GAME ON!!

Yesterday we were dying with anticipation until we went to the Ranch. We set up tents, rolled out sleeping bags and called first dibs on the best chairs (Which, by the way were ignored). Next to arrive were the Laws, also driving Loren Pratt, Savannah, and Marissa. There were three tents and about 7 people on the Girls' side. Madison, Lexie, Savannah, Marissa and I slept in the largest tent. Robynn and Loren slept in another and I guess the other was empty because we'd originally intended it to be for the moms, who spur of the moment - ly decided to sleep under the stars. Just when we were complaining over the heat, and discussing how late the others were and how likely it was that we could start a fire with a magnifying glass a big parade of cars pulled up. The Fillmores, Ewens, and two newbies, Nathan and Caleb. Mom, Lex, Savannah, Marissa and Maddi went to get chairs from the shed and apparently discovered some spiders in them because they all suddenly began squealing and threw down their chairs in the middle of the road. I ran over only to find it was only spiders that was worrying them. This, of course, provoked the spider story again which ended in "And Halie just laid down on the ground!" Then I carried the chair back on which the spider had been discovered. They told me a spider had crawled up my shoe, but I ignored it and I wasn't bit or anything so frankly I don't care whether or not there was one. Then a short while later Courtney and Trenton arrived. And the activities began. We built a fire ring from bricks and the guys set up a tent on their side. Brenten and Taylor were wearing their camo, despite the obvious ban on airsoft, which they didn't bring any of, but still brought the camo :)). Brenten, Caleb and I got out of sitting under this sweltering tarp by looking for some more chairs to sit on around the fire. The guys started to try and put up the solar oven but majorly failed, at which point Mrs. Fillmore pulled out the oh-so-convenient instructions they'd neglected to notice and Madison and I began, well, instructing, and assisting in the building. It never got as hot as we'd hoped. We played several games, including one of the most heated and popular including torches. The boys' side and the girls' side each had four torches. Each person had to try and take torches from the other side, but if you were spotted while in the act of removing the torch from the ground you had to put it back. By morning the team with the most torches was supposed to win. This was a very heated game, especially since the younger girls, Robynn and Loren would playfully take the torches and admittedly half the time I doubt whether their steals were legal. But the boys got very competitive and worked up over it, especially Brenten, since apparently he'd made up the game and many of the rules had been changed by his mom. Then we tried water purification, (not the best results) and Mrs. Fillmore strung up the fence so we could play another game. There were several holes created by the string and we had to get our whole team through the fence without touching the wood of the fence, but we could only use each hole twice. Strings were broken, acrobatics were completed and I personally lifted Loren and Alexis though a higher hole. It was no simple task - some of the holes were miniscule! We paddled out on the lake, played "As the Great Wind Blows", and were sent looking for various vague descriptions of objects. For instance I was sent to find "Something slippery" and I simply wet a rock and brought it back. Maddi got "Something that feels meaningless", and brought back what I think was one of the many annoying seeds from a tree, when asked "What is it?" she replied "I don't know." We all sat down together and put together a poem, every person was to write one line of the poem, consisting of at least five words, and you could only see what the last person had written - no one else's. Robynn wrote "Boys cheat all day long," which Maddi followed up with "And some may even sing a song!" Once the poem was read out, when it came to my line there was burst of laughter - half because some people were thinking "WHAT?!?!" and half because some people actually got the inside joke, my line was "It'll be fine, just wash it." Then we ate, our watchers - the guards of the torches were scared to leave their posts so we took turns getting up to get our food, and since we were cooking hot dogs over the campfire and I was concerned over the torches I ended up with a hot dog that was cold in the middle. Let me just say - I am SO GLAD those things are pre-cooked. ;). Well the torches game only got more and more heated and soon there were altogether too many shouts of "THAT'S NOT FAIR! THEY HAVE TO PUT THOSE BACK BECAUSE ______!!" Anyways there was a TON of Ninja playing. Originally it was my plan to get the boys away from their torches, and only partly because I actually wanted to play. About 5 of us girls got into the mutual boy/girl hang out ground and screamed at the top of our lungs, "ONE! TWO! THREE! NINJA!!" "Oh real discreet!" said the guys, but as we ignored them and continued playing they were inevitably sucked in. And so was I. I just forgot about the torches, it was totally awesome! Trenton's pretty fun to play with too. I only wish Zach and Em had been there to play with us! We played and played and a few people, not completely filled with Ninja's addictive mindset kept their minds on the torches and worried about those, and sure, there was some stealing while we were playing, but I really didn't care anymore. Plus