3:00am), and eating lots and lots of Skittles and Twizzlers.  Each of us got asked questions such as "What is your ideal home?", "What is your idea of a perfect marriage?", "Describe each person in the room with one word", etc.  The second question I listed had several similar ones which were the most hilarious since none of us are even in a relationship! :)  Four went to bed around 4ish, and the rest of us kind of sat around for a while.  There was a bit of Google+ hacking, which followed with an extreme amount of commenting.  We all ended up falling asleep for at least 50 minutes.  At six, we said goodbye to several people and finished up our packing.  The rest of the "all-nighter group" who hadn't left already were walking around like zombies the rest of the morning.  Needless to say, lots of coffee was drank.

 Starting at 10am, I said my final goodbyes.  I was brought to the airport, and Josh helped me get my ticket and find security.  Thank goodness, because being in a strange airport made me nervous!   After a layover in Chicago, I landed in Minneapolis where my dad came to pick me up.  We met my mom and siblings at a restaurant for dinner, and I headed home.  When I got home, I found out my family had been painting my bathroom for me!  That's been a project I've been wanting to accomplish for a while, and never have gotten around to it.  After being awake for over 40 hours, I slept for 13 last night!

So the following pictures are just pictures of people that I wanted to include.  :)

this is the group of us that were left on Saturday mid-morning

(photo credit: Mr. Joe) 

 Emily and I

I got to meet Emily at the MN gathering in August.  It was so fun seeing her again!

 Kaitlyn and I

another Emily and I :) 

 Here is a list of fun memories (mostly inside jokes - for those who attended) that I remember:
   ~ "are you lovely?"
   ~ "maniacal powder"
   ~ watching (helping? :P) Kaitlyn hack Drew's G+
   ~ running outside to greet Cassie, who happened to come 1+ hour(s) later...
   ~ "I thirst"
   ~ Josh shutting the TV off before the last 1 minute of Princess Bride (if you're a girl, you know that's a very important part! :D)
   ~ Dutch Blitz
   ~ playing Liar
   ~ ZOOM
   ~ Organization Leadership
   ~ "at the next gathering...."
   ~ frog milkshakes
   ~ drowning in Jello

 Honestly, that's all I can remember right now.  Once I post this, of course, I'll remember everything else.  :)

 Overall, it was an amazing week, and I wouldn't trade last week for anything.

Love,
   Sierra