Grand View Summer: The Beginning

As you all know, I left Colorado in April. I really had no clue what to expect. My uncle told me that they could keep me busy, but I didn't really know what that busyness would include. One thing I did know? I was excited. For one thing, I was going to camp!!! For another thing, I was going EARLY!!! I don't think that anything could have dampened my spirits.

The trip to Arizona was pretty good. I love road trips! We got into Alpine pretty late, so I dumped my stuff into my cabin (fondly known as the Green Bean) and fell asleep without unpacking anything. I woke up in the morning when I heard a sound outside. It was a small herd of elk right outside my window! Some of you may not get this, but that one thing made me SUPER happy. I like a lot of things about the city, but I'm really a country girl at heart. Through and through. So the elk outside made me even more excited than I already was. =) Here are some pictures of the Green Bean:

 

I can't even remember everything that I did for those first couple of weeks, but I did stay busy! I cleaned out the two dorms... vacuumed (and/or swept) all of the floors and windowsills and mattresses and drawers and closets, washed the windows, cleaned the bathrooms. That sort of thing. One of the dorms took me 4 days to do by myself, so I was very grateful when I got some help on the second dorm. That one only took 2 days. =)
Another project that took 2 days was cleaning out the paintball shed. At least one, if not two, pack rats had lived there all winter. That job goes on my "Top 3 Most Disgusting Things I've Done in My Life" list, but I actually had fun! When you are all by yourself in a shed for several hours is an awesome time for praying. Not that I prayed all day. I also did some singing. I sang songs from Tangled, Anastasia, and Phantom of the Opera... and I didn't bother one. single. person. Ah... that's the life! ;)
Here is a picture of one of the pack rats: (we caught two)

I did a hundred other random things around the camp, but I won't bore you with all of that. =D The two other "bigger" projects I did were cleaning the staff lounge and planting flowers. And I didn't do many flowers compared to Mrs. Roberts... she is the queen of flowers! =) I did pick out one pretty pink flower and I planted it specifically for my dear friend Bailey, since she likes pink. I think I was a tad homesick that day:

It was super exciting (and a tad strange) when the rest of the staff started to arrive. I couldn't wait to get to know everybody. We started staff training and everything was going well. I was happy and excited and wondering what God would teach me over the summer through the campers and the speakers. Little did I know that God had planned out some lessons from waaaaaay different teachers than I had imagined.