Robynn pretty much took over - anyone who went in the general direction of the house, which the girls' tents were closer to were screamed at "I SEE YOU!" whether they were being obvious or not. It was due to just this sort of obsessiveness that the game was cancelled, thus freeing us all to come to the campfire and make S'Mores. And boy were there ever some he UGE marshmallows! At first it was very tense, the boys were sore that the girls had 5 torches and they had 3, but eventually they succumbed to the merry song singing and laughing. Especially after Mr. Fillmore arrived and immediately set to work making us sing (making it enjoyable) and reading us some highly hilarious stories, in particular on about "Sequences". The stories explained a few things the Fillmores say like "Oregano!!" Very, very funny stories. After all of this it was very dark. So what was our first instinct?? To play Ninja!! We played and played, and the parents threatened to ban Ninja if they continued to hear what they described as 'thumps' and 'ouches'. The moonlight was actually pretty bright and it was perfect for playing Ninja! We tried some hide and go seek tag, which the parents called off before we'd even finnished one game, saying we needed to get in bed. So we did. Our tent in particular was very... giggly. We talked and played Ninja (I've now played Ninja in the pool, in a tent... etc.) We ( or I anyway) stayed up until about 1 AM. I needed SOME sleep after last night's two hour sleep and hysteria. The next morning we woke up to Savannah's alarm, she'd set it for 6 AM. We'd all agreed the night before that the torch game was competitive to the point of stupidity and no longer fun, so we had hoped that we could watch the boys steal our stakes, which we'd agreed to let them steal. The rules that had been given were the game would continue "As soon as the sun rises". The boys, however, one-upped us, they woke up at 4 AM and stole our stakes. In the evening the other girls (Not I, I slept like a rock) said they thought they heard some frightening noises, Maddi's sure it was the guys now. Apparently the guys slept outside, the only one who actually slept in the tent was Taylor. And Andrew had gone home the evening before with an earsplitting headache. We got dressed and went out to hang out by the (newly restarted?) fire. The boys were in much better spirits now that they had all 8 stakes and a little sleep. We played some more Ninja and eventually got around to telling the boys "You know, we'd already decided to drop out of that game, you didn't HAVE to wake up at 4. We wanted to watch you steal the stakes!" "Oh whatever." said Brenten, eyes red and face tired. We played a LOT of Ninja. Then breakfast was made, burritos with eggs, tater tots, and cheese cooked over the campfire. As well as some egg rolls that the solar oven had failed to cook. Lots of food was spilled. After breakfast many stories were shared, and Robynn caught a fish, thus making everyone automatically interested in fishing, but what are the odds that they were going to catch one right after that? Robynn had been there awhile.. Robynn went on to catch another fish eventually - everyone else? Nothing. I took a walk, originally with Maddi, but when she ditched me at the gate I kept walking, hoping she'd stay too. She didn't. I was turning back and to the barns when Marissa and Savannah came up the path, "What are you doing?" "Oh I was taking a walk... Maddi ditched me so I was just turning back, wanna come with me? We can walk to the end of this road." "Sure!" they agreed. And we did. Admittedly afterwards Madison felt bad about ditching me, and she was tired, I have reasoned, so I forgave her :)). But when we got back? It was so Ninja time! I sat and listened to stories for a little while but then after awhile Taylor came and sat on one side of me. Then Derek sat on my other. Maddi was across the fire and just about everyone else was fishing, or boating. "Wanna play Ninja?" asked Taylor quietly. "In a minute I said tiredly, not moving. One minute later. Taylor, "Wanna play Ninja?" Pause. Jumps up, "Okay!" Then Derek, Maddi, and Taylor were out of their chairs like... welll.. *Snaps* - that. I called over Marissa, Savannah and Lex, "Hey guys, wanna play Ninja?" What do you think their answer was? "YEAH!" We were pretty quiet about it, but even so once we were spotted with our hands in pre jumping out pose the others were there in a flash! We played and played and played and even Mr. Fillmore played! But then our parents announced it was cleanup time and we all started breaking camp. Grandma and Grandpa loved our teen group - apparently they weren't used to such well behaved teens - guess they didn't watch the whole time we were playing Ninja... Funny how every time an adult warned us about banning Ninja (which they did a lot) because of the thumps someone shouted "Halie's the one who uses elbows!!" Once they worded our possible Ninja banning as "Do you guys want to lose Ninja?" Everyone turned, mouths agape, how could they affect our winning or losing in Ninja?!?! But no, they meant getting it taken away. Anyways we ended up leaving STILL much too soon, but Maddi's at my house still which is totally sick, cuz we can play Ninja and other awesome games. I love Rocky Road and Rice Rice Baby were some Weird Al songs that were a hit with Maddi today. Hurray Hurrah. Oh and guess what else? If you've read this entire blog you deserve to know - October 16 airsoft and games day? CONFIRMED!! It's on!! HIGH FIVES!! Anyway more awesomeness from Maddi and I Laterz!